The French Dispatch [Wes Anderson]

pixelburp · 12-02-2020 11:50am #1

No trailer yet, but a rather beautiful, and typically whimsical, poster has popped up online, alongside some stills via the New Yorker. Without even clicking I could have guessed how the stills would look and yup, it's as precisely Anderson'esque as you could imagine it.

It opens in the US in July, so not sure when we can expect to see it

Photos: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-look-at-wes-andersons-new-new-yorker-inspired-film

megaten · 12-02-2020 12:28pm

I had no idea this was coming. Hope its interesting because I didn't think Isle of Dogs was good at all apart from the pun in the title.

peteeeed · 12-02-2020 3:18pm

trailer

https://twitter.com/french_dispatch/status/1227593720570101760?s=20

pixelburp · 12-02-2020 3:31pm

There's always an element of superficiality to his work, but dear lord Anderson paints some beautiful compositions. Not sure I'll ever get tired of them

Dades · 12-02-2020 4:29pm

Looks like Wes Anderson has gone full Wes Andserson with this one. Good stuff.

(I really must watch The Royal Tenenbaums again...)

pixelburp · 12-02-2020 4:57pm

youTube trailer for those who hate Twitter's video (like me lol

)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPk2p0Zaw4

OldRio · 12-02-2020 5:01pm

And now, we wait.

brevity · 12-02-2020 10:00pm

I still need to watch isle of dogs!

Roar · 12-02-2020 10:57pm

Studio - “how Wes Anderson-y is this going to be?”
Wes Anderson - “yes”

Bit of a hint of Grand Budapest Hotel from this. Which is no bad thing as it’s my favourite film of his. Looking forward to this immensely.

Slydice · 13-02-2020 12:42am

pixelburp wrote: »

youTube trailer for those who hate Twitter's video (like me lol )

I mean like... how hard is it to do a decent video player.. does twitter just not want to be seen to be copying Youtube or something?

peteeeed · 13-02-2020 9:16am

pixelburp wrote: »

youTube trailer for those who hate Twitter's video (like me lol )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPk2p0Zaw4

youtube is firewalled in my job

pixelburp · 13-02-2020 11:58am

peteeeed wrote: »

youtube is firewalled in my job

Naw that's fair enough, just never understood why Twitter persists with that awful video player. They & Instagram have the worst video widgets of social media.

Hande hoche! · 13-02-2020 1:32pm

Quite the cast.

peteeeed · 13-02-2020 1:43pm

as trailers go , i'm all in on this one

NyOmnishambles · 13-02-2020 6:28pm

I enjoyed the trailer so much I nearly don't need to see the movie!

peteeeed · 04-04-2020 7:39am

Release date has been put back by 3 months to Oct 16th

otnomart · 29-06-2020 12:17pm

Seen the start of the trailer on IMDB and stopped it.
Would love to see in when it is finally out.

pixelburp · 29-06-2020 12:37pm

peteeeed wrote: »

Release date has been put back by 3 months to Oct 16th

Just looking at it's a Searchlight Pictures feature, which of course means Disney now. I was going to suggest at this stage it'd be a good candidate as an online-only release to bolster the service's attractiveness - though given Disney+ is supposedly "family friendly" oriented it's possibly not appropriate.

peteeeed · 27-05-2021 2:15pm

https://twitter.com/french_dispatch/status/1397900613598420996?s=20

johnny_ultimate · 24-10-2021 4:33pm

Loved this. For all the reviews claiming it’s ‘Wes Anderson being more Wes Anderson’, I actually felt it had a distinct flavour to his recent work. While it’s unmistakably one of his films, there’s a melancholy and maybe even tragic feeling to it that sets it apart. That was present at points in Grand Budapest, but there are far less cartoonish antics here… well, except for the actual cartoon chase sequence!

There’s a very lavish homage to Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle a minute or two into the film, and I think that sets the tone: for all the talk about it being a celebration of journalism (and it is that, with a delightfully indulgent, lavish script reflecting its characters’ indulgent, lavish writing styles) it’s also a big old celebration of French cinema.

