Yannick

Now here’s an intriguing one for those who enjoy picking around in the niches of the world of film. A light bite at just over an hour in length, Quentin Dupieux’s Yannick brings the tale of Yannick, a disillusioned, comic and slightly sinister fellow in conjunction with his (literal) captive audience, as he tries to get his thoughts and feelings out into the world by holding up a theatrical performance. The result: a slow-burning, ambiguous, borderline infuriating farce that nevertheless doesn’t fail to charm and entertain.

Yannick (Raphaël Quenard) halts a seemingly bland and half-hearted play with the justification that it displeases him and it is therefore surely his duty to interrupt artistic mediocrity. He demands – at gunpoint, and perhaps this isn’t the best way to go about things – a word processor in order to put this right. Amid the confusion, and Dupieux’s signature surreal wit, there’s a touch of melancholy to what he does, which is genuinely affecting.

It is the moviegoer who revels in being led by the hand by a filmmaker that will enjoy this curious piece; the whole creation is formulated to be unpredictable, irksome and strangely minimalist, the cast being very much in on the antics in this regard as the plot takes cunning, sometimes electrifying twists. It is hardly a visually stunning feature, but that is low down on this list of intended priorities here, trumped by musings on the dynamic between audience and creator, tightly-wound comedy and a good dollop of the absurd.

Yannick’s structure is a pleasing one, and a formula seldom catered to: the one-act feature film with fixed company and fixed setting, employed effectively in this case as an artistic platform rather than as a set of limitations. This movie, though centred on fundamental issues of art and its consumers, is a rather decent piece of art in and of itself.

Will Snell

Yannick is released on 5^th April 2024.

Watch the trailer for Yannick here: