King of the absurd to open Cannes

Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act gets the opening out of competition berth at the Cannes Film Festival Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

Ahead of next week’s big reveal of the Cannes Film Festival’s main programme for the 77th edition the organisers have jumped the gun by announcing Quentin Dupieux's The Second Act (Le Deuxième Acte) will open the event with an out of competition premiere. The latest production from the wacky and prolific French director, screenwriter and musician will also seen simultaneously at French cinemas across the country on the same night ahead of its French release.

The occasion will deliver a starry cast of among others Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, and of course, Dupieux himself who has managed to make 13 features including Deerskin, Rubber, Mandibles, Incredible But True and Smoking Causes Coughing shown at Cannes out of competition in 2022.

Quentin Dupieux: “I am now at the stage where I can write whatever I want in the knowledge that I will find some nice people to join me on the journey,” Photo: Marie Rouge for UniFrance

The organisers say that some of Dupieux’s disciples from previous films among them Alain Chabat, Benoît Poelvoorde, Jean Dujardin, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel, Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Gilles Lellouche, Édouard Baer, and Pio Marmaï, will also be present on the red carpet and ready to party.

No surprise that the new film apparently is laced with Dupieux’s landmark febrile humour and is described as comedy in four parts. The brief synopsis may (or not) provide some clues: "Florence wants to introduce David, the man she's madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn't attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.”

The last time we met Dupieux was on a high and revealed: “I am now at the stage where I can write whatever I want in the knowledge that I will find some nice people to join me on the journey.

“I have actually been able to make at least three movies with good budgets. Now I have that status I am not going to let it go. I am forcing the industry to take note: I keep saying I have another one and now here’s another one. At some point it will end so I know it is now or never.”

The Cannes Film Festival runs from 14 to 25 May with the rest of the main programme to be unveiled a week tomorrow (11 April).