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Rumours may have a mundane name, but this jet black horror comedy is one of the most insane films you will see all year – just don’t expect to understand it.

Set at the G7 summit in Dankwarderode Castle in Germany we meet the men and women who lead the most powerful countries on the planet. Assembling together to work on a provisional statement for the present crisis they eat, drink and pose for photos in the picturesque grounds of the ancient and eerie local.

Hosted by Hilda Ortmann (Cate Blanchet), the Chancellor of Germany we also meet elderly and oddly English accented Edison Wolcott (Game of Thrones and Alien 3’s Charles Dance), the President of the United States; poetic wannabe intellectual Sylvain Broulez (Inglorious Basterds Denis Ménochet), the President of France; practical and pragmatic Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka – Bird from Old and Knock on the Cabin), the Prime...

Hi horror fans! it’s that most chilling time of year again, and we’ve teamed up with Picturehouse Entertainment to bring you the ultimate Halloween treat! Whether you’re a fan of creepy creatures, twisted tales, or dark humour, this Blu-ray bundle has something for every horror fan. Six terrifyingly unique films are up for grabs, and they’re sure to make your Halloween watchlist even more exciting.

Halloween Giveaway – Picturehouse Entertainment Blu-ray Bundle

Here’s what you could win in this fabulous bundle:

1. Koko-Di Koko-Da

A surreal and haunting story of a grieving couple who find themselves trapped in a bizarre time loop during a camping trip, tormented by strange characters. This atmospheric Swedish psychological horror will leave you chilled to the bone.

2. The Feast

This Welsh horror tale is a slow-burn exploration of family, greed, and revenge. Set in a luxurious countryside home, strange occurrences begin to unfold during an upscale dinner,...

Monsters of all kinds have fascinated humanity for millennia, oftentimes as an explanation for some of the world's most confounding ills and sources of fear. From sabertooth tigers painted on cave walls to modern horror movies, humans have memorialized the nightmarish bogeymen that have imprinted themselves on history. Contemporary pop culture is now marked by the latest interpretations of vampires, aliens, werewolves, and demons, all of which have proven impervious to the march of time.

As cinema creeps forward with a revamped interest in the horror genre in the 2020s, it's appropriate to look back on the greatest monster movies of all time. While one could consider any non-human entity a "monster", this list is an attempt at representing some of the most well-known and highly-acclaimed monster movies from several of the most popular horror sub-genres. While each horror subgenre could be broken out into its own list, a la...

A popular anime empire and a beloved manga both hit screens in North America this weekend, with The Outrun starring Saoirse Ronan, five actors playing surrealist artist Salvador Dali, and a trio of thought provoking docs new on the specialty circuit this weekend.

Also noting Columbia Pictures’ Saturday Night from Jason Reitman, which rocked its opening last week, expands in NY and LA and adds ten new markets for 21 locations total before going wide Oct. 11. The film, based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975, debuted to $270k at five theaters in NY/LA for a terrific $54k per theater average.

Moderate releases: Sony Pictures Classics’ Saoirse Ronan-starring and Nora Fingscheidt-directed drama The Outrun hits 508 screens. After a decade away in London, 29-year-old Rona (Ronan) returns home to the Orkney Islands. Sober but lonely,...

From “Rubber” to “Wrong” to “Smoking Causes Coughing” and “The Second Act,” eccentric French auteur Quentin Dupieux is quickly becoming one of Europe’s most prolific filmmakers akin to a Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Albeit with eccentric, often fourth-wall-breaking comedies. He had two films debut at festivals in 2023, including the heckler hostage comedy “Yannick” at Locarno and the Salvador Dalí “real fake biopic” “Daaaaaalí!” out of competition at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. A movie where five actors play the surrealist icon, “Daaaaaalí!” is now making its way to U.S. theaters courtesy of Music Box Films, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “For journalist Judith Rochant (Anaïs Demoustier), the assignment to interview renowned artist Salvador Dalí is a great career opportunity–if only he would agree to sit still and answer a single question. What begins as a 15-minute conversation blows up into a bonafide cinematographic documentary portrait,...

