During the Cannes Film Festival, Konbini shares his favorites with you. Smoking makes you cough, what is it? There are filmmakers capable of making films faster than their shadow. From Woody Allen to Éric Rohmer via Takashi Miike, each with their own style, we know directors who like to chain productions without waiting. Quentin Dupieux is obviously one of them. Since 2018, he has produced five feature films – just that. The story of a group of tobacco-powered superheroes (yes, you read that right), played by Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, Oulaya Amamra, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Vincent Lacoste. their leader, a drooling mouse voiced by Alain Chabat, to bring the group together. On site, everyone will tell stories… We will try not to tell the content, which constitutes the strength of the film, but let’s say that we meet Grégoire Ludig, Doria Tillier, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Jérôme Niel, Blanche Gardin, Raphaël. Quenard or even a fish…Why is it good?Often, it is said of Dupieux’s films, they are “small”. Sometimes in a rather bad sense and little valuing his work, understanding “minor” films. Sometimes to underline the attraction of the director for short stories (his last projects did not exceed 1h20), with strong postulates which are resolved more quickly than one would think. Which can disconcert, disappoint or surprise, precisely. Smoking makes you cough is the quintessence of this second aspect of Dupieux’s cinema. Marrying his love for short films head-on, the director includes, with these horror stories, three small films in the big one. Sometimes interrupting them to return to the initial story, sometimes leaving the viewer fifteen minutes without the protagonists. And it works, of course. The tone is not only right, it is balanced, and Dupieux knows how to give the necessary depth to the characters when necessary, and to stop when necessary. true false declaration of love on television in the 1980s. horror stories around the fire are reminiscent of Tales from the Crypt. Not to mention the Chabat mouse, strongly evoking Téléchat by Roland Topor. Dupieux’s intelligence is, for once, to try to take advantage of this context of a retro-futuristic grotesque tale to tell something of our time. Ecology, the fact of not listening to yourself enough (especially when you’re a woman), feminism, the vain desire to return to a time when everything was better… Pessimistic? Absolutely. The only way to escape from everyday life is the horror of stories around the fire. And the end, looping, remains the ultimate proof. Difficult to summarize everything without spoiling the pleasure, but there are many things that emerge from this feature film, which is perhaps the best of the momentum made in France by Dupieux since 2018. And that’s not nothing. Smoking makes you cough is not only excessively funny, it is above all much smarter than it seems, even quite melancholic. What do we remember? The actor who pulls out of the game: hard to say, but we can only adore Gilles Lellouche as a fake Tony Stark The main quality: the intelligence of what Dupieux wants to tell, which follows the form of the story The main flaw: you have to like your cinema to appreciate the film A film that you you will like if you liked: Quentin Dupieux’s latest films, quite simply It could have been called: Tales from the Tobacco Force The quote to sum up the film: “Like what, the little stories of Quentin Dupieux can be great”
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