'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar': Revisiting Dahl thorough Wes Anderson's magic

Wes Anderson keeps breaking his own style of filmmaking. This time he is back with a bang – four bangs to be exact. It all started with 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar', released on 20 September. The short stars three of the most favourite faces of acting – Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes and others like Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade and Rupert Friend. 

The 41-minute short is based on British author Roald Dahl's 1977 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More' short story collection. The book is generally aimed at a slightly older audience than many of Dahl's other children's novels. which he wrote at different times throughout his life.

Initially, Wes was set to adapt only 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar' on the screen and premiere it on Netflix. But fortunately for us, the craftful filmmaker did not stop with Henry Sugar. He adapted three more stories from Dahl's books that are trending on Netflix – the eponymous 'The Swan', 'The Rat Catcher' and 'The Poison'. 

Dahl may be a children's author but the stories are still a refreshing experience for adults. After all, the once Royal Air Force pilot Dahl, who fought in the Second World War, also became the most beloved author who gave children stories to laugh and enjoy while growing up. Odds are, even you have grown up reading Dahl at some point.

Getting back to the motion picture now. Okay, the pun here is that the film actually takes you back in time to the 4:3 aspect ratio screen days. In a world of IMAX and 8K TVs, the 4:3 aspect ratio of the film would even remind Dahl of the projection screens he grew up watching.

Somehow, these formats of old are making a comeback. In Christopher Nolan's recent WWII epic 'Oppenheimer' huge chunks of the film were shot and screened in the dichromatic [black and white] colours.

Be it for the grown ups, the tongue-in-cheek humour found through the 41-minute run time of the film is to (laugh and) die for, once again showing the jovial inner workings of Dahl's mind. 

But do you remember the gravitus with which Kingsley portrayed Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's eponymous 1982 biopic, Fiennes as the sadistic Nazi officer Amon Goth in the 1993 film Schindler's List and Cumberbatch as the hyper-masculine cattle rancher Phil Burbank in the 2021 Western'The Power of the Dog'? The same actors portrayed rather feather-light acting skills in 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar', where Cumberbatch is the rich, eccentric and beguiling Henry Sugar. 

This film is also an ode to old-school stage performances. Mid-acting, the cast changed props and prosthetics. Not only that, the same actors played different roles – just changing into different clothes and voila! They become completely different people. 

The most enchanting aspect of it is how the entire film is based on the actors narrating scenes and their dialogues; often switching between monologues and narration as well. Extensive use of miniatures was there. The transition from set to set was miraculous. 

And what should be said about Wes Anderson's chiaroscuro of colours in a film? A true Anderson fan would just know.