After collaborating with the other half of the Blue is the Warmest Color tandem, Quentin Dupieux is re-teaming with actress Adèle Exarchopoulos for L’Avant-dernière séance (English translation: “The Penultimate Session”), set to shoot in early 2025 and likely premiering that same year perhaps around a Locarno or Venice Film Festival playdate. Continuing in his surrealist comedy vein, Dupieux recently showcased Le Deuxième acte (read ★★½ review), the Cannes opener in May – it received mixed reviews and we advanced that “ultimately, the thoughts it provokes are more inherently interesting than the film’s self-obsessed vein of self-awareness”. This will be his fourteenth feature film and a third project with Exarchopoulos after Mandibles (2020) and Fumer fait tousser (2022).…...

Quentin Dupieux’s new film The Second Act (Le deuxième acte) opened the 77th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. It’s noteworthy that it’s a Netflix co-production and, although this could mean that Dupieux eventually reaches many more people, there’s nothing to worry about in the sense that his cinema remains very peculiar. Likewise, Dupieux continues a prolific and high-quality streak, which includes recent titles such as Incredible But True (Incroyable mais vrai), Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer fait tousser) and Yannick. At the beginning of The Second Act we see friends David (Louis Garrel) and Willy (Raphaël Quenard) walking together and chatting about a peculiar proposal: David wants Willy to help him get rid of a woman who has been trying to seduce him for...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is officially underway in the South of France as A-listers, auteurs and America’s most revered actress, Meryl Streep, converged at the Palais’ Grand Theatre Lumiere on Tuesday for a typically glamorous opening ceremony.

The anticipation was as thick as the clouds in the sky on Tuesday as rain was not the only threat hanging over the start of this year’s festival. From a possible strike and a fresh #MeToo discussion in France to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, festival officials have faced many questions in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday night. During his annual kick-off press conference, festival boss Thierry Fremaux sidestepped looming issues and tried to center the main attraction and the core mission of delivering world-class cinema. “We are trying to have a festival without these polemics,” he said, encouraging people (particularly the press) to...

Stephen King praises Infested for being "scary, gross, well made" in a glowing review on X. Infested received overwhelmingly positive reviews for delivering compelling thrills and developing human characters. The spider-centric horror film has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Stephen King offers praise for Infested, a new skin-crawling horror movie with a near-perfect 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics. Directed by Sbastien Vaniek in his feature debut, with a script he co-wrote with Florent Bernard, the French-language horror film (originally titled Vermines) follows the residents of an apartment building as they battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders. The cast includes Tho Christine (Suprmes), Finnegan Oldfield (Final Cut), Jrme Niel (Smoking Causes Coughing), Sofia Lesaffre (Les Misrables), and Lisa Nyarko.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, King shared a glowing review for Infested, calling it "scary, gross" and "well made." Read his full post below:

Infested (Shudder): Spiders,...

"Total nonsense, don't listen to what they're saying." Unifrance has revealed the first look teaser trailer for the new film from Quentin Dupieux titled The Second Act, which will be the Opening Night premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival this month. The fest kicks off May 14th – and this will be screening on that same day and opening in French theaters, too. Dupieux has been cranking out films non-stop, with Smoking Causes Coughing, Yannick, and Daaaaaali! just in the last few years. This next one stars Léa Seydoux as Florence, Louis Garrel as David, Vincent Lindon as Guillaume, and Raphaël Quenard as Willy, plus Manuel Guillot as Stephane and Françoise Gazio as Rose. Here is the setup: Florence (Seydoux) wants to introduce David (Garrel), the man she's madly in love with, to her father, Guillaume (Lindon). But David isn't attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms...

The Cannes Film Festival has picked its full jury.

Oscar-nominated The Killers of the Flower Moon lead Lily Gladstone, French stars Eva Green and Omar Sy, and Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino are among the A-listers who will join Barbie director Greta Gerwig, this year’s jury president for the 77th Cannes Film Festival, in selecting the winners, including the best film Palme d’Or, from the 2024 competition lineup.

A trio of international Oscar-nominated directors: Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki (Capernaum), Spain’s Juan Antonio Bayona (Society of the Snow) and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters), as well as Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, co-writer of 2014 Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep (with director husband Nuri Bilge Ceylan), complete the five-woman, four-man jury.

Among the films in the running for this year’s Palme d’Or are Francis Ford Coppola’s long-anticipated Megalopolis, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness,...

April showers scare up new horror films and series on Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, for its annual Halfway to Halloween horror-thon. Too much fun to celebrate just once a year, the streamer celebrates the halfway point to Halloween every April with a killer lineup of Shudder Original Film premieres, Live viewing parties for Shudder’s Original series The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, and more. The horror celebration is timed to Shudder TV’s launch on AMC+ with new events including marathons of signature series and Live watch parties for new film premieres.

