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Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Daaaaaalí! (Quentin Dupieux)

At the time of year where every other film is a biopic chasing prestige respectability, we are lucky to have Quentin Dupieux, the prolific, serious-minded, silly filmmaker perfectly positioned to take a sledgehammer to the genre. His second 2023 feature has been described as a “real fake biopic” of Salvador Dalí but is best understood as a return to the heightened analysis of cinematic storytelling à la 2010 breakthrough Rubber––a movie which increasingly looks like the rare weak spot in a filmography equal-parts playful and thoughtful. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Daddio (Christy Hall)

Daddio, written and directed by Christy Hall, is a two-hander that bristles with energy from the start. A young professional (Dakota Johnson) steps...

Hi horror fans! it’s that most chilling time of year again, and we’ve teamed up with Picturehouse Entertainment to bring you the ultimate Halloween treat! Whether you’re a fan of creepy creatures, twisted tales, or dark humour, this Blu-ray bundle has something for every horror fan. Six terrifyingly unique films are up for grabs, and they’re sure to make your Halloween watchlist even more exciting.

Halloween Giveaway – Picturehouse Entertainment Blu-ray Bundle

Here’s what you could win in this fabulous bundle:

1. Koko-Di Koko-Da

A surreal and haunting story of a grieving couple who find themselves trapped in a bizarre time loop during a camping trip, tormented by strange characters. This atmospheric Swedish psychological horror will leave you chilled to the bone.

2. The Feast

This Welsh horror tale is a slow-burn exploration of family, greed, and revenge. Set in a luxurious countryside home, strange occurrences begin to unfold during an upscale dinner,...

by Cláudio Alves

Earlier this year, for the Cannes at Home opener, I explored the filmography of one Quentin Dupieux, from his earliest shorts to the stage-bound satire of Yannick. At the time, only two of the French director's films were excluded from consideration since, sadly, they were unavailable. The Second Act marked the start of festivities at the Croisette while Daaaaaalí! was still making the rounds in more minor festivals before international distribution. Well, some months have passed, and the latter flick has enjoyed a limited run in American theaters and is now coming to VOD. It's as good an opportunity as any to reflect on its idiosyncratic director. And trust that if you're a Dupieux devotee, you won't want to miss Daaaaaalí!...

Filmmaker Quentin Dupieux has earned a reputation for crafting surreal comedies that turn expectations upside down. His movies embrace absurdity and unexpected twists. With Daaaaaalí!, Dupieux set out to create a “fake biopic” about the legendary Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

The film stars Anaïs Demoustier as journalist Judith, who’s assigned to interview the eccentric Dali. But capturing the famously shape-shifting artist proves challenging. Dali is portrayed by multiple actors throughout, with his age changing randomly.

Dupieux crafts Daaaaaalí! as more of an homage than a straightforward biopic. It celebrates Dali’s surrealist spirit rather than claiming to be the definitive telling of his life. The director draws from Dali’s fascination with dreams and the subconscious through Daaaaaalí!’s experimental storytelling.

This review will analyze how Daaaaaalí!’s narrative structure comments on traditional biopic tropes and self-mythologizing artists. It will also explore Dupieux’s surreal approach and discussion of reality,...

A popular anime empire and a beloved manga both hit screens in North America this weekend, with The Outrun starring Saoirse Ronan, five actors playing surrealist artist Salvador Dali, and a trio of thought provoking docs new on the specialty circuit this weekend.

Also noting Columbia Pictures’ Saturday Night from Jason Reitman, which rocked its opening last week, expands in NY and LA and adds ten new markets for 21 locations total before going wide Oct. 11. The film, based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975, debuted to $270k at five theaters in NY/LA for a terrific $54k per theater average.

Moderate releases: Sony Pictures Classics’ Saoirse Ronan-starring and Nora Fingscheidt-directed drama The Outrun hits 508 screens. After a decade away in London, 29-year-old Rona (Ronan) returns home to the Orkney Islands. Sober but lonely,...

Good Golly, It’s Dali: Dupieux Dreams Surreal in Distinctive Biopic

It seems surrealism’s pioneer Salvador Dali is experiencing something of a culturally concentric resurgence as a cinematic subject, granted his most appropriately thematic rendering yet in Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaali!, the second feature this year from the idiosyncratic director, who is also kinda sorta delivering his first biopic. Arriving shortly after Mary Harron’s shockingly stilted Daliland, featuring Ben Kingsley as the iconic artist, Dupieux formulates his own expectedly original rendering, presenting something more along the lines of Portrait of an Artist as a Difficult Man. Much like Todd Haynes did with Bob Dylan, a revolving door of actors portray Dali, sometimes switching freely in scenes dealing with carefree anachronisms regarding his life and work.…...

