The Berlin Film Festival has never lacked unconventional and unconventional films: this year too is no exception and the new feature film by Quentin Dupieux, one of the craziest and most extravagant directors in contemporary cinema, was presented on the bill.
His new work, “Incredible But True”, consistently follows the path taken by the French director, known musically under the pseudonym of Mr. Oizo and has become a cult name even for those who love a decidedly over the top and rich cinema of surreal touches. After showing Jean Dujardin in love with everything suede in “Double Skin” and two idlers find a giant fly in the hood of a car in “Mandibules”, Dupieux focuses this time on a couple he is looking for to move house. While they are visiting a new home, the real estate agent reveals to them that there is something in the cellar that could positively upset their lives. Excited by the news, they buy it immediately but, then, keeping the secret of what they saw will not be easy … Presented in the Berlinale Special Gala section, “Incredible But True” sees Dupieux return to work with actor Alain Chabat, with whom he had collaborated in “Reality” in 2014. Alongside him, in a cast capable of best reproducing the irony of the script, there are Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
A film about the obsession with staying young
Within a cinema that focuses heavily on the grotesque, Dupieux often inserts some reflections on the psychological state of his characters, perennially obsessed with something: this time, the engine is the desire to remain young at all costs, a thought that will lead to make crazy choices and completely lose your mind. “Incredible But True” starts immediately strong, so much so that it reaches the final part a little deflated, but the basic idea is really interesting and the result capable of entertaining (also thanks to a rhythm always enjoyable) and make you smile.A pinch of incisiveness is missing to reach the very good level of Dupieux’s most recent works, but his eccentric touch still manages to amaze and give more than one sequence to remember: the emotion that the characters feel in front of that mysterious hatch in the cellar is also that of us spectators, ready to cross it to understand if on the other side there is really what is ventilated by the curious salesperson.
Black glasses
In the same section, “Black Glasses” was presented, the long-awaited return of Dario Argento, again directing a film ten years after “Dracula 3D”. The protagonist is Ilenia Pastorelli in the role of Diana, a young escort who loses the sight following a car accident, caused by a killer maniac who was chasing her in a white van. The killer, however, is not done with her yet and Diana will have to try to save herself despite the difficult situation she finds herself in. Dario Argento’s return behind the camera is not only a temporal return, but also a resumption of many of the trends of his thrillers of the seventies, starting with his beautiful debut “The bird with the crystal feathers.” “Black glasses” is a film from the past, capable of taking Argento’s fans back to a very important period of Italian cinema gender. The film is followed willingly, even if there are not a few hasty passages in the script phase with various turns that are not very credible that risk losing attention to what is being seen. “Is a decisive step forward, effective in keeping the tension high until the end thanks, above all to the good editing times, despite some too much naivety in the script. In any case, for the fans of the director who has signed great films such as” Profondo rosso »and« Suspiria », a vision not to be missed: that the film will be released in our cinemas on February 24th.