Fans are invited to follow along on @shudder social for #HalfwaytoHalloween recommended films to watch all month long.

Shudder’s Halfway to Halloween highlights include:

Baghead (Shudder Exclusive Film)

New Film Premieres Friday, April 5

Following the death of her estranged father (Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down,...

Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. An exclusive new clip gives a discomfiting closer look at the spider terror, and it’ll make you intensely afraid of all bathroom drains and fixtures.

Infested will induce a new wave of arachnophobia this week; the spider horror film arrives on Shudder on April 26, 2024.

If you’re brave enough to face your fears, watch the new clip below to get a feel for the unrelenting wave of spiders that the characters (and the audience) will face in the film.

In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.

“The story revolves around Kaleb,...

What’s that? Another Eight new horror movies are releasing this week?! The fresh horrors on tap include a prequel to a box office hit, a violent thriller produced by Sam Raimi, the feature debut of a horror master’s daughter, and a skin-crawling nightmare filled with spiders.

Here’s all the new horror releasing April 22, 2024 – April 28, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

First up we have a TV series rather than a movie, but we wanted to remind you that Prime Video’s “Them: The Scare,” the second season of the anthology series, premieres on April 25.

The first season of “Them” (now retroactively dubbed “Covenant”) debuted back in 2021, and this second installment of the anthology series will consist of eight episodes.

“Them: The Scare” will once again be set in Los Angeles…

The story centers on LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve, who is...

Infested continues the recent resurgence of spider-focused horror movies with a terrifying atmosphere, effective visuals and engaging characters. Co-writer/director Sébastien Vaniek held nothing back in making his feature directorial debut, wanting to ensure he made the "best first feature" possible with crazy effects and a layered story. Vaniek also praises Sam Raimi for the creative freedom he's being given on the next Evil Dead movie, which he teases will break a lot of the franchise's rules.

The spider-based horror genre continues to enjoy a creepy resurgence with Infested. Hailing from French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček in his feature directorial debut, the movie comes at a time in which arachnids are finding a new life on screen, releasing near the somewhat comedically-driven Australian-American production Sting, which centered on a troubled young girl befriending an alien spider, only for it to go on a brutal murder spree in her rundown apartment building.

Quentin Dupieux's Yannick is now showing exclusively on Mubi from April 5, 2024.Yannick.Ever since he dogged a sentient tire on a killing spree in Rubber (2010), musician-turned-filmmaker Quentin Dupieux has been distilling a singular form of gonzo. The films he’s crafted—a body of work swelling at the speed of Hong Sang-soo, with six features released since 2019—all belie their modest means. Rarely stretching longer than eighty minutes, they’ve followed a number of deranged characters, which have recently included a man reprogrammed as a killing machine by his leather jacket; a pig-sized fly and the two bums who try to make a pet out of it; a gang of Power Rangers–type avengers armed with tobacco smoke’s chemical constituents, and a middle-aged couple who discovers a time-travel portal in their basement. Dupieux—who routinely writes, shoots, directs, and edits his own films—likes to work with a...

Welcome back, Insider crew. Jesse Whittock taking you through another eventful week in film and TV. Let’s begin.

Drama In UK Drama ‘This Is Going to Hurt’

Antitrust the process: Not great news for the UK’s fabled TV drama community this week as we brought news that the antitrust investigation spooking producers will be prolonged for at least six months – and likely far longer. A reminder: the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) probe is examining whether BBC Studios, ITV Studios and four other storied indies colluded by informally fixing freelancers’ wage rates. The extension will see the CMA implement “further investigatory steps” and assessment of evidence” for the next six months, and those Max spoke with said the authority has an enormous wealth of evidence to get through. “Stressed” and “jittery” was the vibe described by one connected source about those being probed, who now face months...

This year’s Cannes Film Festival is getting … zany? Such is the news today, as the festival has announced that Quentin Dupieux’s “Le Deuxième Acte” (“The Second Act”) will open the 77th edition of the lauded festival in an out of competition slot. The film will premiere on opening day, Tuesday, May 14.

The film stars Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, and Louis Garrel — and, yes, you can thank Cannes brass for that “zany” designation, as today’s official announcement shares that the trio are entering the filmmaker’s “zany universe for the first time” — and they will be joined by Dupieux regular Raphaël Quenard (who previously starred in the singular filmmaker’s “Mandibles,” “Smoking Causes Coughing,” and “Yannick”).

