The French Dispatch (2020)

[AimingforYoko]

WARNING: The following trailer is peak Wes Anderson. If you are one of those people deathly allergic to twee, please avoid this trailer. As for the rest of us, enjoy:

 

[VCRTracking]

As many have commented online, that looks like the most "Wes Anderson-y" Wes Anderson movie ever!

[Browncoat]

I'm looking forward to it!

[AimingforYoko]

 

[SeanC]

The reviews from Cannes are very positive, on the whole.

[SnarkShark]

On 7/13/2021 at 11:57 AM, AimingforYoko said:

 

So Wes Anderson-y! 

[AimingforYoko]

A lot of times directors like to branch out, not get pigeonholed, like Chloé Zhao following up Nomadland with Eternals. Not our boy Wes Anderson. As advertised, The French Dispatch is archetypal Anderson. All the artistic flourishes are there, if you're into it, you will like this movie. If not, you probably won't. That said, I put it near the top of Anderson canon. It has a lot of humor and heart and excellent acting. 

Oh, and Frances McDormand bags Timothée Chalamet.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Watching the trailer just now reminded me of so many little moments that were wonderful.  The "yes it is, no it isn't" about selling the painting just kills me.  Lea Seydoux snapping her fingers. 

I've seen it twice.  I loved it the first time, and then went a second time a couple of days later, and loved it all over again.  I look at everything on the screen and marvel that someone put it there.

On 10/30/2021 at 8:31 PM, AimingforYoko said:

All the artistic flourishes are there, if you're into it, you will like this movie.

100% agree.

[Pickles Aplenty]

I saw this yesterday, and I enjoyed it.  I wouldn't say it's my favorite Wes Anderson movie, but it was absolutely beautiful to watch, and the acting was great.  I especially liked Tilda Swinton and Jeffrey Wright, but when do they ever do a bad job in anything?

The animated segments were stunning, too.  They looked a little like the old Tin-Tin comics, which was just the right style to go with the overall feel/theme of the movie.  We did have one walkout in our theater, though.  It was an older lady who loudly complained about how the text for Juliette kept moving too fast for her to read, so about halfway through the second story she just got up and left.  Oh, well.  Wes Anderson is an acquired taste, and you can't please everybody.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Pickles Aplenty

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 11/7/2021 at 12:11 PM, Pickles Aplenty said:

The animated segments were stunning, too.  They looked a little like the old Tin-Tin comics, which was just the right style to go with the overall feel/theme of the movie. 

The one with the car chase looked just like multi-page color comic things they have in The New Yorker occasionally.

On 11/7/2021 at 12:11 PM, Pickles Aplenty said:

We did have one walkout in our theater, though.  It was an older lady who loudly complained about how the text for Juliette kept moving too fast for her to read, so about halfway through the second story she just got up and left. 

God damn I'm glad I can go to the show when nobody else is there.

[Browncoat]

FINALLY got to see this last night.  The local mega-plex didn't get it at all, so I had to wait until it came to the art-house theater.  I liked it a lot, starting with the name of the town -- Ennui sur Blasé.  It really was the most Wes Anderson-y Wes Anderson movie, wasn't it?  

I loved the animated car chase scene.  I think the Timothee Chalamet bit was my least favorite, although it constantly cracked me up that even if they didn't all speak the same language all the time, they all understood each other all the time.  The subtitles did go by quickly, but I adjusted and managed.

I feel like I need to see it again, though.  I'm pretty sure I missed a lot that was going on in the background, particularly during Owen Wilson's part.

[lasu]

This was definitely Peak Anderson, but I enjoyed it greatly.  It helped that I went with a girlfriend who also loves him.  The two of us were definitely laughing harder than the rest of the theater, and at one point, caught the giggles in a way that I thought we might have to leave.  The main joke that killed me was about the murder-y artist and ISN'T THERE A DOUBLE STANDARD THAT CAN BE APPLIED HERE.  I howled, lol.  And damn, Wes must be pretty sure his own closet is quite clean, and good on him.

[SeanC]

With Anderson's films I almost always want to have two viewings before I really settle my thoughts on it, and having done so, I think this isn't quite at the top of his filmography (the one-two punch of Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel is hard to beat), but it's fairly high.

I've seen a lot of talk about this as being a tribute to journalism, and clearly it is in a lot of ways, but on a character/thematic level what stood out to me linking all the stories was the loneliness of the expatriates (mostly the journalists, but in "The Concrete Masterpiece" the theme is carried by Rosenthaler).