Wes Anderson's "The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun" is an anthology film, and it seems odd that this is his first anthology film, as so many of his previous films have felt like anthologies, or catalogues of eccentric human behavior. "The French Dispatch" is structured to be a visual representation of an issue of a fictional, little-read arts magazine - its stories taken from a French foreign bureau based in the fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blase. We get a brief travel report, three features, and an obituary of the paper's editor, Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray).
"The French Dispatch" takes the familiar little aesthetic idiosyncrasies of the usual Wes Anderson feature, and lets them all run amok. The individual stories being told are fairly simple comedic romps - homages and gentle sendups of French media - but the real fun is the style. There is so much style here - all the different framing devices and production design to make the film feel like an issue of a print publication, the incredibly dense shot composition stuffed with graphic puns and jokes, the over-the-top characters played by Anderson's usual ensemble of sterling character actors and a few newbies, and of course the script, dripping with deadpan absurdity and a wide assortment of esoteric flourishes. This may be the most Wes Anderson-y Wes Anderson film ever made, and I adore it to bits.
The amount of sheer indulgence onscreen is hard to overstate, but it's all done in the name of comedy, and it's executed with so much energy and verve and fun, that I couldn't resist. Let's take "Revisions to a Manifesto," the segment where a reporter, Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), becomes involved with the leader of a student revolutionary movement, Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet), helping him with his manifesto and his relationship with a fellow revolutionary, Juliette (Lyna Khoudri). The whole thing is an homage to the French New Wave, especially the films about Leftist activism like Godard's "La Chinoise." However, you don't need to know a thing about the French to follow along with the breathlessly told story, or to guffaw at Chalamet's ridiculous hair, or to enjoy the absurdity of the revolution being played out through a literal game of chess between the students and the stern authorities.
If there's a running theme in this movie, it's about the loneliness and struggle of artists and writers. The other two features are "The Concrete Masterpiece," about an imprisoned artist, Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio Del Toro), his muse Simone (Lea Seydoux), and an art dealer, Cadazio (Adrien Brody), and "The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner," about a food journalist, Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) who joins the Commissaire (Mathieu Amalric) for a meal prepared by the famous chef Nescaffier (Stephen Park), only to be caught up in a kidnapping. Then there's the obituary, which serves as a fond farewell to print journalism. Several of the characters, like Roebuck Wright, are caricatures of real people, and there is a long list of beloved writers and journalists who are listed in a dedication at the end of the film.
Anderson's filmmaking here is more visually dense and fast-paced than ever. There's really little difference between his live-action and animated films now, with the complexity of his camera work, incredibly detailed mise-en-scene, and the fast pace of his editing. Notably, there's a chase sequence in the third story that is done in traditional animation, I assume because it would have cost too much in live-action. Then there's this fantastic shot that tracks Roebuck Wright through a meticulously constructed police station, through multiple rooms and detailed tableaux. It feels like watching a Roy Andresson or Peter Greenaway film, except constructed for the sake of silliness and amusement instead of grandeur.
"The French Dispatch" will likely be considered too lacking in substance for some viewers. It never lets us get to know any of the characters well enough to tug on the heartstrings the way that something like "The Grand Budapest Hotel" does, even though most of its individual stories end sadly or wistfully. However, this is such a fabulously whimsical, joyously convoluted piece of filmmaking that has so much fun playing with the cinematic form and celebrating all of its myriad influences. "The French Dispatch" is absolutely brilliant at being what it set out to be, and it's a joy to see it.
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