“The Second Act” is a “four-part comedy” that, per the festival, “shows itself to be a new mise en abyme around acting.” Per its official synopsis: “Florence wants to introduce David, the...

Quentin Dupieux’s Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act), starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon, will kick off the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

The French director will world premiere his latest film out of competition on May 14, with the surreal comedy to be released in French cinemas on the same day. Dupieux and his cast will walk the red carpet at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, to help launch the film and the wider Cannes Film Festival.

Cannes organizers praised the prolific French director for having “freed himself from convention through an already extensive body of work (13 feature films in 17 years), establishing the absurd as a genre in its own right and shaking up all the others – of which The Second Act is a perfect case in point!”

The marquee French festival earlier announced Barbie director Greta Gerwig will serve as the Cannes jury president, becoming only the second female director to take over the post,...

Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act will open the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

The four-part comedy will have its world premiere out of competition on May 14, the same day it opens in French cinemas via Diaphana Distribution.

Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard star in the film surrounding four characters who meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

It is produced by Chi-Fou-Mi Productions with Kinology handling international sales.

Dupieux’s Smoking Causes Coughing screened at Cannes out of competition back in 2022. The Second Act marks the French director’s 14th feature.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) will open with Quentin Dupieux’s French-language comedy road movie Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act).

Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard star and will be in attendance. Above is a first-look still.

Presented Out of Competition as a world premiere on the Croisette on Tuesday, May 14, the four-part feature will be released in French cinemas on the same day.

The official synopsis reads: “Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.”

Chi-Fou-Mi Productions produces. Kinology handles sales.

Deerskin and Daaaaaaali! filmmaker Dupieux was at Cannes two years ago with Smoking Causes Coughing. The prolific filmmaker — 13 features in 17 years — is...

The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will kick off with Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act,” a star-studded surreal French comedy headlined by Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, Variety has learned.

The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology. The film will play out of competition on May 14 and will be released on the same day in French theaters.

Laced with absurdist humor, the meta movie follows actors starring in a doomed film production. Dupieux is one of France’s most popular and prolific filmmakers. He delivered two films in 2023: “Daaaaaalí,” which played out-of-competition at Venice, and “Yannick,” a French box office hit that sold around the world.

In confirming the film’s selection at Cannes, the festival described Quentin as a “filmmaker who embraces freedom – in tone, form and...

Exclusive: Shudder has unveiled the programming you can expect from its monthlong Halfway to Halloween horror-thon, kicking off today.

In addition to the premieres of the service’s record-breaking theatrical hit Late Night with the Devil, the creature feature Infested and supernatural horror Baghead, viewers will be treated to live watch parties of B-movie celebration The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, and more.

A trailer teasing Shudder’s Halfway to Halloween can be found above. For more of what you can expect from the horror celebration, timed to Shudder TV’s launch on AMC+, as well as information on all the new films coming to the streamer this month, read on.

Halfway to Halloween programming includes:

Baghead (Shudder Exclusive Film)

New Film Premieres Friday, April 5

Following the death of her estranged father (Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down, centuries-old pub. She travels to Berlin...

"What's my name again?" Mubi has unveiled an official trailer for an absurdity, meta French comedy called Yannick, the second film from 2023 by the wacky French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux. This premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival last year and will be streaming on Mubi starting in April. Dupieux never stops working! Smoking Causes Coughing was released last year, and he also brought Daaaaaali! in Venice and this one in Locarno, plus he has another new film rumored for Cannes 2024. In this – on a rare night off, parking attendant Yannick goes to the theater to catch a production of the comedy The Cuckold (aka "Le Cocu"). Dissatisfied by the boring performance, Yannick hijacks the show: he takes the theater hostage and demands to become the playwright. This film stars Raphaël Quenard as Yannick, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin and Sébastien Chassagne. Shot in secret in just 6 days, this award-winning comedy is ready...

French director Quentin Dupieux may be in the busiest period of his career. After two films in 2022 (“Smoking Causes Coughing” and “Incredible But True“), he released two more last year. First up, the faux-biopic “Daaaaaalí!,” which bowed at the Venice Film Festival and still awaits a stateside theatrical release. And then there’s “Yannick,” another film Dupieux quickly released in French theaters last August before screening at the Locarno Film Festival the next day.

