The French Dispatch's Rehash of a Familiar, yet Relevant, Story

 I don't want to make this blog into a pretentious encyclopedia of Wes Anderson's films, but after or discussion in class about the 1968 protests in France, I had to go into how his latest film, 'The French Dispatch', explores the topic. We learned some of the history about these youth protests, and videos on the blog such as 'All Power to the Imagination' (https://youtu.be/YCtcD9CfMOI) goes into deal laying out the events very well. The biggest takeaway I got from the video was when they refer to the slogan 'All power to the imagination', because that was where the spirit and sentiment lied as they were facing an authoritarian form of education and government. So, a late 60's bunch of protests that we associate with documentary snippets in black and white, where students were fed up with the blandness and control coating their lives is the best jumping off point for Anderson's colorful, eccentric directing style? Well, yes.

This notion of 'All power to the imagination', I imagine, sparked the idea for Anderson to create this story. This story where we find a group often associated with just being a piece of pain in the grand scheme of history, had some of the most creative, colorful, and eccentric souls to ever exist. The idea of the black and white visual style is especially relevant to me, because all of the three major stories depicted in the film start in black and white. Upon first viewing, I associated it with the fact that the characters are making stories for a newspaper, and it's merely black and white just to set us into the scene, but I can't help from thinking that, in this context, it is also easing us into the idea that these protestors are more than a piece of history, and rather something greater. It is an amazing detail that adds so much for me, whether an intentional move by Anderson or not. I found another idea to get myself thinking about the segment of the film titled, 'Wes Anderson’s ‘The French Dispatch’: Confronting Satire and the Immutability of Youth Political Experience' (https://retrospectjournal.com/2021/12/12/wes-andersons-the-french-dispatch-confronting-satire-and-the-immutability-of-youth-political-experience/), which went into depth regarding the segment that Anderson calls 'Revisions of a Manifesto'. I have to say, focusing so heavily on a couple core characters, Timothee Chalemet's character Zeffirelli especially, makes it easy to find that this is a deeply human story. Exploring the ideas, beliefs, and core values of this one student drives the idea of these students having eccentric souls home. A manifesto is something that we often look at as a type of fascist text that holds marginalized people down, or keeps an entire society in shackles, but Zeffirelli's manifesto is one of hope, one of peace, and one of creative, expressive and general freedom. It creates a situation filled with over the top, quirky, intellectual dialogue about human, political, and societal dilemmas. These moments give the characters the satirical moments and personality that makes us understand their humanity more than those black and white narrated pieces of B-Roll ever could. The ending of this segment and of the movie as a whole is also extremely emotional in my opinion, bringing up all the same questions of what it means to be human, and how it may or may not live on after we're gone. 

Anderson isn't my favorite director, but I like him a lot. His die hard fans are often known as pretentious for liking his over the top style, but they appreciate good movies. I feel like I understand both sides of the spectrum, but I do find myself considering most of his films to be masterpieces. The french dispatch was considered to be his most self indulgent film to date, where he let loose on his tropes and his quirks. Some people hated it, a few loved it, but I think it's just solid. Sloppy, yes, but it deals with and articulates beautiful, relevant ideas about the human experience, tortured artists, and legacy. In the end, it all circles back to humanity, and telling the stories of real people and real experiences that don't often get recognized in the grand scheme of things. It's truly a beautiful piece of work, and ranks upper-mid in my whole ranking of Anderson's work.