The American French Film Festival unveiled the full-line up of its upcoming edition at a press conference at the Résidence de France in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, as the event returns after a one-year hiatus due to the Hollywood strikes.

The 28th edition, running October 29 to November 3 in the Director’s Guild of America Theatre Complex, will showcase 60 films and series, with 14 shorts, 14 Series and TV movies, and 32 feature films and documentaries, many of which are International, North American and U.S. premiere presentations.

As previously announced the event will be book-ended by Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez as the opening film and The Count of Monte Cristo, which will close the event.

The American French Film Festival was created and is produced by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a collaboration between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers...

In a scene near the end of Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaalí!, Judith (Anaïs Demoustier), a French journalist assigned to interview Salvador Dalí, is riding the bus, in the doldrums after the latest failure to capture her mercurial subject on film. The facial hair of the man seated across from her reminds her of Dalí’s iconic mustache, and after Judith aks him if it’s an intentional homage, he retreats behind his newspaper. The front-page headline reads, “Barista Lets Off Steam on Paris Bus”—a reference to the insult that Judith’s producer (Romain Duris) calls her—with a photograph of Judith below. Dupieux then cuts to a reverse shot of her that begins as a perfect match of the photo, one of countless flourishes of dream logic in the film that subvert conventional cinematic handling of time and space.

That there are almost as many actors portraying Dalí as...

"Now it's sublime." Music Box Films has unveiled the official US trailer for the acclaimed film Daaaaaali! from wacky filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (who also premiered his latest film The Second Act in Cannes earlier this year). Quite simple, this brilliantly hilarious comedy is a wild and weird take on the iconic artist Salvador Dalí. It premiered a the 2023 Venice Film Festival last year to uproarious laughter - it was one of my favorite films of the festival. Dupieux's film is sort of about a young journalist who attempts to meet with the iconic surrealist artist Salvador Dalí on several occasions for a documentary. But it never seems to work out. To add to the confusion, multiple actors portray Dali during different scenes in the film. Starring Anaïs Demoustier, Romain Duris, Gilles Lellouche, Edouard Baer, Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamand, and Jonathan Cohen.

From “Rubber” to “Wrong” to “Smoking Causes Coughing” and “The Second Act,” eccentric French auteur Quentin Dupieux is quickly becoming one of Europe’s most prolific filmmakers akin to a Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Albeit with eccentric, often fourth-wall-breaking comedies. He had two films debut at festivals in 2023, including the heckler hostage comedy “Yannick” at Locarno and the Salvador Dalí “real fake biopic” “Daaaaaalí!” out of competition at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. A movie where five actors play the surrealist icon, “Daaaaaalí!” is now making its way to U.S. theaters courtesy of Music Box Films, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “For journalist Judith Rochant (Anaïs Demoustier), the assignment to interview renowned artist Salvador Dalí is a great career opportunity–if only he would agree to sit still and answer a single question. What begins as a 15-minute conversation blows up into a bonafide cinematographic documentary portrait,...

Wegen ihres Protestes gegen die Militärjunta in Myanmar musste das Filmemacherehepaar Na Gyi und Paing Phyo Thu sein Heimatland verlassen und lebt im Exil. Das Internationale Filmfest Oldenburg ehrt dem Paar in diesem Jahr mit einem Tribute.

Dem Filmemacherehepaar Paing Phyo Thu und Na Gyi aus Myanmar ist der Tribute des Internationalen Film Festival Oldenburg in diesem Jahr gewidmet (Credit: Internationales Film Festival Oldenburg)

Das Internationale Film Festival Oldenburg (11. bis 15. September) ehrt das Filmemacherehepaar Na Gyi und Paing Phyo Thu in diesem Jahr mit einem Tribute. Das gab das Festival heute bekannt.

Von Beginn des Militärputschs in seinem Heimatland Myanmar im Februar 2021 an hatte sich das Paar an Demonstrationen gegen die dortige Militärjunta beteiligt. Im April wurde gegen Paing ein Haftbefehl erlassen; sie habe ihre Popularität dazu genutzt, um Beamte zur Teilnahme an den Protesten zu überreden. Nachdem die Morddrohungen gegen sie und ihre Kollegen zunahmen, beschlossen Na Gyi und Paing Phyo Thu,...

The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie movie event, will this year pay tribute to dissident filmmakers Na Gyi and Paing Phyo Thu.

The Myanmar director and actress have been living in hiding for more than three years, after their public opposition to the February 1, 2021 military coup put them in the crosshairs of the country’s ruling junta.

