The Second Act: Quentin Dupieux takes aim at cinema in the age of internet paranoia

Today has a letter in ‘A’ in it so it must be time for a new film by French DJ/film director, Quentin Dupieux. The prolific filmmaker’s latest – The Second Act – opened the Cannes film festival last year, cementing his paradoxical status as a treasured outsider, a jester king. As if to highlight this pull, Dupieux wrangles the cream of French film actors to take aim at cinema itself and question the possibility of meaningful art in an age riddled through with irony.

Louis Garrel plays David who wants his friend Willy – Raphaël Quenard, star of Dupieux’s Yannick (2023) – to seduce his girlfriend Florence (Léa Seydoux), who has become too needy. Florence thinks David’s the love of her life and wants to introduce him to her actor father, Guillaume, played by Vincent Lindon. So far, so French. But before we can say “allez!” each of the actors has broken the fourth wall, which wouldn’t be so confusing if they hadn’t also broken the first, second and third walls as well. David and Willy worry about being cancelled; Florence has a MeToo moment; Guillaume is exhausted with the whole acting game until he finds out he’s going to be in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film. 

The Second Act doesn’t even do the ‘film within the film’ idea conventionally. The actors and the characters seem to share names and it’s difficult to work out when we’re in the scene and when we’re watching them quarrel. The whole thing is apparently being directed via AI anyway. Film is a dying art form and Florence contends this makes artists heroic, comparing herself to the musicians playing on the Titanic. “That was James Cameron,” is Guillaume’s response. 

It’s easy to dismiss Quentin Dupieux as a slight filmmaker, partly because of his speed and partly because he does so himself in his interviews when he insists that his films have no message (exactly what someone with a message would say). Consequently, the word “soufflé” littered reviews of the film like spores of disdain, but there’s a pain that waltzes with the comedy: see the agonisingly hilarious scene when wannabe extra Stéphane (Manuel Guillot) flubs his big moment. Dupieux’s films are situational comedies. They don’t just contain jokes for the audience, they are also jokes on the audience. Do you really think this is important? This charade? And yet, yes, we kind of do. 

► The Second Act is now available to stream on MUBI UK & Ireland.