The French Dispatch is Wes Anderson’s tenth feature film and it certainly does impress. It is a portmanteau film which follows the journey of four journalists writing and submitting their final article for a newspaper which is soon to be discontinued. Each article plunges the audience into a world of either politics, art, crime, or environment. The variety of topics creates a merging of genres and ensures that parts of the film should be enjoyable for everyone. The audience is submerged into multiple different genres and stories over the course of one hour and forty eight minutes. This causes the viewing to be refreshing and adds a sense of pace to the film which engages the audience. 

 

The film plays with colour, often alternating between black and white and bright vibrant colours. It also plays with levels a lot, portraying a handheld camera which pans upwards and downwards. This causes a visually pleasing presentation to the audience. Although the time setting is unclear, it is presumably after world war two, there is a merging of fashion and styles from multiple different eras (60s and 70s). This sets the film in a timeless age. The film almost looks like a theatre performance. There are lots of shots of actors frozen in position, which only causes it to be more immersive for the audience. The upbeat music and editing entices the audience as well as the witty writing provoking out loud laughter from the spectators. However, although the film is entirely impressive, it isn’t amazingly gripping. There are moments of narration from characters which does feel unnecessary and slows down the pace of the film.

 

Furthermore, Connie Hindes believes the film was “cleverly made and very nicely shot”. Whether you are a Wes Anderson fan or not the film certainly excites the spectator and is sure to surprise the audience in a positive and refreshing way.