Continue reading ‘Yannick’ Trailer: Quentin Dupieux’s Latest Debuts On Mubi On April 5 at The Playlist.

Sébastien Vaniček has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, but first we need to experience the film that landed him the hot directing gig in the first place. It’s a spider horror movie titled Infested (Vermines), and the nightmarish trailer is here.

Look for Infested to hit Shudder on April 26, 2024.

Watch the creepy, crawly trailer for Infested below, which looks a bit like Evil Dead Rise… with spiders. It’s already easy to see why Vaniček was chosen to direct an Evil Dead movie!

In the horror film, “Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce,...

Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. New images give a closer look at the arachnophobia-inducing terror ahead.

Look for Infested to arrive on Shudder on April 26, 2024.

Check out the new images below, giving a closer look at the characters and the spiders that have laid siege to their building.

In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.

“The story revolves around Kaleb, who’s about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend.

“Passionate about exotic animals, he comes home...

In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, Bloody Disgusting’s Trace Thurman raved that Infested (aka Vermines) is “one of the best spider attack movies in years,” noting in his 4-star review that the creature feature uses practical spiders – Real Spiders – as much as possible. The film has been acquired for U.S. release by Shudder, but we don’t yet have a date.

In the meantime, a brand new French teaser trailer for Infested has arrived this week, and trust us when we say it’s as creepy crawly as you’re probably afraid this one is going to be.

Sébastien Vaniček directed the upcoming Infested, which is set in the French projects.

In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

From an industry standpoint, 2023 was eventful. We witnessed concurrent strikes, widespread film festival upheaval, Universal besting Disney at the box office, and much more. (I recommend Matt Belloni’s The Town podcast to keep up with this side of town.) On the indie biz side, this was a year in which I saw two small films succeed utilizing a method I long thought dead (or at least on life support): that being good old-fashioned four-walling. Al Warren’s Dogleg and Case Esparros’ The Absence of Milk in the Mouths of the Lost both captured the momentum of cross-country film touring with in-person Q&As. Distributor Utopia has mounted a similar touring strategy for Sean Price Williams’ directorial debut The Sweet East.

When it comes to the films themselves,...

As we continue to explore the best in 2023, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage as well as a glimpse into 2024.

Most-Read Reviews

1. Body Parts

2. The Exorcist: Believer

3. Barbie

4. Beau Is Afraid

5. Priscilla

6. Suzume

7. Hypnotic

8. No Hard Feelings

9. The Zone of Interest

10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Most-Read Interviews

1. Claire Simon on Capturing the Female Body and What Sets Her Apart From Frederick Wiseman

2. “I Don’t Think Directors Should Be Amenable”: Erik Messerschmidt on Shooting The Killer and David Fincher’s Simple Process

3. Richard Kelly on Creative Heartbreak, Political Cinema, and Future Projects

4. Christopher Blauvelt on May December, Formatting for Netflix and 35mm, and Life Lessons from Harris Savides

5. Brandon Cronenberg on Infinity Pool,...

It’s been a robust year for genre film. Horror’s continued dominance at the box office has effectively spilled over into fantasy, thrillers, and sci-fi in ways that defy easy classification. So much so that it’s difficult to overlook the 2023 genre movies that employ horror techniques, draw inspiration from our favorite genre, or simply dabble in it.

These horror adjacent movies may not fully plunge into the genre, but they’re also not afraid to wear their horror influences on their sleeves, whether through style or bloodletting.

Here are the top ten best horror adjacent movies of 2023.

10. A Haunting in Venice

Director and star Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot gets reeled into another whodunnit, but this time Branagh leans into the Halloween setting with stunning style to infuse this murder mystery with atmospheric mood. A Haunting in Venice looks and feels like a vintage ghost story, complete with nods to Edgar Allan Poe.

Salvador Dalí is walking down a hotel corridor. A hotel corridor is being walked down by Salvador Dalí. In a hotel, there is a corridor down which Salvador Dalí walks. So begins — and begins and begins – Quentin Dupieux’s giddy, glitchy altogether delightful “Daaaaaali!” (imagine the title delivered by a practiced yodeler in the middle of a morning gargle). It’s the oldest and lo-fi-est of cinematic tricks: a few simple cuts make it seem like a hotel hallway’s finite, solid space is elastic, stretching from the lift doors into carpeted absurdity. Like the film as a whole, the gag gets funnier as it gets sillier, and becomes more of a homage to the surrealist painter’s ability to warp the reality around him, the more drunken its time-loop chronology.

