The French Dispatch: An absurdist eye-candy

Wes Anderson is a director whose works when subjected to multiple watching will be rewarding for the audience. Simply because of the sheer amount of information in each scene and shot. Stories that verge on the border of absurdity, most often comical, and seldom dark, coupled with an expansive mise-en-scene and a most peculiar camera style, Wes Anderson has created for himself a very distinctive style, one that is truly his own.

PLOT

In his latest offering, The French Dispatch, he takes us through the hardships and stories behind the publication the final issue of a weekly supplement with the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun. We kick off with “The Cycling Reporter”, giving us a visual tour of the fictional city of Ennui. He takes the idea of “show don’t tell” and conveniently turns it around into “show and tell”. Then, we are told how “The Concrete Masterpiece” came into being, a chronicle of a genius artist confined in a prison, followed by “Revisions to a Manifesto”, a most peculiar account of a student rebellion and its first-hand account by Mrs. Krementz. We end with a amusing account of the kidnapping of the Commissioner’s son and the quest to bring him back in “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner”. We end with the obituary, of course, of Mr. Howitzer, the founder and editor of The French Dispatch, who died due to an heart attack.

ELEMENTS

With the extensive use of brilliant shades of pastels, TFD features some of the most delightful set designs. The soft pinks and browns of The Grand Budapest Hotel comes to mind, again. This level of detail warrants multiple watching just to sort of “take in” everything that is happening simultaneously on screen. Characters turn into narrators and they tell the story while peering directly into the camera as if being willingly able to break free of their worlds at will. And the characters, themselves, feel so out of touch with reality, so humorous and absurd and charming that they can only be sourced from a children story-book. Yielding the power of memorable character-writing, Anderson distances himself from the more realist cinema of his contemporary peers.

CAMERA and CINEMATOGRAPHY

It doesn’t take long to infer the distinct camerawork of Anderson which primarily comprises: panning and trucking shots. These complement, rather well, his expansive set designs that demand to be explored. Just like the audience of a comic book strip, he sends our eyes scanning horizontally as he unfurls the story and reveals information with the progression of the camera.

CONCLUSION

With a cast so star-studded, it is a displeasure but not a surprise to find TFD unable to capture the attention of the audience. It is simply because it is not a movie to be watched in the theatres but to be relished again and again from the confines of one’s room. It is a difficult movie to process and rewards multiple viewings.