Oldenburg highlighted the couple and their plight, in the 2021 festival, screening Na Gyi’s What Happened to the Wolf?, which stars Paing Phyo Thu, in its world premiere. The story of a gay romance between two terminally ill women, played by Paing and Eaindra Kyaw Zin, the film is not overtly political but its Lbgtq+ storyline drew the ire of the military regime. What Happened to the Wolf? had been submitted to the festival after the coup but before the filmmakers went into hiding. The trailer for the film was a...

Sarajevo Film Festival has selected 18 titles for its Kinoscope strand and seven for its In Focus section, including a range of 2024 festival hits from Berlin and Cannes.

The Kinoscope selection consists of 12 Kinoscope films, and six titles in genre strand Kinoscope Surreal.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Titles include Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which won the Grand Prix in Cannes Competition this year; and Santosh, the debut feature of 2023 Screen Star of Tomorrow Sandhya Suri, which debuted in Un Certain Regard.

Guan Hu’s Black Dog, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize,...

Las españolas ‘Una Ballena’ y ‘Apocalipsis Z: El Principio del Fin’ en competición.

El Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico de Sitges ha comenzado la cuenta atrás para su próxima edición con el anuncio de sus primeros títulos.

Entre las películas más esperadas se encuentran “A Different Man”, el thriller psicológico de comedia negra protagonizado por Sebastian Stan, “Cuckoo”, la película de Neon protagonizada por Hunter Schafer, “The Second Act”, la película de Quentin Dupieux que abrió la última edición del Festival de Cannes protagonizada por Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon y Raphaël Quenard, la película de la conocida saga de terror, “Terrifier 3”, el filme dirigido por Jang Jae-hyun “Exhuma”, o “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”, la película que se proyectó en la sesión de Medianoche de la última edición del Festival de Cannes, llena de acción y artes marciales.

Las producciones españolas que competirán en la sección...

Sitges, one of the biggest genre events of the year, will be here before we know it. The massive genre film festival takes over Catalonia, Spain, for eleven days in October, bringing together some of the best titles from the year and hopefully introduce some new favorites towards the end of the year.   New films are coming from the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosowa (Cloud), Jean Luc Herbulot (Zero), Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Steppenwolf), Damien Leone (Terrifier 3) and Quentin Dupieux (The Second Act). Other films that have been tearing up the circuit include Cuckoo, Azrael, The Devil's Bath, Exhuma and Animale.    We get new docs from Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52), about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and one form Ry Levey (Out in the Ring) about boutique home video labels,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Savory wine, blissful beaches, rugged topography, and an elusive Philippe Katerine who plays Jean-Philippe — we’ve been keeping close tabs on what will be the middle part in Sophie Letourneur‘s proposed vaca-trilogy. Now comes word that (via the Cineuropa folks) that the project will be known as L’Aventura — a wordplay on Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterwork (perhaps one of the main players will disappear here too). Casting is complete (perhaps we’ll get a surprise appearance), and Letourneur will be re-teaming with cinematopgrapher Jonathan Ricquebourg (he was onboard for Voyages en Italie and more recently The Taste of Things) and the bigger news is that the producing team to come onboard are Atelier de Production’s Thomas and Mathieu Verhaeghe – who mostly produced a string of Quentin Dupieux films and other recent fest faves in Puan (last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival) and Dog on Trial and Eat the Night...

After collaborating with the other half of the Blue is the Warmest Color tandem, Quentin Dupieux is re-teaming with actress Adèle Exarchopoulos for L’Avant-dernière séance (English translation: “The Penultimate Session”), set to shoot in early 2025 and likely premiering that same year perhaps around a Locarno or Venice Film Festival playdate. Continuing in his surrealist comedy vein, Dupieux recently showcased Le Deuxième acte (read ★★½ review), the Cannes opener in May – it received mixed reviews and we advanced that “ultimately, the thoughts it provokes are more inherently interesting than the film’s self-obsessed vein of self-awareness”. This will be his fourteenth feature film and a third project with Exarchopoulos after Mandibles (2020) and Fumer fait tousser (2022).…...

Thomas Bangalter, one half of Daft Punk, has revealed Chiroptera, an original piece composed for artist Jr and choreographer Damien Jallet’s dance/art project of the same name.

The project debuted in front of Paris’ Place de l’Opera last November, featured over 150 dancers, and ran for two exclusive performances on the same night. Now, Bangalter is sharing the music he composed for the dance project: Chiroptera, the 17-minute “single” version, and Chiroptera Matiere Premiere, a much longer, “uncut”-styler version that clocks in at five hours and 50 minutes. You can stream both versions below.

