“The French Dispatch” by Wes Anderson lands in Cannes

Cannes, France (AP) – A year after its Cannes Film Festival premiere, Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” finally premiered at the Côte d’Azur Film Festival on Monday.

Anderson and the mass market arrived on the Cannes red carpet on a bus, with a shotgun seated Bill Murray smiling. The film, Anderson’s elaborate and whimsical ode to the New Yorker, is perhaps the most star-studded set performed at the festival this year. At the premiere with Murray were Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson and – in his first red carpet in Cannes – Timothée Chalamet.

Dressed in a shiny silver suit, Chalamet – well known for his fluency in French – rushed to spectators to take selfies and sign autographs.

The first has been a long time coming. “The French Dispatch” was selected for Cannes last year, which was ultimately canceled due to the pandemic. The Searchlight Pictures version chose to wait; it will hit theaters in October.

Still, COVID-19 had an impact on the film’s debut. One star, French actress Léa Seydoux, tested positive last week while working on another film. She is fully vaccinated and asymptomatic but was in quarantine in Paris and was unable to attend. The film is also making a little more noise in Cannes; it is the only film competing for the Palme d’Or that will not hold a press conference here.

“The French Dispatch” is a loving portrait of a weekly literary magazine set in the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. It is an anthology film, structured like an issue of The New Yorker, with three distinct feature films, a travelogue and an obituary. Reviews were mixed on the film, praising the film’s heartfelt homage to 20th century magazine writing and Anderson’s intricate imagery – which in “The French Dispatch” may be on a new level, even for him.