The French Dispatch is a film directed by the famous director, Wes Anderson. Apart from him, the movie features some equally famous actors and actresses.
Let’s find out more about the movie!
- The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun is a 2021 anthology film.
- It was written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson.
- The movie was inspired from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman.
- The film stars an ensemble cast, featuring Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Henry Winkler, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson.
- Its plot follows three different storylines as the French foreign bureau of the fictional Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper creates its final issue.
- The project was first mentioned in August 2018 as an untitled musical set after World War II.
- That December, the film was officially announced, with Anderson calling it a “love letter to journalists.”
- Filming took place between November 2018 and March 2019, with cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman, in the city of Angoulême, France.
- During post-production, editing was completed by Andrew Weisblum.
- The musical score was composed by Alexandre Desplat.
- Following a delay from 2020, The French Dispatch had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 12, 2021.
- It was theatrically released in the United States by Searchlight Pictures on October 22, 2021.
- During the ending credits some covers of The French Dispatch through its history are shown. They were created by Spanish illustrator Javi Aznarez and were loosely inspired in The New Yorker’s covers.
- In casting Timothée Chalamet as Zeffirelli, Wes Anderson told GQ, “I never had the inconvenience of ever thinking of anybody else for this role even for a second.” The role was written specifically for him.
- Although Timothée Chalamet is fluent in French, he delivers all his lines in English.
- Atypical for a movie poster, the ensemble cast is grouped by storylines rather than billing.
- A February 2020 New Yorker piece reported that this movie is set in a fictional French town called “Ennui-sur-Blasé.” “Ennui” and “blasé” are both English words (albeit both words that originate from the French) that mean roughly the same thing: a world-weary boredom, apathy, and sophistication. It is fairly common for French place names to contain the word “sur” (“upon”) between two other words as a geographic descriptor; for example, the French Riviera village name “Beaulieu-sur-Mer” translates as “beautiful place upon the sea.” So, if it were a real place name, “Ennui-sur-Blasé” would mean, more or less, “Boredom-upon-Apathy.”
- During the end credits, several covers of The French Dispatch are shown. One depicts a set table with a wine glass, plate, fork, and a revolver with a knife attached to the bottom of the barrel. A similar revolver/knife contraption was also briefly featured in a 2004 American Express: My Life. My Card. (2006) commercial starring Wes Anderson. In the commercial, Anderson asks his production armorer to make a “.357 with a bayonet.” The armorer returns shortly with a sketch of a revolver with a bayonet attached to the bottom of the barrel, which Anderson approves.
- This is Wes Anderson’s ninth collaboration with Bill Murray, his eighth collaboration with Owen Wilson and his seventh collaboration with Jason Schwartzman (plus two shorts).
- Herbsaint Sazerac was named after liquors hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana. Herbsaint is a type of anise-flavored liqueur. Sazerac is a brand of rye whiskey. Both are ingredients in a cocktail also called a “Sazerac.”
- The film received a 9-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.
- Kate Winslet was originally cast in Elisabeth Moss’ role.
- A February 2020 New Yorker piece outlined some of the characters, subjects, and situations depicted in this movie, along with the corresponding New Yorker articles, subjects, and writers that Wes Anderson referenced. These include: Arthur Howitzer, Jr., inspired by the New Yorker’s founding editor Harold Ross, Herbsaint Sazerac, inspired by writer Joseph Mitchell, and Julian Cadazio, inspired by Lord Duveen, subject of a 1951 six-part New Yorker profile by S.N. Behrman. Roebuck Wright is inspired by James Baldwin and A.J. Liebling, New Yorker contributors over the years. Lucinda Krementz is inspired by Mavis Gallant, who wrote a two-part 1968 piece on the student uprisings in France. The character also shares a last name with Jill Krementz, a photographer whose work has often appeared in the New Yorker (and widow of author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.).
- All of the cast explained that working on this movie was the most exhilarating, challenging, and fun they ever had with any movie, since every scene they did was done with as much improvisation as possible, but also with a well-written script to go off of.