In addition to releasing Chiroptera and Chiroptera Matiere Premiere digitally, Bangalter is also offering an exclusive 10xLP vinyl of the latter. The vinyl is a strictly limited edition release comprised of 200 numbered and signed copies, available in person at the Galerie Perrotin in Paris and on Atelier Jr webshop. Pre-orders for the 10xLP vinyl are on-going.

The French box office bounced back in May after an April plunge to reach 15.6 million admissions, up 13.5% from the same month last year.

Ticket sales year on year from January through May are down by 11.6% compared to the same period in 2023 after a slow start to the year and admissions to French cinemas falling by 35.5% in what was an abysmal April.

However, the June-May total of 171 million admissions is equal to the same period year on year. More was merrier for a month when 74 new films were released compared to 63 in 2023.

The renewed May momentum was mostly due to local-language phenomenon A Little Something Extra,...

The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival concludes today with the Closing Ceremony and presentation of the coveted award, the Palme d’Or which was awarded to Sean Baker’s Anora, on Saturday, May 25.

The Jury, chaired by director Greta Gerwig was tasked with awarding the Palme d’Or to one of the 22 films in the Competition.

Related: Cannes Film Festival: ‘Anora’ Wins Palme D’Or; ‘All We Imagine As Light’ Takes Grand Prize; ‘Emilia Perez’ Jury Prize & Best Actresses

The jury included Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green and Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, as well as Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino, Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu, and French actor and producer Omar Sy.

Related: ‘Emilia Pérez’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Édgar Ramírez, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña & More

Hu Guan’s drama Black Dog...

Few periods on the calendar mean more to cinephiles than the two weekends in May occupied by the Cannes Film Festival. Since its founding in 1946, the French festival has been a launchpad for some of the most artistically significant films of all time. The Palme d’Or is one of the most coveted film awards on the planet, and the festival’s ability to balance subversive arthouse work with major Hollywood premieres has led many to view it as the world’s most significant celebration of cinema.

The 2024 lineup featured a mix of buzzy premieres from New Hollywood titans like Francis Ford Coppola and Paul Schrader alongside exciting new works from emerging directors. Between the Main Competition, Un Certain Regard, special screenings, and sidebars like the Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week, the onslaught of new films can be overwhelming for anyone who isn’t able to give the festival their 24/7 attention.

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.For more Cannes 2024 coverage, subscribe to the Weekly Edit newsletter.The Second Act.There is a filmmaker who makes movies that are above all conceptual, with the story but a brittle skeleton barely holding the thing together. He makes at least one movie a year, all under 90 minutes, all modestly casual affairs with various doses of drollness; and all feature a philosophical premise or metaphysical quandary at their core. He writes, directs, shoots, and edits the films himself. Dissenters tend to think he isn’t funny and that all his movies are tedious and basically the same; fans, of course, hold the opposite opinion. He opened the Cannes Film Festival this year, but despite what you may assume, this filmmaker isn’t Hong Sang-soo; rather, it’s Quentin Dupieux, who also shares with Hong a cinema of welcome brevity and levity. These might be the reasons...

The Cannes Film Festival is many things: A prestigious platform for the best of world cinema, a massive industry event where film acquisitions get made, a testament to the French film industry’s classism and rampant sexual abuse. But more than anything, it’s one of the world’s greatest photo opps.

Sure, sure, everyone wants the Palme D’or. But even more people would kill to get seen on the iconic Cannes red carpet, and get their picture snapped by the hordes of press that camp on the Croisette. Some of the world’s most glamorous and beautiful celebrities can be seen on the steps outside the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès every year posing for the cameras, and while it’s not quite the fashion moment that the Met Gala is, it still offers a great opportunity for us pleebs to gawk at some particularly shiny stars in all of their finery.

Quentin Dupieux’s new film The Second Act (Le deuxième acte) opened the 77th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. It’s noteworthy that it’s a Netflix co-production and, although this could mean that Dupieux eventually reaches many more people, there’s nothing to worry about in the sense that his cinema remains very peculiar. Likewise, Dupieux continues a prolific and high-quality streak, which includes recent titles such as Incredible But True (Incroyable mais vrai), Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer fait tousser) and Yannick. At the beginning of The Second Act we see friends David (Louis Garrel) and Willy (Raphaël Quenard) walking together and chatting about a peculiar proposal: David wants Willy to help him get rid of a woman who has been trying to seduce him for...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Stars: Raphaël Quenard, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne, Agnès Hurstel, Jean-Paul Solal, Laurent Nicolas | Written and Directed by Quentin Dupieux

With a lengthy directorial career since the early 2000s, French director Quentin Dupieux has made a name for himself as an interesting surrealist. It helps that his unique takes on relatable issues are quick watches, with films rarely lasting longer than 80 minutes, and Yannick is a fascinating example of what the creative delivers so effectively.