“A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order,” said Godard,...

Quentin Dupieux rose to something resembling international prominence by directing a movie about a murderous tire named Robert and spent the next decade mocking everything from giant flies to superhero franchises with his distinct brand of surreal filmmaking. The French director seemingly lives to turn goofy premises into clever works of postmodernism that often have more in common with tongue-in-cheek pieces at contemporary art museums than Hollywood films. His love-it-or-hate-it aesthetic is so consistently strange that it’s laughable to suggest any film in his oeuvre was inevitable. But “Daaaaaali!” sure seems like the one movie that Dupieux was destined to make.

Dupieux’s exasperatingly titled “real fake biopic” about Salvador Dalí is a dreamlike tribute to the 20th century’s two most prominent surrealists: Dalí and Luis Buñuel. Ostensibly a story about a young journalist (Anaïs Demoustier) trying to interview the eccentric painter, the film takes its dramatic structure...

Over the past six years Quentin Dupieux has been working at Hong Sangsoo’s speed, churning out a film every few months. The streak kicked off in 2018 with the deranged police procedural Keep an Eye Out; since then the Frenchman’s trained his camera on a leather jacket with homicidal urges (2019’s Deerskin), an oversized fly-turned-bankable-pet (2020’s Mandibles), a married couple rewinding time through a tunnel in their new house (2022’s Incredible But True), and a team of leather-clad avengers ridding the world of monsters with the power of tobacco’s lethal substances (2022’s Smoking Causes Coughing). Tying these disparate projects isn’t just their director’s proclivity for the gonzo, but also a certain narrative economy. Dupieux––who’s written, directed, shot, and edited all his films since the 2010 breakthrough Rubber (in which a tire rolled through the U.S. on a killing spree)––likes to traffic in short,...

Since his delirious 2007 debut, Steak, DJ turned director Quentin Dupieux has kept up a steady pace of one or two feature films a year, making him among the most prolific directors currently working in France. One of the ways he pulls this off is by being a cinematic one-man-band, penning his own scripts, then shooting, editing and sometimes scoring his own movies, which tend to clock in somewhere between seventy and ninety minutes.

He’s tackled many different genres over the past decade, from comedy to thriller to horror to sci-fi, often blending two or three of them into a single story. And yet what all his films have in common is a totally absurdist, idiosyncratic approach that mixes high-concept plots with a tone best described as deadpan surrealism. In a sense, he’s invented his own genre by now, which I guess the French would call “Dupieuxien,” as in:...

Just before the world premiere of his freshest work Daaaaaali!, bound to be revealed in Venice, French pop-surrealist Quentin Dupieeux has unveiled another comic treat, Yannick, shot clandestinely over just six days with a modest budget.   Following his absurdist cross-over of Power Rangers and Twilight Zone in Smoking Causes Coughing, Dupieux offers a more minimalist chamber piece in Yannick, named after its central offender.   The plot unfolds in a Parisian theatre during an evening performance of a boulevard play, Le Cocu (Cuckold). The lead trio of actors is going through the on-stage routine when, out of the blue, a man rises from his seat in the thinly-populated auditorium.   He is Yannick, as he introduces himself to the baffled crowd, and reveals he is...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind before you even consider taking a look at Smoking Causes Coughing. If you’re not quite familiar with Quentin Dupieux’s usual filmmaking style, walk into Smoking Causes Coughing‘s passionately aimless narrative expecting an experience that would give your most bizarre dreams a run for their money. As amusingly obnoxious about its title as it is laidback with its story and each odd detail composing the characters, Dupieux’s comedy is a safe haven for everything that is indiscreetly absurd. Yet the endearingly childlike air that permeates the absurdy is hard not to admire, even if films like Smoking Causes Coughing aren’t usually your thing.

Spoilers Ahead

Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ Film?

Tobacco Force won’t be the first or even the last name to pop up in a conversation about your...

At the turn of the year, HeyUGuys were lucky enough to head to Paris to interview some of the biggest stars of the French film industry, ahead of theatrical releases in the UK across the year. One interview, with talented actress Anaïs Demoustier, actually covered two bases, as she was promoting both Smoking Causes Coughing and November. Two films that couldn’t be more different from one another. Naturally we discussed the diversity of roles, and her ambitions in the industry. And she also talks about how Lara Croft became an unlikely inspiration…

The very fact I am speaking to you today about Smoking Causes Coughing and November is symbolic of your diverse choices as an actress, a performer who is difficult to define. Is that something you do consciously, trying to find different roles, and different projects, or do you just follow the best stories, and see where it takes you?...

