Tag: Quentin Dupieux

SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING (2022)

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Editor, Cinematography, Written & Directed By: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Giles Lellouche,  Vincent Lacoste, Anais Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Oulaya Amamra, Adele Exarchopoulos, Tanguy Mercier 

A group of vigilantes called the “tobacco-forces” is falling apart. To rebuild team spirit, their leader suggests that they meet for a week-long retreat, before returning to save the world.

I keep watching the films of Quentin Dupieux because I really loved his first film RUBBER and keep hoping that each new film of his will be as good as that one. While I usually love the soundtracks/score I am A fan of the surreal

Absurd dry humor and the ideas used seem to be there. 

The film is never quite seen to rise to the occasion of their potential some are better than others but most end up somewhat disappointing until Now.

As this is one of his films that seemed to have the silliest and most ridiculous plots and I thoroughly enjoyed this throughout. 

Maybe because the wraparound spoof of Power Rangers shows their cheesiness and spreads morale or message and somewhere in there the film becomes an anthology of short stories or ideas the director seems to just pull out and try out with no rhyme or reason.

The tobacco force is where each member represents an ingredient in cigarettes. Together they produce a vapor that makes their enemies explode from the cancer they give them. They also have a robot sidekick and a mentor who gives them their missions shown to be a womanizing rat puppet who always seems to have green slime coming from his mouth. 

That somehow works as you keep wondering where the film Or stories that make half the film that is being told as a group bonding exercise are going, if anywhere 

By the end, I actually wanted more and was disappointed the film was so short. Which Is usually the opposite of the effect some of his films have had. 

The films can be hit or miss thought they are original and Definitely memorable. The film humor tends to be deadpan and dark  

I wish he was still doing the scores for his own films. As he had done when he made his early Films. Which made them a bit more worthwhile overall. 

Viewers beware his films aren’t for everyone and are not  Like anything most have encountered they are experimental, absurdist, and surreal that employ practical effects, and can be a bit disgusting at times they are usually comedies

He is a filmmaker I will always be interested in what he is working on or is coming out but it seems the stars have to align or he has to be on a certain random wavelength for the films to truly work to his advantage as well as the audiences.

Though I won’t lie and will admit Oulaya Amamra being in the cast certainly helped convince me to watch this. 

Grade: B 

MANDIBLES (2020)

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Written, Edited, Cinematography & Directed By: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Gregorie Ludig, David Marsais, Adele Exarchopoulos, India Hair, Romeo Elvis, Coralie Russier, Bruno Lochet, Raphael Quenard

When simple-minded friends Jean-Gab and Manu find a giant fly trapped in the boot of a car, they decide to train it in the hope of making a ton of cash.

This film should have worked. One really wanted this one though unfortunately can only point out a few highlights that help the film stay watchable.

It’s a buddy comedy along the lines of DUMB & DUMBER with a little crime narrative of THE BIG LEBOWSKI and involving a gigantic fly that the two friends try to use as a pet and a way to riches.

Somehow doesn’t exactly connect with an absurd plot element that should have been the highlight of the movie.

Instead, the saving element of the film is actually the performance and character played by Adele Exarchopoulos who is hilarious and only in the movie for 30 minutes. Even though the movie is under 90 minutes. Once she arrives she is what the movie needs and once she leaves she is definitely missed. The energy of the film seems to go with her. You wish that the film had mostly been based on her character 

Which shows that the movie’s humor is more character-based. That should be more the inspiration, though that feels like the only genuine spark of originality of that kind. The main characters are boring and the one fantasy element becomes common so fast. That it feels cheapened. 

The film then seems to settle into punchlines of Jokes that were set up earlier.  

You can tell the movies the film was influenced by. As truly the comedic elements here are the more out-there elements such as the big fly and the brain-damaged woman. Who is suspicious of them? Yet the so-called regular characters believe they are stupid but okay.

In the final act, the only true comedy is their delivery and what it ends up being. That feels like much ado about nothing.

Grade: C 

DEERSKIN (2019)

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Written, Directed, Edited  and Cinematography By: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel, Albert Delpy, Coralie Russier, Marie Bunel

A man’s obsession with his designer deerskin jacket causes him to blow his life savings and turn to crime.

Another tale of a possessed object of sorts 

The film could easily be seen as analogue to trying to make a film or in following your dream that seems impossible above all else but you do it anyway. Especially when you try to do it all alone and the crazy situations and deals you find yourself having to manage 

Only here though there is filmmaking involved it’s about the destruction of every other jacket in the world and the means he goes through on the way to this impossible task. 

While his only confident other than talking to his jacket is hiring a local bartender to edit his films and also since by her to help fund his expenditure. 

Though once he goes extreme in his quest it goes overboard but truly by that point it has no more  place to go 

As even his weapon fo choice is oversized and ridiculously absurd though it does lend itself to showing how a serial killer might think and in his own mind regulate his actions in her make sense to himself 

Maybe i just don’t understand french 

When it comes to the The films of Quentin Dupieux

I love his style and loved his first film runner and I guess I keep coming back to his films so that there will be another unorthodox one like that but I have also noticed that was his most mainstream and genre film. 

His films that have coen after that have stayed absurdist and have elements the to have enjoyed the closest to come to enjoyable since his first has been WRONG. As the other films do far I have found elements of the fun and entertaining but as a whole hasn’t enjoyed the films. A usually there is funny material done awkwardly 

Here the lead character is so loathsome in his obsession that is also absurd but half the fun of the fil. Is watching the lengths he will go to achieve his obsession that makes him the singular comedic character while all around are mroe in reality. So it becomes funny to a pony watching his schemes as they get deeper and more outrageous. Though even for a film so short it starts to feel monotonous. Luckily something happens usually to doing them up a bit.

Though there is also that his soundtracks are eclectic and electrifying and the best parts of his films. 

The jacket can be seen as his souvenirs/evidence of his kills as well as the reason. 

Though also when on This quest for a dream to meet someone who believes in your vision. So that you are. No longer alone. Usually, you attract more people to achieve and believe in the dream but here it becomes so gonzo all it becomes is a team trying to make a great movie that they both believe In.

There is a comeuppance in the end that results in a sequel of sorts or continuation of story, that will not die as easily. 

It has a good premise but feels like it falls short maybe because it is small scale. 

Grade: C