P'tit Quinquin

Somehow a deformed, mutant child of the Dardennes conceived in Twin Peaks was walking the globe and i didn't know it existed. What's happening in these 3.5, often sublimely hysterically funny hours larded with non-stop freaks and mentally ill provincials i can barely explain but i'm grateful to myself i stuck with it past the start that mad me fear of coquettish slapstick. The inconceivable bizarreness, Pruvost's beatiful Tourette-afflicted face, Quinquin, Speedyman.. it's a classic (i think?)

Dumont distils the cinematic practice he has pursued from the beginning into an affecting reflection on France itself. Here, everything is both extremely simple and extraordinarily complex, and the beauty of his composition, his use of actors, and his utterly unrealistic and unnatural naturalism, come together in a remarkable work of art. The result is immensely thoughtful but also, in the best possible way, genuinely mysterious. 2020 update: slightly less impressed on second viewing.

O pequeno Quinquin estreava há 10 anos no Festival de Reykjavik na Islândia. Fiquei pensando durante o filme nos nomes dos detetives, se o excêntrico tinha o nome do pintor belga Van der Weyden, sua mão direita foi uma homenagem ao escritor cubano do Real maravilhoso Alejo Carpentier? Por essa dica já dá pra pensar mais nesse filme como realismo mágico latino americano do que em Twin Peaks. Tô muito esperançosa pensando num europeu dando bola pra latino americano? Rá! YTS.

I saw some Haneke and Buñuel here. It is a "good but...".

interesting insight into northern French rural life. But not as interesting and deep imho as it made out to be, neither is as funny as they say.

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

Dumont shoots the action from a variety of distances, giving us the sense of seeing people up close--being in their world--but also seeing them in relation to others, as well as, in the most distant shots, seeing them in relation to the spaces in which they live and move. All of this only serves to make his point about the ubiquity of evil all the stronger. The humor is a welcome counterpoint to the grotesque, but even then, the comedy often skirts the edges of the bizarre.

Felt like a combination of two films. One involved a buffoonish detective trying to solve grizzly murders, which ultimately seems to ridicule French government. The lead here feels like a new version of silent stars like Chaplin, Hulot, Lloyd, but his schtick became tiresome. The other "film" follows a a pre-teen and his friends, and feels like social commentary a la the Dardennes or Haneke, but with a lighter tone. The commentary seemed a bit superficial. Really a film more than TV. ps77

I guess if anyone was wondering what Twin Peaks would have been like if Bruno Dumont directed it, here's your answer? Less of a complete departure than a kind of lateral sideways move (as others have said, it's almost a remake of L'Humanite), it's nice to see him augment his usual dourness with moments of bizarre comedy, and the socio-political undercurrents are timely, but personally i think Serge Bozon did both of these things better in Tip-Top.

Great and bizarre