The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
Short description
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun is a 2021 comedy-drama about an American magazine published in a French city. When its longtime editor dies, the staff prepares one final commemorative issue, gathering the pieces that defined the publication's run. Three of the magazine's stories form the film's structure: a painter serving a life sentence for murder, a student protest movement, and a kidnapping that a chef helps unravel. A large ensemble plays the journalists, subjects and locals who populate the fictional French setting.
Wes Anderson directed and wrote the screenplay, and he produced alongside Jeremy Dawson and Steven M. Rales. It is the thirteenth film of the twenty-six he has directed in chronological order, following Isle of Dogs (2018) and preceding Asteroid City (2023). The cast includes Benicio del Toro as Moses Rosenthaler, Adrien Brody as Julian Cadazio, Tilda Swinton as J.K.L. Berensen, Léa Seydoux as Simone, Frances McDormand as Lucinda Krementz and Timothée Chalamet as Zeffirelli, among 333 credited cast members and 80 credited crew.
The film runs 108 minutes and cost about 25 million dollars, earning roughly 46 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 167,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from over 3,000 votes. A critics' rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 321 reviews places it in line with the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Originally, it was planned to be a musical.
- Gwen Germain directed the animated inserts in the film, having previously worked with Wes Anderson on the animated film *Isle of Dogs* (2018). They were exclusively drawn by local illustrators. There were 15 illustrators, and they drew inspiration from *The Adventures of Tintin* and *Blake and Mortimer* comics. It took them about 7 months to create the animated segments.
- Production designer Adam Stockhausen began searching for filming locations using Google Maps, and only then visited those locations that attracted him. Stockhausen and director Wes Anderson imagined the town as "like Paris, but not today’s Paris, more like a memory of Paris, Jacques Tati’s Paris." This refers to screenwriter, actor, and director Jacques Tati (1907-1982). Eventually, they settled on the city of Angoulême.
- When the end credits roll, the front pages of some issues of 'The French Dispatch' are displayed. The front pages of The New Yorker served as a source of inspiration for their creation to a certain extent.
- The actors' names on the poster are grouped according to newspaper articles, not in any other order.
- To take advantage of the 30% tax credit offered by the French government, 40% of the crew were local residents, and 900 local residents were hired as extras. The administration of the Charente department (in western France) awarded the filmmakers a grant of $190,000.
- In February 2020, the New Yorker claimed that the film takes place in a fictional French city. The city’s name consisted of English words with roots in the French language, and translated to mean weariness of life, apathy, and wisdom.
- The first and last name of the character played by Owen Wilson are the names of alcoholic beverages.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