Also opening this weekend was ‘Insidious: The Red Door’ which made £2.3m for Sony.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (June 30-July 2)Total gross to date Week 1. Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (Disney) £3m £13.2m 2 2. Elemental (Disney) £2.9m £3m 1 3. Insidious: The Red Door (Sony) £2.3m £2.3m 1 4. Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse (Sony) £964,646 £27.7m 6 5. The Little Mermaid (Disney) £490,133 £26m 7

Disney titles went head-to-head at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend after Pixar animation Elemental narrowly missed out on knocking Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny off the top spot.

While previews helped push the Elemental over the £3m mark, its three-day...

Sony starting latest ‘Insidious’ film, Picturehouse has ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ for independents.

Elemental, the latest Disney-Pixar animation collaboration, is the widest opening title at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, which sees reduced location numbers due to the immediate closure of six sites in the Empire Cinemas chain.

The chain, which has 14 cinemas and 129 screens, is entering administration, with venues at Bishop’s Stortford, Catterick Garrison, Sunderland, Swindon, Walthamstow and Wigan all closing today.

Elemental will therefore start in 625 venues, down slightly from its anticipated number. Directed by Peter Sohn, Elemental is set in a city where fire, water, land...

The great Choi Min-sik was on hand to take early headlines at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan).

Described somewhat blandly as “a highly reliable performer” by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), Choi is not only the star of Korea’s top grossing film of all time “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” he continues to be available for work of all different levels. He appears in no less than ten titles that played at the festival this week.

The festival also does reliable — in its own way – as it plays up to its “stay strange” mantra, cooperates with other festivals of a similar fantasy leaning and sidesteps the political infighting that currently bedevil Korea’s best-known festivals.

The selection runs from a documentary about Korean reunification to Anurag Kashyap’s “Kennedy,” a crime drama in which former adult movie star Sunny Leone gets to show that she has evolved into a versatile and confident actor.

Quentin Dupieux’s chaotic, bizarre film about a monster-fighting squad controlled by a rat named Didier will greatly annoy some, which is one of its strengths

Only a pedant and a bore would complain that the last word of that title should be “cancer”. The phrase’s childlike naivety and irrelevance, apparently taken from an obsolete era when smoking was considered bad in the sense that eating cream cakes was bad, is a hint of what you’re in for: a fantastically silly and magnificently inconsequential comedy from French film-maker and former DJ Quentin Dupieux. For the life of me, I can’t think of another director right now who wants (or is allowed) to do just straight comedy for theatrical release, without having to buy the right to do so by also being unfunnily dark and disturbing.

Dupieux has put together something chaotic, disparate, entirely negligible yet oddly gripping and also funny.

The Locarno International Film Festival unveiled the full program for 2023 on Wednesday, with dozens of world premieres set to screen in the 76th edition of the Swiss festival.

Locarno’s main Piazza Grande section will include several of this season’s festival favorites, among them Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall from French director Justine Triet starring Sandra Hüller; Ken Loach’s latest (and possibly last) feature, The Old Oak; Noora Niasari’s Sundance audience award winner Shayda, featuring Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi; and Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s comedy Theater Camp, which won a special jury prize at Sundance. Other highlights include U.S. horror feature Falling Stars by directors Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki; Dammi from 71′ and White Boy Rick-helmer Yann Demange; and Magnetic Continent, the new nature documentary from March of the Penguins‘ filmmaker Luc Jacquet about the continent of Antarctica.

Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £7.1 million ($9 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

The release marked the fifth biggest opening weekend for a film in 2023 in the territory, including previews, with a market share of 43%.

In its fifth weekend, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” racked up a further £1.5 million in second place, taking its total to £25.9 million.

Universal’s “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” debuted in third position with £885,056. In its sixth weekend, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” earned £837,859 in fourth place for a total of £25 million.

Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “Asteroid City,” which collected £799,449 for a total of £2.7 million.

There were two more debuts in the top 10, both from India. Bakrania Media’s “Carry on Jatta 3” bowed in ninth place with £231,886, while House Of Advertising’s “Satyaprem Ki Katha” debuted...

