Wes Anderson's new film "The Phoenician Scheme" opens in New York and Los Angeles
Wes Anderson's new film "The Phoenician Scheme" has opened in New York and Los Angeles. Its hero, Zsa-zsa Korda (played by Benicio del Toro), a charming swindler, hatches a grandiose transcontinental project, the "Phoenician Scheme". But his plan, as is the way of such things, runs up against one prosaic obstacle: a want of money.
Paradoxically, the money is right under his nose, quite literally. Korda lives in a sumptuous sixteenth-century palazzo crammed with priceless works of art: from a still life by Floris van Schooten to a canvas by René Magritte and an authentic portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, once owned by Greta Garbo.
Yet the hero himself seems to attach no importance whatever to his treasures: the paintings stand about gathering dust, while his nun daughter sleeps beneath the Renoir, without the faintest notion of its value.