Dupieux’s twelfth feature opens with a play entitled The Cuckold, as three actors perform on-stage to a half-empty room. While the consistent laughs make it clear that the audience is enjoying the play, the performance is interrupted by Yannick (Raphaël Quenard), a night watchman who stands up to share his displeasure. His reasonings are that he took a day off work and travelled an hour to see this play, yet it does not...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.For more Cannes 2024 coverage, subscribe to the Weekly Edit newsletter.In a welcome twist, the most pressing questions I heard on my way to Cannes this year didn’t concern the festival lineups but events that seemed to transcend them. In the days leading up to the opening night, Sous les écrans la dèche, a collective of festival workers, announced it would be striking over salary increases and unemployment benefits; as I type, the strikes haven’t materialized, nor has the rumored list of new sexual abuse allegations about men in the French film industry. “Last year, as you know, we had some polemics,” artistic director Thierry Frémaux told the press on the eve of the fest, hinting at the decision to open the 2023 edition with Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, a film that would have been forgotten a lot faster than it was had it...

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes

Meryl Streep, photographed by Elisa Giudici

I was fortunate enough to secure a ticket to the much-coveted rendezvous with screen goddess Meryl Streep. She was in town to receive the Honorary Palme d'Or. Herewith 10 of the most memorable moments from her interview panel. 

What did you do after winning the Palme d'Or? 

"I stayed up until three in the morning at Quentin Dupieux's film party, so I'm a bit disoriented. I really enjoyed the opening film and talked a lot about it with Quentin."

How seriously do you take your role as a member of the Academy? ...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.As part of our Cannes 2024 coverage, we invited critics, filmmakers, and programmers to give their first impressions of the festival. Sign up for the Weekly Edit to receive exclusive reports from the Croisette straight to your inbox.Giovanni Marchini CamiaThe reconstruction of Napoléon, as seen by Abel Gance, was the first film to play at this year’s festival—after the Berlinale’s TinyHouse, this is symbolism at its most ready-made. Impossible to watch this inordinately glorious, inordinately chauvinistic film at Cannes without thinking of Thierry Frémaux, the festival world’s very own Napoleon, the man everyone loves to hate. As rumors of an impending labor strike and #MeToo bombshell crescendoed ahead of that evening’s opening ceremony, no image could have been more fitting than Napoleon braving a furious storm on a rickety fishing boat, a French flag fashioned into a sail as his only lifeline.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival should prove particularly festive for Mediawan Pictures managing director Elisabeth d’Arvieu. With five in-house productions premiering in the official selection and another in Critics’ Week, the exec and her team will hit the Croisette with cause for celebration.

As an ardent cinephile, she bolstered an extracurricular passion for movies while getting an Mba from Baruch College in New York. She still takes in a film a day.

The Cannes celebration promises to start early for Mediawan, kicking off with Quentin Dupieux’s festival opener “The Second Act,” then Palme d’Or contending Hearts” from Gilles Lellouche and Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie,” the epic “The Count of Monte-Cristo” screening out of competition and Un Certain Regard player “Le Royaume” from

emerging talent Julien Colonna.

When taken as a whole, the strong showing nicely reflects the group’s wider ambitions, from...

The usual Cannes opening night ritual — introduce the jury and its president (auteur Greta Gerwig) who will weigh in on 22 competition titles — was co-opted by the larger-than-life presence of Meryl Streep, resplendent in white. She graciously accepted the Palme d’Or from a sincere Juliette Binoche, resplendent in red, who wrote her heartfelt tribute from one artist to another.

“You changed how women are portrayed,” Binoche said, crying. The two actresses were well-matched. And the black tie audience at the Palais gave Streep a lengthy, sustained ovation, which clearly both delighted and embarrassed her. She pretended to leave.

That ovation repeated Wednesday at the packed Salle Debussy, as Streep, a little worse for wear after debating the merits of Quentin Dupieux’s acting comedy “The Second Act” at the Cannes after-party, answered questions from Didier Allouch. “I didn’t go to bed until 3 talking about the amazing film,” she said.

Léa Seydoux with her The Second Act co-star Raphaël Quenard Photo: Richard Mowe Léa Seydoux, the star of The Second Act, Quentin Dupieux’s Cannes Film Festival opening film, considers herself fortunate at the start of her career not to have been subjected to the kind of inappropriate behaviour suffered by some of her contemporaries.

