Bruno Dumont sounds the death knell for blockbusters in an offbeat science fiction film

Eclectic, Bruno Dumont surprises with a pastiche of “Star Wars” located on the Opal Coast.

Fabrice Luchini as Darth Vader’s avatar, Camille Cottin as a galactic empress and the planet Tatooine transferred to the beaches of north-west France… Do you believe it? Bruno Dumont yes, like us, with The Empire which comes out Wednesday February 21.

This pastiche of Star Warsfaithful to the codes of the saga and nourished by comedy, is released at a time when Hollywood science fiction blockbusters are doing less and less at the box office. The Empire appears from this point of view as a swan song.

Cow floor

The galactic empire is disrupted by the birth of a child whom some see as the messiah and others as a demonic entity. The two camps compete to appropriate it, until they land on Earth, where the conflict will begin between Belzebuth (Fabrice Luchini) and the Galactic Queen (Camille Cottin), under the eyes of two investigators phlegmatic.

Bruno Dumont denies having made a parody of Star Wars with The Empire, claiming to be a science fiction lover and respectful of the genre. However, there is nothing objectionable about this, the homage being part of such an approach. Mel Brooks gave us a lame parody of Star Wars with The Crazy Space Storyin 1987, Bruno Dumont achieved his goal by bringing down Star Wars on the cow floor, literally.

Hybridization of a genus

Bruno Dumont comes out The Empire, at the very moment when superheroes are no longer popular and the latest science fiction productions, like The Creator, do not reap the expected benefits. The hybridization of a genre, here science fiction, with comedy, marks the decadence of its treatment on screen, as was the case with the parodies of fantastic films by the duo Abbott and Costello in the 1940s.

To be on point, Bruno Dumont takes care of his image by using special effects worthy of Star Wars, but he lets go when he uses more parodic costumes. This offbeat “realism” serves the humor which bursts into the tone of derision and caricature.

The director happily leaves Fabrice Luchini freewheeling, who happily portrays a shoddy Darth Vader, and we find the duo of investigators from Little Quinquin (Bernard Pruvost and Philippe Jore), Dupont and Dupond à la Dumont.

This transposition of a “fantasy” universe into the popular environment of north-west France results in the most surreal film there is. As if the painter André Delvaux had swapped his trains and stations for spaceships and spaceports. Bruno Dumont takes us again where we didn’t expect him, finds the aesthetic and the tone to reverently box up the Hollywood “space opera”, in an environment where, without him, he would have nothing to do there. .

The sheet

Gender : Science fiction / Comedy
Director: Bruno Dumont
Actors: Lyna Khoudri, Anamaria Vartolomei, Camille Cottin, Fabrice Luchini, Brandon Vlieghe, Julien Magnier, Brenard Pruvost, Philippe Jore
Country : France / Germany / Italy / Belgium / Portugal
Duration : 1h50
Exit : February 21, 2024
Distributer : Arp Selection
Synopsis: Between My Loute And The Life of Jesusbetween sky and earth, Bruno Dumont offers us a caustic, cruel and crazy vision of Star Wars.