‘Yannick’ stars Pio Marmaï alongside Raphael Quenard, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne and Agnès Hurstel.

France’s Quentin Dupieux has revealed that his upcoming film Yannick will be released in France on August 2, the latest in a marathon of titles from the prolific absurdist filmmaker.

Daaaaaal! producers Atelier de Production teamed with Smoking Causes Coughing co-producer Hugo Selignac’s Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi Productions and Dupieux for Yannick, which stars Pio Marmaï alongside Raphael Quenard, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne and Agnès Hurstel.

Dupieux confirmed the release via Twitter on Wednesday (June 28). According to distributor Diaphana, the film is set “In the middle of...

The campy romp Cocaine Bear and buzzy comedy series Only Murders in the Building nabbed four trophies apiece and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Oppenheimer took three at the 23rd annual Golden Trailer Awards, which were handed out Thursday night in Los Angeles. See the full list of winners below.

The Golden Trailers recognize the professionals working behind the scenes to craft trailers and marketing content for new movies, TV series and streaming programs. Actor-comic Missi Pyle hosted the ceremony at the Orpheum downtown.

“Each year seems to set a new bar,” said Monica Brady, who co-founded the awards with her sister Evelyn Brady-Watters. “We’re grateful for this annual opportunity to champion these artists behind the scenes.”

Here are the winners of the 23rd annual Golden Trailer Awards:

Show Winners

Best Action

John Wick: Chapter 4 “Legend”, Liosngate, Av Squad

Best Animation/Family

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Sony, Mocean...

Now available On Demand, courtesy of Magnet Releasing, we have an exclusive clip from Smoking Causes Coughing! While everything may start out looking like a scene from Power Rangers, things take a very R-rated turn that you'll have to see for yourself!

"Labeled Dupieux’s “funniest yet” by The New York Times, Smoking Causes Coughing, the critically-acclaimed and Certified Fresh comedy arrives On Demand on June 27 from Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Label. The latest entry into the celebrated filmography of director Quentin Dupieux, Smoking Causes Coughing stands as a must-see French film, full of crude humor and absurd comedy as a group of heroes prepare for the fight of their lives by taking a mandated retreat in the woods.

After a brutal battle, the Tobacco Force, a team of five frivolous superheroes, receive a call from their boss informing them of their most difficult battle yet; Lézardin, Emperor of Evil,...

John Waters raved that Smoking Causes Coughing is a “superhero movie for idiots,” and Bloody Disgusting has an exclusive clip that perfectly encapsulates the absurdist humor and violence that ensues when the Tobacco Force attempts to prepare for battle.

Written/Directed by Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Deerskin, Mandibles), the absurdist, gory French comedy releases On Demand on June 27 from Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Label.

In the exclusive clip below, members of the plucky Tobacco Force team fumble their way through helmet removal to comically lethal results. It feels safe to assume that whoever this wacky superhero team goes up against might have the upper hand. With Dupieux behind it, we’d expect nothing less.

The “wildly inventive new comedy” follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra...

Apple TV+ has unveiled the trailer for the second season of ‘Foundation,’ the hit, epic saga from storyteller David S. Goyer and based on Isaac Asimov’s award-winning stories.

More than a century after the season one finale, tension mounts throughout the galaxy in “Foundation” season two. As the Cleons unravel, a vengeful queen plots to destroy Empire from within. Hari, Gaal and Salvor discover a colony of Mentalics with psionic abilities that threaten to alter psychohistory itself. The Foundation has entered its religious phase, promulgating the Church of Seldon throughout the Outer Reach and inciting the Second Crisis: war with Empire. The monumental adaptation of “Foundation” chronicles the stories of four crucial individuals transcending space and time as they overcome deadly crises, shifting loyalties and complicated relationships that will ultimately determine the fate of humanity.

Season two also stars returning cast members Laura Birn, Cassian Bilton and Terrence Mann...

Picturehouse Entertainment has revealed the trailer for the darkly comic superhero movie ‘Smoking Causes Coughing.’ See our 4-star review from Glasgow FrightFest.

After a devastating battle against a diabolical turtle, a team of five avengers – known as the Tobacco Force – is sent on a mandatory retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their break goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth… But will they repair their relationship in time for a final epic battle?

Directed by Quentin Dupieux, the film stars Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anais Demouster, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra.

Also in trailers – Full trailer swings in for season 3 of ‘The Witcher’

The movie is released on July 7th.

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