YANNICK
The absurdity of filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (Smoking Causes Coughing) is back in his latest film, YANNICK. During a live performance of a play, a dissatisfied audience member stops the actors, demanding a better story. The actors do not take his criticism well, leading the man to take more drastic measures.
With real-life increases in incidences of unruly theatergoers, Dupieux taps into the lack of civility and the culture of complaint. You see it all over the Internet because anyone can upload to YouTube or TikTok these days “expressing” their faux outrage. From conspiracy theories to rage-baiting clickbait, we have gone mad. YANNICK also directly addresses how quickly words lead to the threat of physical violence.
Dupieux is a master of providing comedy within social commentary. As Yannick becomes more agitated, he reveals how out of touch he is with general society while simultaneously hurling offensive barbs at his captives. Equal parts hilarious and terrifying, all I could imagine as an actor and theatre patron was how I might escape such a scenario.
Longtime collaborator Raphaël Quenard gives our titular character a fully fleshed-out nuance that startles. His surprisingly levelheaded approach and matter-of-fact delivery create an entirely unsettling fear. All of this is evident within the first twenty minutes of the film. Quenard delivers one hell of a turn. He is fantastic.
The honest laughs come when Dupieux leans fully into the meta satire in new dialogue written by Yannick. Filled with redundancies and mistakes, the audience in the theatre and at home belly laugh at the actors’ forced commitment.
The cast nails the table-read style of acting. It’s such a specific cadence. Fellow performers will eat it up. YANNICK is classic Dupieux. His dialogue drips with sarcasm, saying the quiet part out loud. That is what makes his films deliciously unpredictable.
YANNICK captures the essence of live theatre and life itself. Dupieux continues to thrill with his coordinated chaos. These days, everyone’s a critic.
YANNICK PREMIERES EXCLUSIVELY ON MUBI, APRIL 5
DJ-turned-filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (Smoking Causes Coughing, Deerskin) returns with the Locarno-prize-winning comedy YANNICK, an absurdist tale navigating the relationship between artists and audiences.
On a rare night off, car park guard Yannick attends a production of the play “Le Cocu.” Dissatisfied by the performance, he hijacks the show and demands to be made the playwright in order to get his valuable time back. Despite the ridicule, he is determined to prove even a car park guard can create good entertainment.
Shot in secret in just 6 days, Dupieux serves up his signature slice of satire in this quick-fire meta-comedy reflecting on his own relationship with audiences and critics.
Director’s Biography
Born in Paris in 1974, Quentin Dupieux discovered cinema and bought his first synthesizer at the age of 18. Under the name Mr Oizo, he released his track Flat Beat and albums such as Analog Worms Attack, Moustache (Half a Scissor), and Lambs Anger.
In 2007, Dupieux directed, shot, edited, and composed the music for his first feature film, Steak. He went on to direct the absurdist horror film Rubber (2010) and the comedy Wrong, followed by Wrong Cops (2012), Reality (2014), Keep an Eye Out (2018) with Benoît Poelvoorde and Grégoire Ludig, Deerskin (2019) with Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, Mandibles (2020), with Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais, Incredible but true, selected at Berlinale 2022, and Smoking Makes Coughing, presented in the Midnight Screening section at Cannes Film Festival 2022.
Yannick, his latest feature film stars Raphaël Quenard, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin, and Sébastien Chassagne; and was produced by Hugo Sélignac (Chi-Fou-Mi) and Thomas and Mathieu Verhaegue (Atelier de Production).
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The meandering dialogue is hilarious and infuriating. Dupieux has characters constantly waiting to get to the damn point already, and you know what? It works like gangbusters. Performances are outstanding across the board. They feel effortless through the profound theme of chasing vanity. His previous films 
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