Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, the hotly-anticipated comedy-drama that was postponed indefinitely last year, will now be released as part of this year’s Cannes film festival. Thierry Fremaux, the festival’s artistic director, announced that The French Dispatch will be part of the official screening between July 6, 2021 and July 17, 2021. So it won't be long before we can see Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton and Bill Murray grace the big screen in what many are hoping will be another instant classic from the director.

The trailer gives us a first look at the film which depicts a French metropolis called Ennui-sur-Blasé with a focus on the works of a fictional weekly magazine and the stories surrounding it which are, supposedly, meant to be inspired by The New Yorker. 

Anderson comments that his film is "a portrait of a journalist who fights to write what he wants to write. It’s not a movie about freedom of the press, but when you talk about reporters you also talk about what’s going on in the real world.”

Though Timothée Chalamet scribbles on a notepad in a bath, Benicio del Toro is covered in paint and Frances McDormand is seen hard at work, the film’s background teaser suggests to us that we can most definitely look forward to ample amounts of action scenes,  including a police chase, a hearse and the metropolitan streets lurking with bloody butchers and suspicious personalities.

Words: Sharon Majuki

Updated: 22 April, 2021