- In an interview for French media Konbini in March 2019, Mathieu Amalric revealed that his character was inspired by the one played by Louis Jouvet in the Henri-Georges Clouzot’s movie Quai des Orfèvres (1947). Therefore writer, producer, and director Wes Anderson asked him to watch the movie again as preparation for the part.
- The cast includes seven Oscar winners: Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, Christoph Waltz, Adrien Brody, Anjelica Huston, and Fisher Stevens; and nine Oscar nominees: Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Griffin Dunne, Bob Balaban, Owen Wilson and Bruno Delbonnel.
- This is the tenth feature film from filmmaker Wes Anderson.
- Wes Anderson’s first movie for Disney since The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).
- The “9-minute ovation” was not a 9-minute (actually 8+) ovation over the movie itself. Instead, during those 8+ minutes, the actors and director were doing things onstage, which the camera followed, and the camera also then focused on each of the many actors individually, prompting and rather requiring new and individual applause. So, it is a bit misleading to say that there was an 8 or 9-minute ovation over the film itself.
- Reunites Saoirse Ronan with Timothée Chalamet after Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019).
- The Commissioner’s chef, Nescaffier, is whimsically, homonymically named (sound-alike) for the frozen / beans / grounds coffee products brand, Nescafé. There were SO MANY hundreds of fun, funny, French to English phonetic transliterations, and vice-versa, that the naming cannot be coincidence.
- Benicio Del Toro, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Mathieu Amalric, and Léa Seydoux have appeared in at least one James Bond movie. Additionally, Jason Schwartzman (a regular in Wes Anderson films) is the son of Jack Schwartzman, the producer of the non-EON Productions James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983).
- The cast has won a total of 11 Oscars, while the crew has won eight.
- Frances McDormand has won four, Christoph Waltz has won two, while Fisher Stevens, Anjelica Huston, Benicio Del Toro, Tilda Swinton and Adrien Brody have won one each. Costume designer Milena Canonero has won four, composer Alexandre Desplat has won two, production designer Adam Stockhausen has won one and hair and makeup designer Frances Hannon has one won – each of these people won one of their Oscars for Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Despite seven nominations, Wes Anderson has never won an Oscar.
- Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, and Owen Wilson all appeared in Midnight in Paris (2011).
- Cast members Léa Seydoux and Christoph Waltz have appeared together in four movies. The pair first appeared together in the first scene of Inglourious Basterds (2009) and later both appear again in the two Bond movies Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021). In the same year as the latter, the two are also seen in The French Dispatch (2021).
- Part of the Cannes Film Festival Official Selection 2020, under a section titled “The Faithful (or at least selected once before).”
- This is Saoirse Ronan’s second Wes Anderson movie after The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).
- Both Timothée Chalamet and Rupert Friend both appeared on the TV series Homeland (2011).
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the production design and performances.
- In April 2019, Christoph Waltz, Rupert Friend, and Elisabeth Moss were cast
- Initially, Kate Winslet was also part of the cast, but had to exit the project to prepare for her next role in Ammonite
- For the film’s score, Anderson teamed up with long-term collaborators Alexandre Desplat and Randall Poster
- Desplat enlisted pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet to play accompanied by instruments including the harp, timpani, bassoon, and tuba, drawing inspiration from composers Erik Satie and Thelonious Monk
- Recording took place remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- The soundtrack was released on CD and digitally on October 22, 2021 via ABKCO Records, with a vinyl released planned for early 2022
- Its first single, “Obituary”, was released on September 14, 2021
- The score was given an earlier separate release
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 74% rating
- Based on 152 reviews
- With an average rating of 7.10/10
- The website’s critics consensus reads: “A loving ode to the spirit of journalism, The French Dispatch will be most enjoyed by fans of Wes Anderson’s meticulously arranged aesthetic”
- On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100
- Based on 48 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- In the United States and Canada, The French Dispatch was released alongside Dune: Part One and Ron’s Gone Wrong
- It was released on 52 theaters
- It was projected to gros 1-3$ million
- On its first day it made 555,000$
- Robert Yeoman served as the film’s cinematographer
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