Wes Anderson’s new film The French Dispatch hasn’t been released yet but that hasn’t stopped Jarvis Cocker from announcing a companion piece.
Titled Chansons d’Ennui Tip Top, the British singer’s companion piece will come out on October 22nd, conveniently the same day as the film’s theatrical release. Honestly, if anyone singer of the last few decades resembled Anderson and his style, it would probably be the foppish and charismatic former Pulp frontman.
With Anderson’s latest being set, unsurprisingly, in France, Cocker’s album is a tribute to the best of French pop music: songs made popular by such luminaries as Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot, and Jacques Dutronc will feature. Our first taste of Chansons d-Ennui Tip Top (which translates to Tip Top Boredom Songs) is Cocker’s version of ‘Aline’ by the late Christophe, who died due to COVID-19 interacting with a previous comorbidity (COPD) in April 2020.
They might as well just declare October 22nd ‘The French Dispatch Day’ because the film’s original score by Alexandre Desplat (scorer of previous Anderson films Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs) is also being released then, also featuring contributions from pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Let October 22nd be devoted to whimsy from now on.
Check out ‘Aline’ (Christophe) by Jarvis Cocker:
Anderson will probably listen to Cocker’s album a lot given his well-observed love of French music. ‘Le Temps de l’Amour’ by Françoise Hardy featured in Moonrise Kingdom, while ‘Les Champs-Élysées’ by Joe Dassin was included in The Darjeeling Limited.
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The French Dispatch or, to give it its full title, The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, looks like your classic whimsical Anderson fare. Starring usual cohorts such as Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson (should we assume by now that the director keeps these actors in some sort of storage facility until its time to shoot his next film?), Anderson described it as a “love letter to journalists”; for a profession that cops a lot of flak, that’ll make a nice change.
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Check out the trailer for The French Dispatch:
