Arriving in good time
During the festive season in December, traffic tends to get heavily congested in Ljubljana. Visitors are advised to leave home earlier than usual to avoid arriving late.
Directed and Screenplay by: Quentin Dupieux
France, 2023, 77'
Cast: Anais Demoustier (Judith), Gilles Lellouche (Dali), Édouard Baer (Dali), Jonathan Cohen (Dali), Pio Marmai (Dali), Didier Flamand (Dali), Romain Duris (Jérôme), Nicolas Carpentier, Alain Chabat, Tom Dingler, Marc Fraize
Producers: Mathieu Verhaeghe, Thomas Verhaeghe
Production: Atelier De Production, France 3 Cinéma
Festivali, nagrade (izbor): Benetke 2023, London 2023
Subtitles: Slovenian,English
Language: French
An absurdist look at Salvador Dalí, borrowing freely from the surreal imagery characteristic of Dalí's painting style.
A young French journalist Judith is a bundle of nerves. She is facing a huge challenge: interviewing the great Salvador Dalí. When the larger-than-life artist shows up, he is even more grandiose than she has been told. In all meanings of the word. The great Dalí will not agree to an interview until every single condition for his appearance has been met. Thus starts Judith's mission impossible. Not only are these conditions nearly impossible to fulfil, but the film itself becomes a bizarre work of art, allowing no room for logic or common sense.
When I dreamt up this film, I quickly realized that I shouldn't make a film about Dalí, but with Dalí. To try and find a form of freedom that his work inspires in me. I'm not interested in telling the story of Dalí in art school, explaining his frustrations and ambiguities, or filming the artist at work. I like Dalí as a man, as a genius of communication, almost more than Dalí as an artist. I love the way he constantly tried to escape his image by playing with it. That's the film's tribute to Dalí. A non-film about Dalí for a guy who would never have wanted to be put in a box. To do that, you'd have to look into the cosmos, as he did, and venture not far from madness. A mad film for a genius. Quentin Dupieux