French Dispatch How to Watch

The French Dispatch is a love letter to journalists from director Wes Anderson. It follows the staff of an American magazine based in France as it puts out its final issue.

It's divided into three separate storylines, each focusing on an article published in the magazine. The first focuses on an incarcerated artist, the second is about student riots in France, and the third is about a kidnapping that's resolved by a chef.

The Story

In this whimsical tribute to journalism, an American magazine in France celebrates the life of its recently deceased editor-in-chief with a final issue. It’s set up in an aesthetic that reflects the magazine format of The New Yorker, and it tells three stories from the paper’s history.

The first storyline involves a talented artist (Benicio del Toro) who is sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering two bartenders in his madness, but his art makes him forget about it when he’s released from prison. He paints his work on the concrete walls of his cell, making it hard for anyone to take his work away from him.

A second storyline follows the staff of a French newspaper in Ennui, France, as they put together their last issue following the death of the editor-in-chief. It contains a collection of wry stories from the world of art, politics and travel. Journalists Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson), JKL Berensen (Tilda Swinton), Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) and Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) submit their stories, each of which consists of a slice of life from the arts, politics and travel.

Anderson’s specific love for The New Yorker is evident, and it shows in the way he brings the characters to life in this film. It’s also an acknowledgement of the heyday of print journalism, when publications would send writers out into the world to find stories and write them up. This era has long since passed, but Anderson’s affection for it is more than just sentimentality: he makes sure to bring these characters to life in ways that feel real and authentic.

There’s an homage to the Canadian flaneuse Mavis Gallant here, who wrote dispatches from the 1968 uprisings in France that are so full of vivid characterization and drama. This is Anderson’s tribute to the era that he grew up reading, and it’s a beautiful moment.

One of the most interesting elements of this film is how it shifts between black and white. It’s a fascinating use of the color palette and it gives the movie a unique style that Wes Anderson is famous for. It’s also a great example of how the director’s filmmaking style can be different for each story.

The Cast

Wes Anderson loves to cast a bunch of famous actors in his films, so it’s no surprise that he crams an impressive number of names into french dispatch how to watch. The list of familiar faces includes a bunch of A-listers and some Wes Anderson favorites like Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Timothee Chalamet, Benicio Del Toro and Frances McDormand.

The film follows the story of a fictional magazine, French Dispatch, that reimagines New Yorker-style anthologies in a mid-century setting. Three stories are told from the pages of this publication, illustrating the work of various journalists.

A travelogue from the late ’70s leads to a story of an artist/convict (Benicio Del Toro) who becomes famous, and an account of a student strike in Paris led by two students appropriately named Zeffirelli and Juliette (Timothee Chalamet and Lyna Khoudri). There’s also an Anderson-esque food drama from an editor called Roebuck Wright (Westworld and No Time To Die actor Jeffrey Wright), which turns out to be more complicated than it seems.

It’s a Wes Anderson movie, but it’s also a heartfelt love letter to the literary world and the era of the New Yorker. In this ode to journalism, director Wes Anderson reteams with cinematographer Robert Yeoman for an eighth collaboration that yields a whimsical exploration of the life of literature.

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard about french dispatch how to watch, as it’s a movie that’s getting a lot of buzz at the moment. Described as a “love letter to journalists,” it’s set to hit theaters on October 22nd.

The movie stars comedy legend Bill Murray, who is a veteran of the Wes Anderson Repertory Company and has appeared in every one of Anderson’s films. The seasoned performer plays Arthur Howitzer Jr., the editor of French Dispatch who ties together all the events in the film.

Other members of the veteran cast include Owen Wilson, who’s been with Anderson since his first film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He’s reunited with Tilda Swinton, who starred in Moonrise Kingdom and has been a part of the Wes Anderson repertory company for years.

The Visuals

The visuals of Wes Anderson’s latest film may be his most strikingly Andersonian to date. The French Dispatch is filled with all of the signature elements that have made Anderson such a recognizable artist over the years, from carefully framed tableaus to animated sequences. But there are also some new additions to the palette.

Aside from the usual pastels that we expect from Anderson, The French Dispatch also combines black and white photography with a lightened, almost milky hue. It’s a rare combination, but it works well to highlight the many different moods of the film.

Each of the film’s four chapters uses a specific color palette that evokes its story and its setting. For example, “The Concrete Masterpiece” depicts an imprisoned artist whose life is a study in bleak contrast.

Another color-based scene is “Revisions to a Manifesto,” which takes place in 1968 and follows a student uprising in Ennui-sur-Blase, the city where the film is set. The colors in this scene are muted, but they are still vividly recognizable.

It’s not uncommon for an Anderson movie to require some effort on the part of its audience, but it’s worth the challenge. That’s why I recommend trying The French Dispatch in a theater or at home on DVD or Blu-ray if you’re willing to make the investment.

The audio in The French Dispatch is excellent as well. The dialog is clear and easy to understand, and Alexander Desplat’s score is a joy to listen to. The film also has a few subtle sound effects that enhance the overall experience, such as the prison’s echoey sound and the newsroom’s busy and hectic noises.

Anderson’s cinematographer Timothee Chalamet was responsible for all of the camerawork in The French Dispatch, and his work is impressive, with shots that range from widescreen to square formats. His use of re-speeds and split screens help to create the sense of different time periods and spaces, which is something that Wes Anderson has been known to do before, such as in The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The French Dispatch is a complex and layered film that contains plenty of detail to sift through. It can be overwhelming, but that’s what makes it so appealing and awe-inspiring. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a great example of what Wes Anderson does best.

The Overall Rating

It's hard to find a way to talk about Wes Anderson without mentioning his films' kitschy quirk, the way he often uses the camera to linger on objects of nostalgia or commodified references. If that sounds like a criticism, it's worth pointing out that these are also films about loss: the lost art of storytelling, the little-read Sunday supplements to Midwestern newspapers and the legendarily impractical pursuit of journalism.

The French Dispatch is Anderson's latest film, which pays antic tribute to the New Yorker's mid-20th-century glory years as a magazine and its correspondents. It takes place in the fictional 20th-century French city of Ennui-sur-Blase, and it's arranged as if the late editor Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray) had been working on the final edition of his newspaper's Sunday supplement, a kind of little-read anthology that would take it with him when he died.

Each of the main narratives in The French Dispatch has its own storyline, but they all share a common thread that runs through them. One article is about a prison guard muse for a fabled artist (Benicio Del Toro); another is about a man who leads roiling student protests and falls in love with the girl he meets there; and another focuses on the writer Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) who pens a suspenseful tale of drugs, kidnapping and fine dining, cop style.

All of these stories are set in a gorgeously rendered world that is full of the kinds of characters you'd expect from an Anderson movie, including some who appear here for the first time. The cast includes Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Frances McDormand, Lea Seydoux, Timothee Chalamet and many more of the most beloved actors in modern cinema.

The movie tries to tell three different stories, and it succeeds in each of them. Its most beautiful moments come when it simply documents the lives of ordinary people, like the terriers dashing across cobbled streets and an old woman opening a pair of shutters on her door to let in the early morning light. Other scenes are equally poignant, like a galette des rois shared by a family to mark Epiphany or teenagers arguing over the best song to listen to at a cafe jukebox. The film's visual style and its wry sense of humor make this a Wes Anderson movie that's just as memorable as his previous efforts.