Between the monochromatic palettes and signature symmetry of film director Wes Anderson’s latest offering emerges a tenderness reminiscent of vulnerable moments from his acclaimed early-career works The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited. The plot of The Phoenician Scheme follows the tense and uncertain reunification of an estranged, death-defying, megalomaniac father and his sole daughter; a nun forced to take convent vows in search of communion following her mother’s untimely murder.
The impressive cast, whose performance garnered a seven and a half-minute standing ovation at the film’s premier at the Cannes Film Festival, includes favourites of the director such as Michael Cera, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Tom Hanks and Benedict Cumberbatch, but the film’s stars are undoubtedly Anderson first-timer Mia Threapleton and Benicio Del Toro, who portray the two central characters, Liesel and Zsa-zsa Korda. While Puerto Rican star del Toro boasts a decades-long career and numerous industry accolades, Threapleton is just 24 years old and right at the start of her career — not that it shows.
Image credit: (L-R) Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release. Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Draping the character in symbolism, opulent adjustments are made to Liesel’s initially unremarkable nun’s habit as she explores the possibilities of a life outside the convent. Threapleton delivers a sharp, confident and cutting performance as a daughter of god presented with a complex opportunity to explore a more primal, biological paternal relationship. With the delivery of each line, written by Anderson in partnership with long-time collaborator Roman Coppola, the audience is drawn into the complexity of this familial tale, but it is the film’s meticulous production design — as it is with so many of Anderson’s films — that adds an almost tactile richness to the storytelling.
With religion as a central thematic pillar of the film, its costume and set design leans into the duplicitous aesthetic languages of Catholicism, playing with emblems of chastity, poverty, wealth and purity. In one particularly striking early scene, Threapleton’s character Liesel presents a decadent rosary to the camera, signifying her decision to tentatively follow in her immoral father’s footsteps. The striking rosary is a bespoke piece, crafted exclusively for the film by heritage French brand Cartier.
Captivated by the historic charm of a cross pendant made by the house around 1880, Anderson envisioned a contemporary version that would accompany Liesel throughout the film. In order to bring this vision to life on the big screen, Cartier’s High Jewellery studio reinterpreted the archival cross on a larger scale for cinematic visibility, while a chain with rose-cut diamonds was created to offer a vintage feel that echoes Anderson’s unique aesthetic. Another Cartier creation — a High Jewellery diamond ring that first appears in the brand’s signature red box during a poignant proposal scene — is pertinent to the film’s plot.
Cartier special order for Wes Anderson, 2024. White gold, briolette-, rose- and square-cut diamonds, emerald beads, ruby cabochons. Length of chain 78.5cm. Height of cross 5.48cm
Cartier has supported the cinematic arts since the early 20th century, and as an official partner of the Venice International Film Festival has been associated with the Venice Biennale since 2021. Beyond this, the house extends further support to contemporary filmmaking, most notably through the annual Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award, which was awarded to Anderson in 2023.
Film stars throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have adorned themselves in Cartier as they take to red carpets and film festivals in celebration of their craft, while on-screen appearances are often the result of actors’ personal love of the house’s designs. Devoted wearer Audrey Hepburn chose to adorn herself in Cartier creations in her 1966 heist caper How to Steal a Million, while Romy Schneider wore her own beloved Baignoire watch in Jacques Deray’s 1969 psychological thriller La Piscine. Notably, in 1995, French poet, novelist, director and playwright Jean Cocteau received a unique Cartier-crafted academician’s sword, of his own design upon his admittance to the prestigious Académie Française.
Immaculately conceived and executed costume and set concepts are central to cultivating a sense of Anderson within his own films. Led by production designer Adam Stockhausen, expansive teams of craftspeople, engineers, makers and artists — many of whom are based here in Germany, where The Phoenician Scheme was made — sit at the heart of what makes these productions so strikingly surreal, and at times utterly beautiful in their absurdity. As Anderson admitted to fellow filmmaker Wim Wenders in a conversation that took place as an introduction to the film’s German premier, he once traded his dreams of being a director for aspirations of becoming an architect, before returning to his original plans; making clear his commitment to impactful aesthetic world-building within his multifaceted creative practice.
Image credit: Mia Threapleton stars as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release. Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
The Phoenician Scheme will be released in cinemas across Germany on May 30, 2025.
