Quentin Dupieux films a six-headed Dali, faithful to his model

The director of “Yannick” tackles an art icon, in a biopic that is not one, with six great actors to play him.

Surrealism, of which Salvador Dali is totemic, is based on the association of heterogeneous elements as a source of poetry. According to this model, Quentin Dupieux chose six actors to be Dali on screen: Gilles Lellouche, Édouard Baer, ​​Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamant and Boris Gilot.

On screens Wednesday February 7, Daaaaaali! has all the surrealist coherence of such a project, with Quentin Dupieux at his best.

Extravagance personified

Director of Rubberthe story of a serial killer tire, who better than Quentin Dupieux to evoke on screen the pope of surrealism Salvador Dali? Without any particular affinity for the painter, it is the oversized character that fascinates the filmmaker. Constantly representing the “creature” he created for himself, and speaking of himself in the third person, Dali was extravagance incarnate, a lifestyle. Multiple by definition, because unexpected in its smallest gestures and words, logic that six actors take turns to embody it on screen.

This invention could pollute the project with the temptation to detect each actor behind the mask of Dali, who is recognizable among all. This is not the case, since the process blends completely into the staging which plays on this side, consistent with the unpredictability of the character. The pleasure of discovering the different actors taking turns under the same cast-off is nonetheless renewed each time.

Bend reality

The preparation of a documentary on the master by Anaïs Demoustier and her exchanges with her producer (Romain Duris) constitute the common thread linking the journalist’s various meetings with Dali. There is therefore no real story, rather a series of paintings between Cadaquès (Dali’s residence) and Paris, where the nature of the artist takes over in each of his actions. Quentin Dupieux’s Dali expresses his determination to act as he wishes, to bend reality to his sole desire. Thus her desire to drive a Rollerball on the beach, for example, where she has nothing to do, and whose weight sinks her into the sand. A surreal act in itself: Dali, master of the world.

There is no doubt that Salvador Dali had the talent to stage himself. And his relationship to art in all this? Dali was a work of art in his own right. Quentin Dupieux did not choose to make a historical biopic by reconstituting his role in surrealism alongside Picabia, Miró or André Masson, but to sketch him in his last years. As if the moment condensed a multiple life into a brought together moment.

The sheet

Gender : Biopic
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Actors: Gilles Lellouche, Édouard Baer, ​​Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamant, Boris Gilot, Anaïs Demoustier, Romain Duris, Catherine Schaub-Abkarian
Country : France
Duration : 1h18
Exit : February 7, 2024
Distributer : Diaphana Distribution

Synopsis: A French journalist meets Salvador Dali several times for a documentary project.