At a media gathering after last night’s world premiere in the 77th edition of the festival the one-time James Bond girl confessed: “I’ve been a very fortunate person as an actress. From the beginning I worked with people who respected me - more or less. It’s difficult to compare, however, as some women were really victims and went through a very serious experience.”

Having emerged relatively unscathed she sensed that her stature and standing had protected her. “When you’re a young actress, you are vulnerable,” she said.

Director Quentin Dupieux treats...

by Cláudio Alves

Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon in The Second Act.

Another year, another edition of the Cannes at Home miniseries, specially made to combat cinephile Fomo for those of us not at the French Riviera. For the next week or so, let's explore the filmographies of directors in competition. However, since the festival opened with the latest Quentin Dupieux project, it seems fitting to start our at-home festival by considering the auteur's career and the oddball creations that have made him something of a king of weirdness within contemporary French cinema. Not that such status comes with guaranteed acclaim. The opposite is true, with Dupieux's cinema caught in perpetual polemic, each work more divisive than what came before.

Such is the case with The Second Act, where the director proposes a comedy on the absurdities of making an AI-based film. Not even Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon,...

Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep revealed her admiration for actresses who move into production having achieved fame on the big screen in an onstage conversation Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival.

“There are so many women are producing for themselves and I’m so in awe of the ones who have done that. Reese [Witherspoon] and Nicole [Kidman], Natalie Portman. Everybody has their own production company,” she said.

“I have a production company of babies and that’s what I’ve produced, but I didn’t ever want to get phone calls after seven o’clock at night. So, I never did that. I’m in awe of people who do that. There are only so many hours in the day,”’ said Streep, who had highlighted earlier that she was a mother of four, and grandmother of five.

Streep was speaking to a packed Debussy Theatre in Cannes, where she was the...

Cannes regular Léa Seydoux joined playful press conference for fest opener The Second Act, where talk occasionally turned serious as the actress was peppered with several questions from the international press about her thoughts on the #MeToo era.

“I have been a very fortunate person as an actress. At the beginning of my career, I worked with people who respected me, more or less,” said Seydoux. “Some women were really victims. But in my case, I can’t compare with someone women who really went through and experienced very serious things.”

#MeToo is a contentious issue in France, where the perception is the entertainment industry has been slow to evolve. Seydoux has previously spoken about challenging conditions on Blue is the Warmest Color, her 2013 Palme d’Or winner that landed her international fame, and featured a 7-minute lesbian sex scene that took 10 days to shoot, while the film involved upwards...

In Quentin Dupieux’s new satirical comedy The Second Act, which kicked off the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night, the pic takes poke at myriad culture wars, including France’s latest #MeToo movement. Asked front and center about her take on the latest wave, the pic’s star Léa Seydoux said “It’s a wonderful thing that women are speaking out. It’s about high time they did.”

“This change has been taking place. The film also plays with this idea. It also talks about very current events, and this movement where women are now speaking out and that was a fundamental importance of that change to take place,” said the 007 actress.

“I see there’s been a change, we’ve moved on,” said Seydoux, who came up as a young actress in the biz.

Later expounding, the actress emphasized the changes she’s seen in the industry due...

Léa Seydoux addressed France’s growing #MeToo movement at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Quentin Dupieux’s comedy “The Second Act,” which opened the fest on Tuesday night.

“It’s a wonderful thing that women are now speaking out. Things are clearly changing and it was high time it did,” she said. “I have the impression that this change has indeed taken place. The film also plays with this idea, it also talks about very current events and this movement, where women are now speaking out, and that was of fundamental importance for this change to take place.”

Seydoux continued, “#MeToo is very important. It’s a very serious issue. However, I think it is also necessary to be able to talk about it with humor. In the film, this is highlighted in a very funny way.”

Addressing the impact of #MeToo on the way actresses are treated on set,...

Exclusive: Meryl Streep says that a meeting is “imminent” where she’ll hear about the proposals for her to return for a third helping of Mamma Mia!

The acting legend, honored with an Honorary Palme d’Or at an emotional presentation Tuesday night during the Cannes Film Festival’s opening ceremony the Grand Théâtre Lumière, confirmed that “of course, I want to do it,” but first she wants to hear how producer Judy Craymer has resolved the issue of how Streep’s character Donna Sheridan can return for MM3 when it was revealed during the during the 2018 sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again that Donna had died.

Will there be some sort of resurrection, I wondered. “I don’t know how they’re going to do it. They have an idea. I haven’t heard it yet but it’s in [my diary] and I’m going to hear about it pretty soon,...

