THE SECOND ACT (LE DEUXIÈME ACTE) (2024)
Starring Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, Raphaël Quenard, Manuel Guillot, Françoise Gazio, Régine Mondion, Valérie Vogt, Hélène Alexandridis, Max Nicolas, Thémis Terrier-Thiebaux, Laurent Nicolas and the voice of Kim Barrouk.
Screenplay by Quentin Dupieux.
Directed by Quentin Dupieux.
Distributed by Diaphana Distribution. 80 minutes. Not Rated.
Screened at the 2024 Philadelphia Film Festival.
French auteur Quentin Dupieux is known for his surreal sense of humor and artistic vision. For example, his film Deerskin, which played at the Philly Film Festival a few years ago, was about a talking jacket which convinced his owner to kill just about everyone in a small French town. Smoking Causes Coughing, which also played at the Film Fest a couple of years ago, was about a group of superheroes who are forced to go on a mental health retreat. And then there is his early film Rubber, which is about a killer tire.
For Dupieux’ latest film – which opened the Cannes Film Festival this year and is making its US debut here – was supposed to be his attempt at normal filmmaking. In fact, it is teased as a kind of by-the-books romantic comedy.
Of course, Dupieux would never be some humdrum as to do something normal.
Early on in The Second Act, the actors who are playing the main roles start breaking character with regularity, to the point that the actual film plays second banana to the arguments and conversations that the actors start to have.
There is a lot of funny dialogue in there, but honestly the film’s gimmick loses interest long before the movie is over – and this is an abnormally short movie (80 minutes) which also pads its short running time with a minute-to-two long tracking shot of the camera gliding over some tracks right before the credits.
Dupieux tries to add some interesting wrinkles to the affair. We find out that the film-within-a-film is supposed to be the first film ever both written and directed by AI. And then the whole concept of reality flips over upon itself, with the scenes we have seen of the actors breaking the fourth wall also coming into question as we learn that much we have seen which seemed to be the actors talking may also have been acting, as many of the things that appeared to be reality are far from where things are seeming to end up.
It's a mindfuck of a movie from a filmmaker who is known as something of a provocateur. (Stories of people walking out of the Cannes screening seem to be a badge of honor to Dupieux.)
Still, unlike Deerskin, which was exceedingly odd throughout but had a nearly perfect climax, this movie seems to just go on and on long after the audience loses interest, even though, like I said, it was a very short film.
The climax here honestly pales in comparison to an earlier and nearly parallel scene in the film. This previous scene was way more shocking than the ending, which honestly felt a little anti-climactic repeating the same idea in a much more muted way. (Also honestly, neither version of the scene makes much narrative sense.)
In the introduction to the screening, the speaker from the Philadelphia Film Society suggested that he hoped that we would like the film, although he thought Dupieux may prefer for us to hate it. However, The Second Act doesn’t really inspire nearly that much passion in either direction. It’s a marginally entertaining film that essentially doesn’t really work.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 20, 2024.
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