“It’s time for me to shut my shutter”: Quentin Dupieux gives up promoting his film before Cannes

French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux believes that it is time for him “to close (his) flap” and has therefore declined any promotion before the release of his film The Second Act, which will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 14. The specialist in absurd humor, director of Rubber, Incredible but true, Yannick or even Daaaaaalí!, explains this in an unusual note to journalists.

Quentin Dupieux emphasizes that until now he has always taken the time for promotion “like almost all filmmakers on this planet do”. “The pace of releases has accelerated considerably for me and without realizing it, I have accumulated a speaking time in the media that is probably longer than the duration of my 12 films combined. The height of it,” writes this Stakhanovite of crazy and ultra-short comedy, who has made six films over the last four years.

“Today, (...) I want to keep quiet. Not out of weariness or pretension but simply because the film The Second Act, very talkative, says with well-chosen words everything I want to say and already contains its own analysis in an extremely clear way,” he argues. . “It would therefore be useless, in my opinion, to listen to a director and his actors paraphrase a film in which everything is always said and commented on in real time. (...) We are really impatient to read your criticisms, comments or insults,” he adds, however. “This text is as boring as rain, but yet the film in question is much less boring... Yet another striking proof that it is time for me to close my shutter,” he concludes.

At 49, Quentin Dupieux (aka Mr. Oizo in electronic music) has established himself as one of the French references in absurd humor, with 13 feature films in 17 years. His universe attracts more and more stars, from Jean Dujardin to Alain Chabat, Benoît Poelvoorde, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Drucker. The Second Act (1h16), with Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, is due to be released in theaters simultaneously with its out-of-competition programming to open the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 14.