Incroyable mais vrai

Quentin Dupieux - I assume you have heard from him. Even better if you have seen a movie or two he has done. If not - well you are in for a treat. A treat that you might like - you hopefully like that is. It is tough to describe or talk about the story when it comes to his movies. Still this is one of the ones that I guess you could say makes sense.

Sense if you are open to the supernatural other dimensions and time travel. Sounds like a lot - maybe I packed more in there than needed ... but one thing is for sure: you have to be open minded. Even more open minded than the husband. But way less than his wife ... or at least less enthusiastic that is.

Japanese inventions, ladders to "infinity" and more crazy stuff can be found here. And all is more or less accepted as part of the world the character live in. Really good acting and shorter than 80 minutes this is a delight to say the least.

Little art stub from increible france, so believe it or not...

its easy to spoil the fun due to its compressed idea and small cast, that doesnt fail much, what i strive most of all with is the urge of 70's and 80's feeling that i had but they say its 2021 in the story. Another issue is the somehow bleach like imaging of the world, just like the film where dried in the sun for speeding up purposes.

But its a film about a house, sex, rejuvination, man-holes, electronic dicks, instability , bad apples and ants. What amaze me most is that i wouldve betted my roins to japan and back if i ever bought a house like the story tells about.

So a witty presentation for us old and gregarious, there are only one truth in life except being born and that is to die, so believe it or not, a small recommend from the grumpy old man.

One thing I've learned from Quentin Dupieux's films, is it's best to go into them totally cold. I knew nothing of Incredible But True, other than it was a Dipeoux creation, and that Arrow Video saw fit to give it a proper Blu-ray release. That's enough for me, knowing his movies carry a totally left-field level of bizarre intrigue. The first movie of his that I saw was Rubber, and I knew I had to see a movie about a killer tire, but at the same time, I would have liked to have known less! And it was still full of WTF surprises, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Ultimately, Incredible But True is about two couples drifting apart... under Dupieux's trademark fantastical plot elements. Of which... I can't go into. One circumstance is particularly hilarious, yet both situations, though surreal, are steeped in the reality of the human condition. This movie has elements of comedy, drama, sci-fi, and fantasy, leaning heavily on all of them, at times. Dialogue is particularly strong, which is something I always enjoy (spoken French, subtitled). Strong performances from all four main actors (oh yeah, the realtor as well), apparently very well-known in France.

The one complaint I have of this film is the final act. I'm not sure why Dupieux leans on brevity in his films. I get that (possibly) he's trying the audience's patience on (possibly) absurd gimmicks. I don't know if he actually feels that way, but I really felt the final act was needlessly carried out in a narrative shorthand. It's a (very) long montage that plays out what happens to the four main characters, and I honestly thought he could've fleshed out this portion of the film properly, to go from an abbreviated 75-minute running time, to a full-length 90-95 minute proper film. Though it concludes on both hands amusingly and poignantly (...and bizarrely), I couldn't help but feel cheated. I felt like I was dropped off a cliff when the credits came up, and had to immediately reevaluate. Not that there was a cliffhanger, or he didn't follow the story through, but you're left with an extended rapid-fire montage that abruptly ends, to process.

I would still highly recommend Incredible But True, as this filmmaker is a true original, with intriguingly out-there ideas, and a proficiency for crackling dialogue. I just disagreed with what he did with the concluding portion of the plot, leaving me a little baffled (and when I should actually be baffled by his oddball concepts!).

"INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE commences with an intriguing question mark hanging over audience's heads, only when the answer is revealed (in a two-fold step implemented through slightly confusing montages), the story goes less fantastic than it promises, the immemorial obsession of a woman gets her youth back (so she can be a model, no less) is tiring and its 'skin deep' revelation also feels too facile. The ensuing marital discord never reaches its boiling point, and the entire third act is composed of dialogue-less, fast-forward, rapidly spliced shots that condense years of story into one predictable combo, it seems Dupieux himself has lost patience to the banality of the script and just wanted to reach the finish line as quickly as possible."

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This brilliant short long movie (74 minutes) is defined as comedy drama fantasy. In fact it's a sci-fi satire but since fantasy and sci-fi are next of kin I'll accept the term. As for comedy drama - it's a non term to begin with but satire seem to confuse many since it uses humor as its main weapon.

That was all I'll speak about definitions, regarding the movie itself - like all good sci-fi it speaks about the world we live in and more specifically about our gadget worshiping culture. We get here two gadgets one is straightforward gadget - mechanical - Japanese namely coming from the country in which gadgets are the new state religion so it's a gadget with a kosher stamp on it. The other gadget is more of an unexplained device, but as far as I'm concerned it works just like a gadget. It performs a very special trick which the movie accepts as true - unbelievable but true - as the movie title's declares. And its being used by one of the leads in the movie just like any other gadget, so that the way I'll refer to it. As a rule - and that's the reason we get two gadgets in the movie so we can establish a rule and not discuss an episode of a sort - gadgets are born from voids in our lives we need to fill - but voids tend to remain empty no matter how much one tries to fill them. Here lies the problem - trying to fill a void can quickly become an addiction and addictions are dangerous.

So if the fact we all know addictions are dangerous means that this movie is predictable - not really - it means that it establishes its own set of rules and quickly demonstrates to us how these rules correspond with the rules we live by and bring about the same results, for me that's not being predictable but rather brilliant script writing. Combine this with very good acting performances with Lea Drucker topping the list, with very efficient camera work that doesn't need any cinematic fireworks but does deliver. And in my personal book you get a near masterpiece. Go see it - Quentin Dupieux is a director to watch.