Yannick

Can a play be seen as a form of kidnapping in which an artist holds a spectator captive? And can the latter escape the artist’s bonds? Quentin Dupieux must have been thinking of such questions when he shot this film in relative secret, immediately before making DAAAAAALI! with his customary prolificacy. In YANNICK, the play in question, which is hugely uninspired, is being performed at a boulevard theatre in Paris. A husband, his wife and her lover discuss the extramarital affair before a skeptical audience; the trio of actors is affected and unconvincing, the script is simply dreadful. That’s when an anonymous spectator gets up and shouts loud and clear what no actor wants to hear: the show sucks. Worse than that: the spectator is enraged enough to demand revenge with a gun in his hand. YANNICK is an efficient and resourceful film just as obsessive and manic as the rest of Dupieux’s oeuvre, albeit with one big difference: this time, he deprives himself of all the supernatural elements that have otherwise guided his work, from the tyre that came alive in RUBBER to the giant fly from MANDIBULES. In this ferocious black comedy Dupieux reminds us that there is no better special effect than the human body after all. (Francisco Ferreira)

No tickets available for the screening and award ceremony at Gartenbaukino on October 31st at 7:30pm!

Quentin Dupieux: NONFILM (2002), STEAK (2007), RUBBER (2010), WRONG (2012), WRONG COPS (2013), RÉALITÉ (2014), AU POSTE! (2018), LE DAIM (2019), MANDIBULES (2020), INCROYABLE MAIS VRAI (2022), FUMER FAIT TOUSSER (2022), DAAAAAALI! (2023)