Wes Anderson Tells a Winding Story in "The French Dispatch" Trailer

Scene from The French Dispatch

Over his past few films, it feels like director Wes Anderson has perfected the art of getting your hopes up for the next Oscar season. Who could forget how The Grand Budapest Hotel released its first trailer on the heels of the 2015 Academy Awards, or how Isle of Dogs made 2018 feel like it would be a better year for animation? Well, it looks like he's outdone himself by dropping a trailer within the week following this year's ceremony. Just as everyone is wrapping up their thoughts on Parasite's historic win, Anderson is here to remind you that cinema is an evolving art form and that soon there will be a new class to talk about. With The French Dispatch, he adds his name to the 2020 prognostication early, making one excited to see his latest crowded fare look like another masterpiece that's going to dominate the conversation.

Despite most of his films since The Royal Tennenbaums hold some level of Oscar consideration, it feels like he's only come into his own. After several decades of establishing his own style, turning melodrama into a colorful book with The Grand Budapest Hotel, he had become an icon of the film world. There are few filmmakers who are distinguished as he is and even a frame of his films could be identified as one of his own. It's likely why every new story brings with it high anticipation and an even bigger cast of prestigious talent attached waiting to add their own quirky twist on his world. To look at the cast list is to salivate, wondering how he'll make the world pop with vivid costuming, lighting, and symmetrical framing. 

That is what has made The French Dispatch so exciting. More than Isle of Dogs, his 2020 film feels like his proper follow-up to The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was such a transcendent success story that it dominated technical fields at the Oscars before getting a Best Picture nomination. Everything about the early promotion has been in form for Anderson. The poster had its stylized animation where it highlighted the extended cast. The stills all felt like elaborately designed photoshoots. Everything about the film seems exciting if you're a Wes Anderson fan. Considering that his recent work all have something showing confidence in his own style, it's harder to say that you're not.

Check out the trailer below:

Looks really good. Here's the plot description according to IMDb:

A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in "The French Dispatch" magazine.

The one thing that seems most noteworthy in that description is that Anderson seems to be making an anthology film this time around. At least, that's what it sounds like when it says "a collection of stories" and one can't help but imagine what this means. Will they all tie together, or will they be thematic ropes attached in their own devious ways? With that said, the style continues to expand, exploring frame size once again and pushing into black-and-white cinematography clashing with color. So much of the trailer feels like another round of Anderson using his technique for provocation, but it still has traces of things that could lead to something grander, more interesting about journalists hiding out in France. 

The easy assumption is that this is Anderson continuing his dive into political themes. With The Grand Budapest Hotel being about the censorship of hate groups, he looks to be going further by exploring journalists. Expecting that the IMDb description is accurate, the "love letter to journalists" could be his take on the fake news phenomenon in the United States, making one wonder if this will be a mix of unreliable narrators all competing to tell one story. So much remains up in the air, but one thing is clear. His imagery remains vivid, so striking that one would take an hour watching the trailer just to collect every beautiful frame. Anderson trailers are hard to judge because they all share that sense of beauty and whimsy that make them look like the best experiences at the movies.

With all of this said, The French Dispatch is looking to be one of the best, or most anticipated, movies of 2020 for indie fans. How could it not when it features such an incredible cast and comes from a filmmaker who has continued to prove himself with challenging aesthetics and pushes the fantasy into a reality that is palatable? So much of this is looking to be a nice mix of that heightened style with the darker drama that he's become a fan of exploring. Even with Isle of Dogs, he pushed animation into something stranger as he played with language and narrators. With The French Dispatch, it looks like he's going further into a swirl cone of ideas that will be dazzling to watch. Soon he'll be able to fund his own private country with the actors he can get to star in his films. This feels like we're almost there.