Quentin Dupieux returns with The Second Act, a playfully dour satire on the film industry that sees the French absurdist delve further into the apocalyptic mood and gallows humor of his recent Yannick. The Cannes opener stars some of the biggest names in the French film world as heightened versions of themselves: actors working on a film within the film (and perhaps a film within that), a conceit that allows them to break the fourth wall, basically winking at the audience conspiratorially while taking passing shots at themselves and some of the hands that feed them. It’s all in good fun, of course. It’s also quite inside baseball––not that that mattered at the premiere, though you do have to wonder how it might resonate going forward.

Selected to raise the curtain on the world’s most prestigious film festival, The Second Act rolled moments after the opening ceremony closed,...

The Art of Saying Nothing: Dupieux Deconstructs Cinema

Had Luis Bunuel approached conveying the reality of cinema produced by artificial intelligence, there may have been some similarities with what Quentin Dupieux is doing in his latest feature, Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act). Of course, ironically, it is a film which doesn’t technically feature anything resembling a second act, and much like Dupieux’s previous films, actively disrupts notions of coherence or linear expectation. Such is the generally the blessing and curse of the perennial Dupieux, who seems to operating at the same frantic pace of someone like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, only with less of a success rate considering his strict adherence to an absurdism which suggests his films are probably more entertaining for those who made them than an audience trying to grasp at his intentions.…...

It could have been hopelessly self-indulgent but Quentin Dupieux’s anarchic and quirky sense of humour finds full flavour in this amusing “appetiser” which still leaves you hankering after a full meal.

Better that than overstaying its welcome as his cast play around with the foibles and artifice of their craft as they are gathered together to make a romantic comedy.

The collective view is that they are making a pretty dire production and to liven things up they keep interrupting the shoot to voice their own grievances against each other, the script and the unseen director who keeps shouting, “Cut!”

Most of the film unfurls in a roadside pub called The Second Act, presided over by the lumbering barkeeper (played by Manuel Guillot).

Working out where the play-acting stops and the “real” action begins is enough to keep you on the edge of interest...

The stormy clouds outside the Palais might have dampened some spirits as the credits rolled on the opening night film of the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Or maybe it was the movie itself.

“The Second Act,” Quentin Dupieux’s talky French comedy about the making of the first movie directed by AI, mustered a lukewarm 3.5-minute standing ovation on Tuesday night in Cannes.

Dupieux attedned the premiere along with his French cast of Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon and Raphaël Quenard. The four actors all politely stood as a camera quickly passed by through the tepid applause.

In the meta film, these French stars play actors making a romantic comedy they know is pointless, as it’s the first movie written and directed by AI. In the opening scenes, we learn that Florence (Seydoux) wants to take things to the next level with David (Garrel), but he is no...

Cannes film festival

With help from an A-list cast, Dupieux brings his customary mischief to an amiable tale of imposture and role play

Cannes can always do worse than choose a comedy for its opening gala, and the festival is off to an amiable, entertaining start. Quentin Dupieux brings the wackiness onstream with this cheerfully mischievous, unrepentantly facetious fourth-wall-badgering sketch. It’s a sprightly meta gag, a movie about a movie, or perhaps a movie about a movie about a movie – or perhaps just a movie, full stop, whose point is to claim that reality as we experience it inside and outside the cinema is unitary despite the levels of imposture and role-play we bring to it. It is all just one unbroken skein of experience like the endless dolly-track (the temporary rail that lets the camera move smoothly) that Dupieux finally shows us.

There are plenty of laugh lines,...

With 13 features made since 2007, and six in the past four years, French DJ-turned-director Quentin Dupieux is clearly no slacker. Not only has he helmed all these films — he’s also written, shot and edited them, as well as composed many of their scores.

Starting with his surreal deadpan début, Rubber, and up through last year’s Yannick and Daaaaali!, Dupieux has had an impressively prolific run, gradually improving with each new movie while honing a style and tone that are completely his own.

If, however, there’s one drawback to this incessant activity, it’s that his films all have very short running times because they tend to lack classic denouements. They’re well-executed, high-concept affairs blending comedy, sci-fi, horror and other genres in fun ways, but they often play out like long second acts without real endings.

Dupieux was perhaps aware of this flaw when he decided to call...

Something has subtly shifted in Quentin Dupieux’s perspective, leaving the one-man-band of French cinema a rather different auteur than the anti-comedy punk that nearly stumbled onto the festival stage so many years ago. Chalk it up to maturity or to an impressive professional rise — reaching new highs this year with the opening slot at the Cannes Film Festival — but the director’s tone has softened and his targets have shifted, even as his working methods (and working ethic) remain set-in-stone.

