October 7, 2024
FILM: DAAAAAALI!
DIRECTED BY: QUENTIN DUPIEUX
STARRING: ANAIS DEMOUSTIER, EDOUARD BAER, JONATHAN COHEN
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The new film DAAAAAALI! begins with a shot of water spilling out of a piano. Of course, we don’t usually associate water with pianos but then if you know anything about the artist Salvador Dali you know to expect the unexpected. Dali was a surrealist painter, which basically means he created images that were not based in any kind of reality but more like those strange combinations of shapes and images some might find in their dreams. Ever since I saw his Persistence of Memory, featuring clocks seemingly melting on a beach, I was hooked into Dali’s unusual visions of the world.
Quentin Dupieux’s DAAAAAALI! is a film that doesn’t follow any traditional structure and has loads of fun with the persona and work of the great artist. The basic setup concerns a journalist named Judith who is trying to conduct an interview with Dali. While she waits for him to arrive to her hotel room she notices a goat eating flowers on a table. Oh, wait! It was only a dream! Once Dali gets off an elevator he walks down a hallway towards her room complaining about the hotel. However, the hallway seems to gets elongated and it takes Dali an inordinate amount of time to finally reach her. With a lot of humor, Judith, an assistant, and a hotel waiter are able to accomplish several things, such as ordering and receiving room service and using the toilet, in those many minutes. In other words, time doesn’t follow any logic here or anywhere in the film. These early scenes cue us into the surrealistic world that Dupieux purposely creates. Even Dali, played by five different actors, ages back and forth from young to old several times throughout the film without any clear reasoning.
Once the early scenes get underway, you are either with this experience or not. The approach though is totally appropriate given the types of images Dali created throughout his long career. (He lived from 1904 until 1989.) The film features dreams that are seemingly unending. Characters move in reverse motion at times. At one point, they watch a version of the film we are watching. There’s even confusion as to whether Judith is a journalist, barista, or pharmacist. None of it is meant to be logical but more of a reflection of dreams and the way Dali viewed the world.
The man himself is portrayed as pompous and difficult with numerous ridiculous demands on the people who work and encounter him. The title of the film refers to the emphasis Dali would place on his name, as he often referred to himself in the third person. (Adrien Brody also had a couple of brief but very funny scenes depicting this persona in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris in 2010.)
While the sets of the film don’t exactly resemble the surrealistic landscapes evident in Dali’s work, they are pretty inventive and amusingly created in a similar vein. At one point, to answer a phone call, Dali must exit a beach through a cement cylinder that then leads up to a seaside home. Why this round structure exists is never clarified or even thought to be unusual.
Watching the film, one never quite knows if what they’re seeing on screen is supposed to represent some kind of reality or if all of it is a dream. There are also multiple endings to contend with which reflect many of the absurdities we’ve been watching.
DAAAAAALI! is a short film at 77 minutes. As such, it never overstays its welcome and is tightly constructed too while still giving its comedic elements plenty of chances to land. Knowing something about Salvador Dali helps, but it’s just as necessary to be open to a very nontraditional way of capturing an artist’s unique and absurd visions. Dupieux does that quite brilliantly here.
DAAAAAALI! opens theatrically this week, including at the Music Box Theater in Chicago.
FILM: DAAAAAALI!
DIRECTED BY: QUENTIN DUPIEUX
STARRING: ANAIS DEMOUSTIER, EDOUARD BAER, JONATHAN COHEN
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The new film DAAAAAALI! begins with a shot of water spilling out of a piano. Of course, we don’t usually associate water with pianos but then if you know anything about the artist Salvador Dali you know to expect the unexpected. Dali was a surrealist painter, which basically means he created images that were not based in any kind of reality but more like those strange combinations of shapes and images some might find in their dreams. Ever since I saw his Persistence of Memory, featuring clocks seemingly melting on a beach, I was hooked into Dali’s unusual visions of the world.
Quentin Dupieux’s DAAAAAALI! is a film that doesn’t follow any traditional structure and has loads of fun with the persona and work of the great artist. The basic setup concerns a journalist named Judith who is trying to conduct an interview with Dali. While she waits for him to arrive to her hotel room she notices a goat eating flowers on a table. Oh, wait! It was only a dream! Once Dali gets off an elevator he walks down a hallway towards her room complaining about the hotel. However, the hallway seems to gets elongated and it takes Dali an inordinate amount of time to finally reach her. With a lot of humor, Judith, an assistant, and a hotel waiter are able to accomplish several things, such as ordering and receiving room service and using the toilet, in those many minutes. In other words, time doesn’t follow any logic here or anywhere in the film. These early scenes cue us into the surrealistic world that Dupieux purposely creates. Even Dali, played by five different actors, ages back and forth from young to old several times throughout the film without any clear reasoning.
Once the early scenes get underway, you are either with this experience or not. The approach though is totally appropriate given the types of images Dali created throughout his long career. (He lived from 1904 until 1989.) The film features dreams that are seemingly unending. Characters move in reverse motion at times. At one point, they watch a version of the film we are watching. There’s even confusion as to whether Judith is a journalist, barista, or pharmacist. None of it is meant to be logical but more of a reflection of dreams and the way Dali viewed the world.
The man himself is portrayed as pompous and difficult with numerous ridiculous demands on the people who work and encounter him. The title of the film refers to the emphasis Dali would place on his name, as he often referred to himself in the third person. (Adrien Brody also had a couple of brief but very funny scenes depicting this persona in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris in 2010.)
While the sets of the film don’t exactly resemble the surrealistic landscapes evident in Dali’s work, they are pretty inventive and amusingly created in a similar vein. At one point, to answer a phone call, Dali must exit a beach through a cement cylinder that then leads up to a seaside home. Why this round structure exists is never clarified or even thought to be unusual.
Watching the film, one never quite knows if what they’re seeing on screen is supposed to represent some kind of reality or if all of it is a dream. There are also multiple endings to contend with which reflect many of the absurdities we’ve been watching.
DAAAAAALI! is a short film at 77 minutes. As such, it never overstays its welcome and is tightly constructed too while still giving its comedic elements plenty of chances to land. Knowing something about Salvador Dali helps, but it’s just as necessary to be open to a very nontraditional way of capturing an artist’s unique and absurd visions. Dupieux does that quite brilliantly here.
DAAAAAALI! opens theatrically this week, including at the Music Box Theater in Chicago.