FILMS
FILMS
The “Flat Beat” fella’s huge housefly; Cage back on bug-eyed form; a French space oddity and more…
MANDIBLES Only in France could a film as utterly outré as Mandibles have them queuing round the block at 8.30am. But then, this was one of the first films to be released there after the Covid shutdown, where people were clearly in the mood for something wild. Writer-director Quentin Dupieux – once better known as techno musician Mr Oizo –certainly has form when it comes to crowd-pulling cult entertainment. Mandibles follows closely after his black comedy Deerskin, about a man murderously obsessed with his suede jacket. If anything, this new film is loopier than its predecessor – yet somehow gentler. too.
Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais play two slow-witted ageing slackers living in the South of France who believe they are onto a sure thing when they’re employed to undertake a mysterious errand. But when they discover a giant fly in the boot of a car, they recklessly ditch their original mission to pursue a rather longer shot at wealth – hoping to train the insect, which they fondly name Dominique. Preposterous and sometimes wince-inducing consequences follow – but Dupieux manages to skirt the obvious. Any lesser comic mind would have gone for vomitous fly-related gags in the Cronenberg line. Instead, more slyly, Dupieux lands his heroes among some young holidaymakers, including Agnès, who only speaks by yelling at the top of her voice. As Agnès, Adèle Exarchopoulos – from Cannes Palme d’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Colour – is the latest French art-house regular to sign up for Dupieux’s funkier mode of cinema, while leads Ludig and Marsais are famous in France as a TV duo – but familiarity with them is absolutely not required. Think of Mandibles as Buñuel’s Bill And Ted: it’s a genuine chef d’oeuvre of le cinéma stupide.