A Magnetic Benicio del Toro Leads Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme
His piercing gaze is a signature look in itself. Benicio del Toro is back at the Croisette, and he isn’t here just to grace the red carpet. Two years after releasing Asteroid City, Wes Anderson takes us back to the 1950s with The Phoenician Scheme. This new feature film traces the duo of ‘Zsa-Zsa’ Korda (Benicio del Toro), one of the richest men in Europe, and his daughter Liesl, a nun played by the young Mia Threapleton (The Queen’s Game). Having just escaped yet another murder attempt, the former reconnects with the latter, whom he has not seen for six years, hoping to groom her as his successor. To carry out Zsa-Zsa’s ambitious project – a large-scale exploitation of a promising land – the two embark on some extravagant adventures.
Through this relationship, Wes Anderson keeps exploring family ties, a theme we find in The Tenenbaum Family, Aquatic Life and Aboard the Darjeeling Limited. As usual, the protagonists live their adventures alongside fascinating supporting characters. Some are played by the filmmaker’s long-time collaborators, such as Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston and Benedict Cumberbatch. Others, like Michael Cera, are making their debut in the bright universe of Wes Anderson, who marks his fifth screenplay co-written with Roman Coppola.
In short, it’s Wes Anderson at his best, and the red carpet before the screening gave us the chance to meet some of the cast members as well as a other big-name stars, including Ed Norton, Patrick Schwarzenegrer, Rupert Friend, Aimee Mullins, Riz Ahmed, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Marina Ruy Barbosa.
Photo: Niccolò Campita
