The three of them play actors shooting what is acting like an especially banal rom-com.
How can one morally defend such trivia in a world exploding with war and pestilence?
Quite easily, it seems, if the price is right he soon changes his mind.
Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel in ‘The Second Act’Cannes Film Festival
It is a film you hope you will never have to see.
With a few brief scenes, Dupieux gives us a firm handle on its plot.
He has brought along his friend Willy (Raphael Quenard, making his fourth film under Dupieuxs baton).
They venture to play the scene.
The music briefly swells; the promise of love swirls between them.
All illusion, of course.
Willy cant resist discussing the script as if it were real life.
You cant say that, were being filmed!
Do you want to get us cancelled?
Cancellation does, indeed, seem dangerously close.
Thats his aesthetic; it is also a kind of artistic morality.
The Second Acttakes place largely on a single set, leavened with a few outdoor scenes.
It is also admirably brief although, at 1 hour and 25 minutes, longer than Dupieuxs usual.
In fact,The Second Actstarts to sag as it heads for its final twist.
Some of his earlier films seem, by contrast, to stop before their natural ends.
Both of these trajectories suggest that Dupieux has grown tired of his subject before he was done with it.
But if the results are always a bit ragged, does it matter?
Dupieux may never make a masterpiece, but his slapdash, wild entertainments are irresistible.
