STAY SANE

LE DEUXIÈME ACTE

2024 / 76 min / color

French director Quentin Dupieux is one of Europe’s most original auteurs. In his directing career he has made films about a killer tire, a deerskin jacket, time travel, and Salvador Dalí (quite a peculiar biography of the Spanish painter). This time he takes on the film industry, and as usual he pulls no punches. Under the guise of a simple story that begins on the set of a low-budget movie rife with romantic dramas and obvious communication problems, he mocks everything and everyone around him — whether it’s moody actors, political correctness or the increasing influence of artificial intelligence on the filmmaking process. Absurdist dialogue is combined with a twisted sense of humour, surrealism and directorial bravura. Perhaps all this is easier to achieve when you have real French film stars on set (or rather on sets), namely Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon and Louis Garrel. The power of Quentin Dupieux’s crazy visions is evidenced by The Second Act being selected as the opening film of last year’s Cannes Film Festival.