Daaaaaali!

Was the celebrated Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) ever not 'in character'? He fashioned a flamboyant public persona – “eccentric and concentric, anarchist and monarchist”, and completely lived by it, 'acting out' his outrageous whims and impulses to the point where his daily life became his principal artwork, and the perpetual demonstration of his self-proclaimed genius.

Beneath the dazzle and frivolity of the public Dalí lay darker matters, such as his relentless drive to commercialise and exploit his own art and the dubious treatment of those in his close circle. And, like many celebrities, he did not appreciate the prospect of growing old…
 
In tackling the thorny, contested topic of Dalí’s legacy, Quentin Dupieux (Mandibules, 2021) entirely avoids the common footpaths of conventional biopics. He multiplies the choice of actors, young and old, to play the artist, sometimes switching them mid-scene. He enters into the creative logic of a cinematic neo-surrealism: reality becomes dream, dreams embed themselves inside other dreams, objects uncannily reappear out of place.
 
The plot hook – a young journalist, Judith, tries repeatedly to film an interview with the Great Man – becomes the pretext for a reverie on cinema and every kind of 'image making'.
 
– Adrian Martin