The middle segment is basically Wes Anderson making a playful but loving satire of Godard’s La Chinoise, and the last section is a spectacularly entertaining take on the suspense and heist stories of Clouzot. It’s all delightful, and framed with that usual level of total care and precision Anderson is known for. It’s less laugh out loud funny than some of his other films, but the man still knows how to frame a hell of a gag. His sparing use of colour here makes for some incredible moments, and there’s some fantastic bits where he gives us a different perspective on the diorama sets he has created (one scene has the camera joyously spin around a space we’ve already seen in that familiar, planimetric - to quote Bordwell - style).

So yes, a Wes Anderson film through and through, but for all that was familiar there was also something for me refreshing and even surprising about the tone and mood he shoots for here.

Also impressive to see how Anderson now has assembled such a large cast of regulars he’s able to cast the likes of Willem Dafoe or Saoirse Ronan for tiny roles that can be measured in shots, let alone scenes.

24-10-2021 6:47pm

Hated it. His worst one to date. Supposedly this was him let to do what he wants with his creative freedom but it was too manic for me.

santana75 · 24-10-2021 8:37pm

Saw it earlier today and I thought it started really well, the first story was brilliant. But then it just went down hill from there, to the point where I started to nod off during the last story. It just wasn't engaging after that initial chapter. I dunno maybe it's a grower like so many of Andersons films. I didn't like the darjeeling limited when I saw it first but on subsequent views I grew to love it. So Im open to having my view change on this but right now, overall, it's just not the best

johnny_ultimate · 24-10-2021 10:08pm

Funny enough I found the last story the best of the lot, quite comfortably. Jeffrey Wright is the most compelling of the three main journalists, and it had a lot of fantastic, unusual visual ideas.

I think the middle story is probably the weakest of the three, but I loved its playful riffing on Godard and New Wave tropes so that more than sustained it for me.

Irish Aris · 24-10-2021 11:54pm

I saw it yesterday. Went with high expectations as i really liked his last two films.

As a production is gorgeous to watch. All the set pieces are beautiful and colourful. It reminded me The Grand Budapest Hotel at times. Liked the costumes and the music too - Anderson's quirkiness in general is great and always on vision. Sometimes I get the feeling that he has a vision already and the story follows.

In this case though the story didn't do anything for me. The overall concept is interesting but none of the stories really grabbed my attention. I don't get the references (btw thank you Johnny for the detailed review) so I can't really appreciate the homage. It is a film though that I could see myself watching again as it is beautiful to watch.

conorhal · 25-10-2021 11:27am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069268#Comment_118069268

While I'm always eager to see a new film from Wes Anderson, I strongly suspect that this might well be my reaction to it also. When it comes to Anderson films that I really love, they tend to be the ones that have more heart than artifice to them like Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom. The only films of his that I found myself outright disliking were The Darjeeling Limited and Isle of Dogs, and even those have elements that would at least give me a reason to give them a second watch.

25-10-2021 11:44am

There was little tension anywhere in the film (a confrontation between Frances McDormand’s character and a young female protester was a rare moment when it threatened to come to life).

It’s just muso bs for beard strokers. Such a stark contrast with the early Anderson of Rushmore and Royal Tenebaums. The twee hipster nostalgia of those films was undercut by the worldweary cynicism of Bill Murray and Gene Hackman’s characters, sorely missed in the latter Anderson.

25-10-2021 11:46am

On a side note, remember when critics thought Edward Norton was going to be the next Robert DeNiro? Seems laughable now.

pixelburp · 25-10-2021 11:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070160#Comment_118070160

To be fair, they couldn't have known Norton would gain himself a reputation - rightly or wrongly- for being a controlling type and "difficult to work with" as the euphemism goes. Think he clashed on enough big studio projects that he sabotaged his prominence in studios' casting wishlists.

santana75 · 25-10-2021 12:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070197#Comment_118070197

I didnt know he had a reputation for being difficult to work with. Hard to know what the truth is in these situations, whether someone is genuinely an asshole or they're being thrown under a bus for speaking up about something that was a bit untoward.

pixelburp · 25-10-2021 12:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070271#Comment_118070271

I'd have to dig to see if it's all just mis-rememberance on my part, but I wanna say he clashed on both The Incredible Hulk shoot, and that of the Italian Job remake. Over what and with who 🤷 but those were the two instances I believe Norton blotted his copybook in the big leagues.

