Yannick

Yannick, a parking attendant from Melun, cannot take it any more during a boulevard comedy in Paris, stands up and interrupts the performance. Then he pulls a revolver, holds the theatre hostage and sets about staging a play of his own. Quentin Dupieux wrote, directed, shot and edited it; his twelfth feature. Raphael Quenard plays Yannick, Pio Marmai plays the actor Paul Riviere, with Blanche Gardin and Sebastien Chassagne as the others on stage. The production was kept secret and photography took only six days. The location is the Theatre Dejazet in the 3rd arrondissement, a thousand-seat house opened in 1851. The film runs 67 minutes. It opened in France on 2 August 2023 and screened at Locarno the next day. It sold 445,750 admissions in France and took 3.5 million dollars in total, all of it from one country. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent and Metacritic at 73. The Hollywood Reporter found the performances lively but wrote that the film lacks a punchline. Quenard and Marmai were nominated for Cesar awards, and the film took the European Cinemas Label award at Locarno. Who it is for: viewers who like short, uneasy comedies confined to one room. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for an ending that ties off. The film sets its idea up and walks away, on purpose.