-
The Real-Life Artists Behind ‘The French Dispatch’ Share What It Was Like to Paint for Exacting Auteur Wes Anderson
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, the latest effort from noted auteur Wes Anderson, transports viewers to the mid-20th-century French village of Ennui-sur-Blasé in an anthology film where each chapter represents a feature article in the titular New Yorker–style magazine (complete with covers by illustrator Javi Aznarez). One of those stories is “The Concrete Masterpiece,” told in the form of an art lecture by staff writer J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton), a character inspired by art historian Rosamund Bernier. It’s about Moses Rosenthaler (played, at different ages, by Benicio del Toro and Tony Revolori), who becomes a world-renowned artist while serving a murder sentence at the Ennui prison. To bring the character…