Wes Anderson tells a lot of stories in the French Gazette, but they don't add up to the film.
Miscellaneous / / November 14, 2021
Great filming, a stellar cast and a chaotic plot await you.
On November 18, a new work by Wes Anderson will be released on Russian screens. Each film of this director is an important event for fans of auteur cinema, because he tells life stories, but completely phantasmagoric stories, and even presents them very beautifully.
A new film with a very long title “French Gazette. Supplement to the newspaper “Liberty. Kansas Evening Sun “” (usually shortened to the first two words) had to wait a very long time: due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the release was delayed by more than a year.
And, alas, Anderson's next work came out not as holistic as the previous ones. Even if visually "French Gazette" is even more elegant than other films of the director. But, playing with the form and trying to fit as many stories into the plot as possible, he seemed to forget about the structure and disclosure of the characters and missed the emotional component.
The plots are too hasty
The editorial office of the French Bulletin magazine employs many talented journalists with a unique author's style. Each of them writes reports and notes, telling about the life of the town of Ennui-sur-Blazet. And editor Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray) chooses which ones go to print.
The whole further plot of the film is the visualization of these articles. They are dedicated to a wide variety of events. For example, the talented artist Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro), sitting in prison, creates his greatest work, but it is impossible to sell it. The revolutionary young man Zeffirelli (Timothy Chalamet) writes the manifesto, and experienced journalist Lucinda (Frances McDormand) revises it. Food Writer Roybuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) recounts the kidnapping of the Police Commissioner's son.
Anderson's film is often calledReview: Wes Anderson writes a love letter to ‘The New Yorker’ / The News House declaration of love for journalism. In particular, to the popular newspaper The New Yorker. The author even copied some of the characters from real employees of this publication.
But it seems that it was this love that played a cruel joke with the director: he wanted to tell too much, and it simply did not fit into the film. Each short story from the French Gazette is good in itself. But one feels that the author does not have enough time for full-fledged stories, or the depth of elaboration of the idea itself. It is as if the viewer is shown the beginning of a full-length picture and, as soon as he gets carried away, they move on to the next part.
At the same time, the director's signature techniques have not disappeared anywhere: he again uses flashbacks and direct speech of the characters. But due to the reduced timing, unusual moves fall one after another. So, the short story "Reinforced Concrete Masterpiece" lasts about half an hour. She is presented as a speech by a journalist, during which she talks about the events of the past. And in the plot itself, the hero del toro recalls his youth. And such tiered flashbacks look too complicated for a short story.
After viewing, a timid dream arises (alas, not confirmed by a single word of the author) that someday Anderson will release a larger version of the French Gazette. For example, in the form of a mini-series, where each plot will receive at least an hour of screen time. In the meantime, you have to be content with quick and very superficial stories.
But everything was filmed incredibly aesthetically
It's no secret that many people love the work of this director, first of all, for the beautifully set symmetrical shots. And in this regard, "French Bulletin" is the apotheosis of Anderson's work. The film is shot very static: here the action often almost freezes, turning into a set of pictures with voiceover. And literally every such frame is a work of art, even if you take a screenshot and put it on your desktop.
Even in the introduction, just giving background information, the director shows some of the most elegant production in modern cinema. And this also applies to close-ups of serving food, and the general picture of the street.
Then Anderson literally adds and removes color at a click, removes very textured actors from the most unusual angles. And in the last story, "The Police Commissioner's Private Dining Room" goes into animation altogether.
By the way, "French Bulletin" and in general is more like a cartoon, and drawn, and not computer. It is believed that in such works there are no passing frames, since each of them is created by hand. These are the feelings that the picture evokes. Wes Anderson: There is not a single scene here that does not evoke visual delight.
The film lacks emotion
And yet, sometimes it seems that the director seemed to have read too many laudatory reviews for his work, where they talked about the picture. But Anderson's tapes have always conquered another important component - warm and emotional stories.
The Tenenbaum Family and Fantastic Mr. Fox talked about family relationships. «Full moon kingdom"Reminded of the first child's love. And even "The Island of Dogs" caught on with the theme of selfless friendship.
It is this kind of warmth that the French Bulletin lacks. She skips literally in a couple of scenes. The opening and ending, dedicated to the hero of Murray, try to make the viewer attach to this controversial person. But there is not enough time.
To fully tell about human relationships is possible only in the story of "Amendments to the Manifesto", where the cutest characters are in the foreground Timothy Chalamet and Frances McDormand. As if in spite of all the surrounding fuss, these actors show sincere feelings and play out a beautiful drama.
Of course, this is already more than in all the films of any Christopher Nolan put together. But I would like the rest of the heroes of the French Gazette to be given their say.
But the roles are played by the best actors
In terms of the number of stars flickering on the screen, this year the French Gazette can only compete with “Dune"Denis Villeneuve and the still unreleased film" Don't Look Up "by Adam McKay (by the way, Chalamet appeared in all three). And even then both opponents will lose.
Having finally acquired the status of a world legend after the "Hotel Grand Budapest" and "Island of Dogs", Anderson co with his characteristic maximalism, he collected in a new picture his favorite artists, and almost half of the bright stars author's cinema.
It is enough to briefly describe a couple of plots for the viewer to understand what pleasure awaits him. Benicio del Toro paints a nude portrait of Lea Seydoux. He wants to buy a painting Adrian Brody. And Tilda Swinton talks about all this. And that's just one story.
How about gathering at one table Francis McDormand and Christoph Waltz? Or get Liv Schreiber to interview Jeffrey Wright? By the way, he will tell about a gang consisting of Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan and Willem Dafoe.
Moreover, the director comes up with a very bright grotesque role for each of the actors, which does not always fit into the traditional image of the artist.
One can complain a little that many stars are given only a few minutes of screen time. But it's still better to watch Brody play at least a couple of scenes than not see him at all.
The aforementioned shortcomings of the French Gazette can easily be called nit-picking. The movie is truly delightful to watch and is definitely worth going to the theater for. Then you will enjoy the beauty of the production and performance of your favorite actors.
But still, after this picture, many will have a feeling of incompleteness, which was not there either after "Kingdom of the Full Moon" or after "Island of Dogs". And it seems that Anderson himself is aware of this too. In the film, Bill Murray's editor had to reduce the font and cut out the ads to fit the story into the newspaper. So the director threw out a lot of details from individual short stories in order to show the whole picture. Although, perhaps, it was worth stopping at one or two and just not in a hurry.
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Cover: still from the film “French Bulletin. Supplement to the newspaper “Liberty. Kansas Evening Sun ""