Wes Anderson choice
Wes Anderson felt in love at first sight for the city when he came in the summer 2018. He wanted to film his new movie in a one and only one place. And Angoulême was the perfect place for : the old city tucked between the ramparts and the town center, the sloping streets, staircases, small squares, imposant houses, an ancient castle turned into townhall, a cathedral … and a huge building in the neighbor, converted in a film studio.
During 6 months from end of 2018, to beginning 2019, Wes Anderson and his team worked and lived in Angoulême. He turned on the Xmas ligthings with Tilda Swinton in december 2018 with the Mayor Xavier Bonnefont.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2153017031693859
“Angoulême is a fairly large city. But for me it has become like a village. I had my corner to have my breakfast, to buy my bread, to eat a steak, ”said Bill Murray. And I saw him also many times on the golf course, playing like every other golfer, a very nice person.
A prestigious international cast for the French Dispatch
The cast so far includes some familiar Anderson actors and some new ones : Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Frances McDormand, Benicio del Toro, Jeffrey Wright, Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, Elisabeth Moss, Angelica Huston, Timothée Chalamet, Christoph Waltz,Léa Seydoux, Lina Khoudri, Stéphane Park, Mathieu Almaric, Guillaume Gallienne (of the Comédie Française) Cécile de France… About 900 inhabitants of the city, casted in the streets worked as paid extras !
It was the the biggest international production ever made in France.
Due to the pandemy, the movie juste released in october after having be seen in Cannes festival last spring.
The “avant-première” took place in Angoulême on october 17h, in the presence of Wes Anderson himself and Bill Murray.
The director had so nice words to the city and the inhabitants. “I apologize for Paris I love so much, but Angoulême is now the capital of France” did he say on the scene of the cinema faced to the public.
What about The French Dispatch ?
“I always wanted to do a collection of short stories, and the second thing I always wanted to do is to make a movie about “The New Yorker” Wes Anderson declared.
The French Dispatch pays tribute to the co-founder Harold Ross, editor and journalists of The Nex Yorker in the past time.
The French Dispatch, it’s a wacky patchwork in post-war France, An imaginary city named Ennui-sur-Blasé which evokes a Paris that is no more and never was.
4 short movies called “The cycling reporter”, “The concrete masterpiece”, “Revisions for a manifesto” and “The private dining room” compose this movie.
An exhibition called “The French Dispatch l’envers du décor”
This exhibition located at the Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée et de l’Image à Angoulême unveiled some sets of the film, moments of shooting… Behind the scene…
Have you already seen the movie ?
