Quentin Dupieux is releasing his offbeat biopic on the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí this Wednesday, February 7, 2024. Should we go see it in theaters? Here’s what the critics think.
Six months after the success of Yannick, director Quentin Dupieux is back in cinema. This Wednesday, February 7, he presents his 12th feature film, Daaaaaalí!, tribute dedicated to the famous Spanish artist. Not exactly a biopic then, since the codes of the genre are not united, but a celebration of the master of surrealism as we have not seen him before in cinema.
Because the French filmmaker doesn’t like to do anything like everyone else (he had already told the story of a serial killer tire in Rubber or that of a giant fly in Mandibles), Quentin Dupieux reinvents himself by offering not one interpretation of Salvador Dalí, but five: Gilles Lellouche, Édouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï and Didier Flamant take turns embodying the icon of surrealism.
Critics’ opinions on Daaaaaalí!
As always, Quentin Dupieux’s films divide critics, and Daaaaaalí! is no exception. The originality hits the mark, but not with all the media who saw the feature film before its theatrical release. Among the conquerors, let us cite 20 Minutes which salutes the “mischievous homage” paid to the Spanish painter and “an original film” “which brings to life a complex Dali who is both funny and endearing, touching and exasperating, flamboyant and depressive”, lists the free media. Le Parisien praises “a delirious, tasty, slightly crazy film… like Salvador Dali“.
For its part, Le Télégramme gives the film a score of 5/5, when Sud-Ouest hails a “kaleidoscopic and brilliant evocation, to synthesize the essence of Salvador Dalí”. For Bande à part, the director once again invokes the recipe for his success (“an explosive casting serving a concept, funny and deconstructed film”) which “this time pushes all these sliders to the maximum and in an excess assumed”.
But Quentin Dupieux’s style nevertheless tends to please some people. If you are not a fan of the filmmaker’s universe, Daaaaaalí! will perhaps not convince you, because Critikat judges that the director “continues on this tepid and inconsistent path”, with “a succession of dull, disembodied and lazy performances.” For the specialist magazine Première, “Quentin Dupieux disappoints once again” with “a somewhat vain mise en abyme on the mysteries of representation”. Spectators can form their own opinion in theaters this Wednesday.