Like a distant Gallic cousin to Wes Anderson and Hong Sang-soo (now there are two names you rarely see together), Dupieux has connected a distinctive voice into a well-honed system built for productivity, allowing him to write-direct-shoot-edit-and-score a new film every year. And sometimes, he finds time for two.

Within the past twelve months, he’s brought films “Yannick” and “Daaaaaalí!” to Locarno and Venice, and now steps into...

Updated with ovation for The Second Act: The Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday evening with a joyously female vibe as Meryl Streep received the Honorary Palme d’Or from an emotional Juliette Binoche and Greta Gerwig became the first female U.S. director to serve as jury president across its 77 editions.

The ceremony at the Palais led into the festival’s opening-night film The Second Act from Quentin Dupieux. The French pic, starring Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel, received a lukewarm 3-minute, 46-second standing ovation from the audience.

Earlier, resplendent in a long sequin gown, Gerwig said she was still coming to terms with the fact that she was presiding over the Cannes jury.

“I hardly know what to say… This is holy to me; art is sacred, film is sacred… I cannot believe that I’m getting the chance to spend 10 days in this house of worship.”

The...

Cannes Film Festival kicked off its 77th edition with opening night film The Second Act, an apt title for the French event that kicked off with clear skies and a festive mood after days of looming strikes, #MeToo rumours and a high tension geopolitical landscape.

General delegate Thierry Fremaux set the tone for the evening by walking casually to the Lumiere theatre with microphone in hand with a simple “good evening everyone - Quentin Dupieux” as the director and his starry cast including Lea Seydoux and Louis Garrel took their seats.

French actress Camille Cottin emceed the evening with a blend of humour and sarcasm,...

These auteurs are ready for their close-up.

When Quentin Dupieux’s comedy about an ill-fated film set, “The Second Act,” opened the Cannes Film Festival May 14, it will be just one of several movies about filmmaking and filmmakers to touch down on the Croisette. After all, directors Christophe Honoré, Paul Schrader and Josh Mond are among the other prominent filmmakers who are ready to premiere semi-autobiographical stories.

Honoré’s in-competition comedy, “Marcello Mio,” casts Chiara Mastroianni as a version of herself who — after a director compares her to her late father, Marcello Mastroianni — dresses in drag and takes on his identity. Schrader’s in-competition drama, “Oh, Canada,” focuses on a documentary filmmaker (Richard Gere) telling his life story in a doc. Mond’s drama “It Doesn’t Matter” follows two friends chronicling their lives on video. Leos Carax’s 40-minute “C’est pas moi” is partly a self-portrait, with footage from his films and life.

Et voilà, The Second Act, a bubbly apéritif to open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the latest bit of mischief from Quentin Dupieux, the Loki of the French cinematic universe. Dupieux turns out a film roughly once a year, featuring protagonists ranging from a rogue rubber tire cruising the highway for victims to a giant fly captured by a couple of petty crooks who try to turn it into a sideshow attraction. Each wacky new romp brings new fans into the tent and, on the evidence of his recent cast lists, entices more big-name actors to run away and join his circus.

So roll up here to see Bond girl Léa Seydoux, the baggy-eyed veteran Vincent Lindon and the usually smoldering Louis Garrel along with a troupe of faces familiar to Dupieux’s audience. The three of them play actors shooting what appears to be an especially banal rom-com.

In France, the concept of irony is referred to as “deuxième degré” (second degree), where the “premier degré” is the literal or surface meaning, which can be twisted as audiences read an entirely different, often contrary meaning into the material. But the game doesn’t necessarily stop there. There is also “troisième degré,” “quatrième degré” and so on, as deep as you want to go.

For absurdist trickster Quentin Dupieux (whose films “Deerskin” and “Rubber” have found a cult following), “The Second Act” presents a frivolous fun-house mirror, in which actors Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon and Raphaël Quenard play actors playing actors in a pointless romantic comedy. They all know they’re making a bad movie, and one by one, they keep interrupting the shoot to air their personal grievances. But that’s only the beginning in a slender meta-textual doodle selected to kick off the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Cannes Competition jury president Greta Gerwig addressed freelance festival workers considering a strike, saying “I support labour movements.”

“I hope that the festival workers can form an agreement that is good for them and supports them and supports the festival,” said Gerwig, responding to a question from Screen about what message she has for the freelance group.

French collective Sous les ecrans la deche (Broke Behind The Screens) is preparing to protest labour reforms that would cut their unemployment indemnities.

A representative for the group told Screen it was awaiting a meeting between the Cnc and the Cultural Ministry during...