THE FRENCH DISPATCH : Tuesday 14th December 2021.

I saw the 'THE FRENCH DISPATCH' at my local independent cinema earlier this week. This M Rated anthology comedy film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Wes Anderson whose previous film making credits take in his feature length debut with 'Bottle Rocket' in 1996, then 'The Royal Tenenbaums', 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', 'The Darjeeling Limited', 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', 'Moonrise Kingdom', 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and 'Isle of Dogs'. It was set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May 2020, and get a wide release on 24th July, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was cancelled and the film was pulled from the schedule in early April 2020. The film was rescheduled for release in mid-October 2020, before being pulled from the schedule again on 23rd July 2020 for an indefinite period. Eventually the film saw its World Premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-July this year, and was released in the US in late October. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and has thus far grossed US$41M exceeding its production budget of US$25M.

A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper - Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun - in the fictional 20th-century French city of Ennui-sur-Blase, that brings to life a collection of stories published in 'The French Dispatch' where Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), the editor of the newspaper dies suddenly of a heart attack. According to the wishes expressed in his will, publication of the newspaper is immediately suspended following one final farewell issue, in which three articles from past editions of the paper are republished, along with an obituary. 

After a cycling tour of the city of Ennui-sur-Blase by reporter Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) in which he guides us through some of the history, the colourful personalities, and the key locations including the arcade, pick-pockets alley, and a noted cafe comparing each place and the residents therein to the past and the present day and observing that whilst so much has altered, just how little has changed over the years in his beautiful city, we see Howitzer critiquing Sazerac's report, while the latter tends to his bicycle. 

The Concrete Masterpiece

J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton), a writer and staffer at The French Dispatch, is seen giving a lecture at the art gallery of her former employer, Upshur 'Maw' Clampette (Lois Smith), in which she goes into fine detail about the career of Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro). Rosenthaler, is a mentally disturbed artist serving a sentence in the Ennui prison for a double murder. Allowed out of his straightjacket he paints an abstract nude portrait of Simone (Lea Seydoux), a prison officer with whom he develops a close relationship. Julien Cadazio (Adrien Brody), an art dealer also serving a sentence for tax evasion, is so impressed by the painting that he offers to buy it despite Rosenthaler's reluctance. Upon his release, Cadazio convinces his family of art exhibitors to put it on display, and Rosenthaler soon becomes a sensation in the art world. Rosenthaler, however, struggles with inspiration, and devotes himself to a long-term project. 

Fast forward three years and Cadazio, his uncles Nick and Joe (Bob Balaban and Henry Winkler respectively), Clampette, Berensen, and a bunch of artists inspired by Rosenthaler, all frustrated at the lack of further artworks, bribe their way into the prison to confront him, only to discover that his masterpiece is in fact a series of ten frescoes painted onto the concrete wall of the prison hall. Angered that the paintings cannot be removed from the prison, Cadazio and his delegation gets into a physical altercation with Rosenthaler and the other inmates, but soon appreciates the paintings for what they are, and later arranges for the entire room to be airlifted out of the prison into a private museum in Kansas, owned by Clampette. For his actions in halting a prison riot that breaks out during the reveal of the paintings, Rosenthaler is released on probation.

Revisions to a Manifesto

Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) a journalist for The French Dispatch, reports on a University student protest breaking out in the streets of Ennui that soon escalates into what becomes known as the 'Chessboard Revolution'. While the revolution initially is inspired by petty concerns over access to the girls dormitory, the traumatic military conscription of one student, Mitch-Mitch (Mohamed Belhadjine), leads to more stringent protests. The students’ cause spreads to the working class folk of Ennui.

Despite her insistence on maintaining 'journalistic neutrality', Krementz has a brief romance with Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet), the self-appointed leader of the uprising, and in secret helps him write his manifesto while they are in bed together, and adds an appendix. Juliette (Lyna Khoudri), a fellow revolutionary, is unimpressed with his manifesto. After they briefly express their disagreement about its contents and the appendix, Krementz tells the two to 'go make love', which they do. A few weeks later, Zeffirelli is killed while trying to repair the tower of a revolutionary pirate radio station, and soon a photograph of his likeness becomes symbolic of the movement. Years later, Krementz adapts the story of Mitch-Mitch’s conscription, and Zeffirelli and Juliette’s relationship, for a stage play.

The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner

During a television interview, Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) recounts the story to the interviewer (Liev Schreiber) of his attending a private dinner with The Commissaire of the Ennui Police Department (Mathieu Amalric), prepared by legendary Police Officer and acclaimed Chef Lt. Nescaffier (Stephen Park). The dinner is disrupted when the Commissaire's son Gigi (Winston Ait Hellal) is kidnapped and held for ransom by the criminal underworld of Ennui, led by a failed musician called The Chauffeur (Edward Norton), who is demanding the release of an underworld accountant called 'The Abacus' (Willem Dafoe), who possesses their combined financial records. 'The Abacus' is in a solitary confinement cell at Police HQ where the dinner is being held. Wright recounts his own imprisonment in that same cell for his homosexuality, for which he was bailed out by Howitzer and offered a job at The French Dispatch.

Following a late night shoot-out at the kidnapper's hideout, Gigi is able to tap out a message in Morse Code using a coin and a radiator to 'send the cook'. Lt. Nescaffier is sent into the kidnappers' hideout to provide both them and Gigi with food, but secretly the food is laced with poison. The criminals all fall victim to the poisoned fare, and Nescaffier barely survives (because to his strong constitution) after being made to taste test it first. The Chauffeur escapes with Gigi, and leads the police on an animated foot and car chase through the city. Gigi manages to escape out of the sunroof and reunites with his father. During his recovery, Nescaffier saves 'The Abacus' from near starvation by preparing him an omelette, the prisoner having been totally neglected in the fracas. Back at the office of The French Dispatch, Howitzer tells Wright to reinsert a deleted page. In it, a recovering Nescaffier tells Wright that the taste of the poison was unlike anything he had ever eaten in his life, before they commiserate over the state of both being foreigners in France.

In the epilogue, Howitzer is seen to be laid out on his desk, covered in a sheet very dead, on his birthday. The French Dispatch staff, consisting Owen Wilson, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Schwartzman, Fisher Stevens, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Griffin Dunne and the waiter (Pablo Pauly) who delivers the birthday cake all mourn Howitzer's passing, but all set to work on his obituary and on the final issue in honour of his memory. 

'The French Dispatch' is whimsical, quirky and imaginative Wes Anderson storytelling at almost its best (although not quite up there with 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'), and that's because with an opening prologue, a closing epilogue and three stories sandwiched between there is so much to take in, so much to see and so much to read on screen that it's really difficult to keep up. That said, the set designs are impeccable and richly realised, the assembled cast of A-list Actors is straight out of the Who's Who of European and American acting talent, and the sure fired quick witted dialogue is sure to raise a smile a least for even the most hard boiled viewers. As far the three individual stories are concerned not one of these stands out as being head and shoulders above the others and whilst each stands alone on its own merits, as a whole it's hardly the sum of its parts. All credit though to Director and Writer Wes Anderson for his truly unique approach to storytelling and film making, that makes his films stand aloft in a world dominated by comic book adaptations, RomComs, and shoot 'em up take no prisoners action fare.  

'The French Dispatch' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-