MfMan · 26-10-2021 12:17am

In his forthcoming biography, Brian Cox mentions same. Norton was talented and likeable but could be 'an a**hole'.

Why would anyone want to be the next De Niro?

pixelburp · 26-10-2021 6:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072936#Comment_118072936

The Hollywood press like to try and crown folks as acting or directorial royalty before they earn the title; the subjects rarely get a say in the matter. I'll always remember the Newsweek cover that confidently declared M Night Shyamalan "The Next Spielberg". A headline that has aged like milk.

TheIrishGrover · 27-10-2021 10:08am

Having only seen the trailer, I thought of Spinal Tap:

"How much more Anderson could this be? None. None more Anderson"

I do like his stuff but he could shake it us just a wee bit. Give him a Marvel or DC movie (Just kidding)

santana75 · 27-10-2021 10:15am

Its only been a couple of days since I saw it but Im already finding that my view of this film is improving. Anderson's films have that "Grower" effect on me, he's the cinematic equivalent of Radiohead(and maybe the French Dispatch = Kid A)

Fysh · 01-11-2021 9:19pm

I caught this yesterday and really liked it. It's very much Anderson in terms of general style and tone, but I think the mixture of a number if stories was more confidently balanced here than in say Grand Budapest Hotel (which I also really liked, but felt that the narrative structure got slightly wobbly towards the end).

I suspected that the middle story was a riff on French New Wave films, but having not seen any Godard I didn't get any specific references and found that particular story a little dry, though still with some excellent moments. That dryness was more than made up for by the spirited daftness of the art-world satire of the first story and the crime story that rounds out the film.

I think Isle of Dogs remains my favourite of his films, but this is a very enjoyable addition to his filmography and one I'll gladly watch again.

Relikk · 15-12-2021 4:55pm

Anderson continues to do very little wrong. What a wonderful film, meticulously made and synonymously whimsical, and probably my favourite of the year so far (of what I've seen).

18-12-2021 3:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070092#Comment_118070092

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070152#Comment_118070152

Yes tbh for all his "inventiveness" I do very much prefer the "Rushmore" and "The royal Tenenbaums" movies because they have more soul to them and as said by the poster above, the older character world-weary counterpoints did work very well.

There is something to be said for a more continuous narrative compared to what I found in this film to be a tenuously weak glue to bind a series of sketches together (felt more pronounced to me here even though obviously he has done this before).

"Whimsical" does not carry an entire film for me.

There is a fine line there at times that maybe crosses over to overindulgence and pointlessness.

I found the Student Protest story in this one to be frankly boring by the end and it felt about three times as long as the other ones.

19-12-2021 10:00am

After a decent first segment I found the rest of it a bit incoherent and ultimately boring, the last one i had no desire ro finish.

Very disappointed as have loved Andersons work for a long time. Feel like he dropped the ball on this one. Overall concept i like but execution poor.

pixelburp · 23-12-2021 5:47pm

Anderson's most disappointing work yet. Indulgences can be justified I think, when they have a point. Or want to say something of life, no matter how trite it might be. Wes Anderson movies aren't ever deep treatises on the human condition but they'll have some small nugget of wisdom within the whimsy and carefully chosen palettes. This was ... I dunno. Maybe I missed something within all the seemingly aimless ambling; or perhaps Anderson has hit a point where even his half expressed drafts get greenlit and a broad love of mid-20th century "France" was enough to get the wheels turning.

Of course it all looked beautiful, every frame a painting in the manner we know Anderson does. That kinda goes without saying and the Hergé style sequence (yes he was Belgian but shush, lol) was cool, alongside some neat little freeze frames, the actors gently wobbling as they try to stay still.

I can't grumble too much about ordering a frosted dessert and getting exactly what I asked for, but it almost felt formulaic.

gmisk · 05-03-2022 9:08pm

This is on Disney+ for anyone who missed it in the cinema.

It's very Wes Anderson..and it looks fantastic...I enjoyed the first two stories but it then went rather off the rails

The French Dispatch [Wes Anderson]

Comments