THE DESIGN GALLERY OF THE WEEK IS A DIP INTO THE FRENCH DISPATCH ROOMS
Looking at the sets of the new movie by Wes Anderson, a selection of objects and furnishings follows the French aesthetic desired from the Director.
ARTICLE BY ISABELLA PRISCO
Stories binding into each other, quick memories whirling around in a wonder chamber and a celebration of discovery and invention that, above all, is meant to be a literal declaration of love. Thus, the new film by Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch, promises to be a true masterpiece of contemporary cinema. And according to the Americans of the New Yorker, who have already seen the film coming out in theaters across the border, "it is perhaps the best Anderson film to date". If the cast is stellar and the quotes are perfectly timed to act as the background to the story, in fact, once again, a disruptive aesthetic appears that reaches new dimensions of decorative ingenuity, touching through the lens unprecedented glimpses of social observation. "The film is a love letter to journalists set in an American magazine outpost in a fictional twentieth century French city and brings to life a collection of stories published in The French Dispatch magazine," reads the synopsis. Everything else is therefore to be discovered and, above all, to be watched carefully.
Nostalgic but equally energetic, the scenography that frames the whirlwind of events is an overwhelming wunderkammer: thanks to the narrative techniques used - flashback, live action and animation, among the others - the set design curated by Adam Stockhausen favors the director's imaginative world, "turning in the blink of an eye from the extravagant facetious to the painfully innocent". In post-war France, extinguished by the fatigue of the conflict, Anderson's flashes of color appear as notes of unexpected vivacity. But while the rules of symmetry and ornamentation are silent, this time to emerge in the space with more force is a series of references of yesteryear that alongside wallpaper and floral draperies are turned wood furnishings and elements with a vintage charm.
Retracing the interior design typical of the newsrooms and homes of the twentieth century, when the age of the Internet and Cloud had not yet emptied archives and drawers of their contents, the rooms of The French Dispatch are rhapsodic vignettes which, through meticulous details , seem to come to life in an intrinsically Frenchized style. "We had a budget, so we had to find bargains," said interior designer Rena DeAngelo, "and we found them in out-of-the-way markets, in places like Le Mans and Chartres, discovered thanks to my fantastic French team." Other destinations were "the great brocante of Bordeaux in Place des Quinconces in November" and in Angoulême, the city chosen as an open-air location for the filming, he met Denis Gargoulie, a property liquidator, with a huge warehouse full of objects of French antiques. Et voilà, the result is therefore a kaleidoscopic selection of furnishings and accessories that, in the design gallery of the week, we tried to recreate, through designer pieces and handcrafted furniture.
“Especially the cedar, which we used for a bright yellow coffee, Le Sans Blague. Then we started putting yellow everywhere, from cars to shop windows ”. A red thread that returns in almost all the scenes of the film as a recurring theme, the use of jaune, to put it in French, also goes wild in interior design off the big screen. This is confirmed by a rich selection of paints and pigments applicable to furniture and walls in canary, lemon and mustard colors: an example? The finish of the Velvet Collection by Molteni Vernici which, in this photo, stands out on the coffee table, giving the surface a warm and soft tactile aspect like velvet.
WE THANK ALL THE EDITORIAL OF ELLE DECOR FOR THE KIND TRIBUTE AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO THE JOURNALIST ISABELLA PRISCO FOR THE ARTICLE.
