SNAPSHOT
A love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city, centering on three storylines. It brings to life a collection of tales published in the eponymous The French Dispatch. Inspired by Anderson’s love of The New Yorker, and some characters and events in the film are based on real-life happenings with the magazine. The French Dispatch is both written and directed by beloved American filmmaker Wes Anderson, director of the films Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs previously. It’s produced by Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales; co-produced by Octavia Peissel. (synopsis courtesy First Showing)
The COVID-19 pandemic has upset a great many apple carts of modern civilisation including that of the cinematic release schedule which has had many of its constituent films moved around like a frenetic chess game.
Among the many films to have their release shifted and then shifted again and then shifted still further again is The French Dispatch, the first live action film from thoughtfully whimsical director Wes Anderson since 2014 when The Grand Budapest Hotel was released.
And while it’s been a long wait, the good news is that Wes Anderson are almost always worth waiting for, which is reassuring since the lockdown in Sydney continues to endure with a planned end of around 18 October, assuming vaccination rates hold up.
Knowing this likely gem, and a great many others are waiting at the end of this very long COVID lockdown tunnel, will make the long weeks in-between not so hard to get through.
Assuming, of course, things open as planned which you can only hope they do.
The French Dispatch releases (finally) on 22 October in US and UK and in Australia on 11 November.
