“It’s time for me to shut my shutter”, Quentin Dupieux’s astonishing vow of silence

Quentin Dupieux, also known as Mr. Oizo in electronic music, has established himself in cinema as one of the French references in absurd humor, with 13 feature films in seventeen years.

French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux believes it’s time for him “to close (one’s) flap” and 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 Daaaaaali!explains this in an unusual note to journalists collected by AFP.

He emphasizes that until now he has always taken the time for promotion.as almost every filmmaker on this planet does. The Stakhanovist of crazy and ultra-short comedy has made six films over the last four years.

“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. A shame.”

Quentin Dupieux, filmmaker

“Today, (…) I want to keep quiet. Not out of weariness or pretension, but simply because the film [Le Deuxième acte]very talkative, says in well-chosen words everything I want to say and already contains his own analysis in an extremely clear way”, he argues.

“It would therefore be pointless, 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 criticism, comments or insults”, he adds, however.

“This text is boring as rain, but yet the film in question is much less boring… Yet another striking proof that it is time for me to shut my shutter.”

Quentin Dupieux, filmmaker

Note to journalists

At 49, Quentin Dupieux (aka Mr. Oizo in electronic music) has established himself as one of the French references in absurd humor, with thirteen 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.