Daaaaaalí!

This surreal film about the Surrealist painter Salvador Dali is another oddity from the abstruse Quentin Dupieux. He's never short of a batty idea but the strange thing about this film is that it might be his most straightforward work, at least in the subject matter. A print journalist, Judith (Anaïs Demoustier) is chasing an interview with the legendary artist but has trouble tying him down, particularly if she can't provide a film crew. Dali needs to be seen, not just written about.

The story flirts with mortality and fame and is multi-layered in its structure. Dali is played, at different times, by Edouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Gilles Lellouche, Pio Marmaï and Didier Flammand, and if there is any method to the madness of who plays him when, it was lost on me. It reminded me of the Dylan film by Todd Haynes, I'm Not There, in this respect, though that was more measured and didn't jump back and forth, if memory serves. There's also the little matter of the unreliable narrator. Annoyingly, the audience is basically urged to mistrust the story, after one too many rug-pulls. But look, that's probably Dupieux's intention.

He's actually starting to assemble solid casts for his little peccadilloes - aside from Demoustier and Lellouche, Romain Duris appears as a film producer. His next film, The Second Act, will have Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon and Louis Garrel. I really hope the script does them justice.

After the high water mark of Deerskin and the diverting Mandibles this was a disappointment for me (even the roughly made Rubber had its moments). A few of the performances are well judged - Demoustier and Lellouche in particular looked to be enjoying themselves - but ultimately, Daaaaaalí! is a bit too smug and if it were any longer, I might have fallen asleep. 

Daaaaaalí! is screening as part of the Sydney Underground Film Festival from Sep 12-15 at the Dendy Newtown.

See also:

Dupieux's best work of the ones I've seen has to be Deerskin (2019). And any time I see Lellouche on screen, it gives me the opportunity to recommend Fred Cavayé's fantastic Point Blank (À bout portant) (2010).