WELDON: Yeah, and I would say Wes Anderson's films are just pleasures to watch. I think just by, you know, the strength of the story, I think the film holds pretty well. The readers are in Kansas, and I think it - I mean, I would say it works beautifully.ĭETROW: Does this movie work for somebody who doesn't necessarily name-check classic New Yorker writers like we all just did in this conversation?ĬHOUDHURY: No, I would say it does beautifully because, you know, I did not grow up in this country, and I did not grow up reading The New Yorker. And interestingly enough, this magazine brings the world of France and the happenings in this little French town to people in Kansas. Bedatri, I have heard that this movie is broken up in an interesting way.ĭETROW: What's the structure, and why does that matter, going in?ĬHOUDHURY: The film has kind of three acts, and it's divided into the backstories and - or you could say the evolution stories of three articles that come out in this issue of this magazine, which is called The French Dispatch. And I'm going to go way out on a limb here, Scott, and suggest that that particular Venn Diagram might intersect with an NPR listener or two.ĭETROW: (Laughter) Probably. It is also a love letter to classic French cinema. And as you said, this is a love letter to The New Yorker, specifically to writers like Mavis Gallant and A.J. WELDON: We are in the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blase. Is this movie in a fancy hotel or a ship or some sort of fantastical stop-motion animation setting? Where are we going here? And it's out there in a very expansive way, so you may miss it, but he's not hiding anything from you.ĭETROW: So Glen, set the scene for us. He's not trying to conceal things from you. I'm in the first camp.ĭETROW: What about you, Bedatri? What is, like, the definitive Wes Anderson thing for you?ĬHOUDHURY: I mean, to add to everything Glen said, I think it's also the way Wes Anderson designs a plot. One sequence becomes a literal theatrical production, which is why his stuff is so divisive, right? If you like it, you call it stylized and idiosyncratic and imaginative, but if you don't like it, you call it mannered and arch and the T-word, twee. You know, in this film, he throws in animation. His stuff is all about the artifice, the theater of it all. Part 2, he is never going to let you forget that. That's baked into his set design, the cinematography, the dialogue and the performances. One, it's going to be meticulously constructed. WELDON: I mean, going into any Wes Anderson film, you know two things. Glen, why don't you go first with that assignment? Good morning.ĭETROW: I would be curious to hear how both of you would describe what exactly a Wes Anderson movie is. Choudhury is a film critic and cultural journalist. Glen Weldon is the host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, and Bedatri D. We have two moviegoers with us now who are eager to talk about it. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: The arts, high and low, and diverse stories of human interest.ĭETROW: Yeah, hearing that clip, you know exactly who directed this movie - Wes Anderson. transformed the series of travelogue columns into The French Dispatch, a factual weekly report on the subjects of world politics. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE FRENCH DISPATCH") It's based on the colorful articles of a fictional magazine run by a grumpy but respectable editor, played by Bill Murray. The new film "The French Dispatch" is kind of like seeing a classic issue of The New Yorker come to life.
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