The French Despatch
Wes Anderson's latest.
What a triumph, visually, stylistically and story wise. A visual feast, a delightful slice of whimsy and silliness, went as a family and we all adored it.
It looks superb, lovely vibrant colours, I never thought I'd ever seen another film that looked bright again. Mixing black and white with colour in a series of stories all highlighting stories written for a fictitious American magazine, the French Despatch of the title published in France, ranging from teenage rebellion, deranged artists and police chefs. The film takes the stories from the last issue published after the death of its editor, played by Bill Murray.
With a fantastic cast ranging from the usual Anderson stalwarts like Bill Murray, William Defoe, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman and also featuring the likes of: Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric and Stephen Park.
There are three main stories, the first concerns a suicidal homicidal artist, del Toro, his muse and prison guard Léa Seydoux and the efforts of art dealer, Adrien Brody to get him out of prison. The second sees reporter Frances McDormand become emotionally involved in a student uprising lead by chess protege Timothée Chalamet, and the third sees Jeffrey Wright discovering the joys of a detective eating club and helping to rescue a kidnapped boy. All bookended by the brilliant Bill Murray playing the editor of the magazine each of these stories appeared in.
As with every Anderson movie, the music plays an important part and the soundtrack for this was no exception. Indeed I would have to say that I loved everything about this film. It's funny, touching and insanely quirky. Everyone involves seems to be enjoying themselves and the richness and depth of the film was a delight. Anderson's meticulous attention to background detail and the framing of each and every shot enriches this film.
But be warned, this is a film unlike any other, no one else makes films like Anderson.
If I had one quibble, it would be that as Wes Anderson develops he becomes perhaps too obsessed with style and although I loved this film, it wasn't as brilliantly written as say Rushmore or The Royal Tennabaums.
Still, this was a delight from beginning to end.
9/10
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