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The Second Act

Original title: Le deuxième acte
  • 2024
  • 1h 20m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
4.1K
YOUR RATING
Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Léa Seydoux, and Raphaël Quenard in The Second Act (2024)
Watch Bande annonce [OV]
Play trailer1:15
1 Video
44 Photos
Dark ComedyParodyComedy

Florence wants to introduce David, the man she's madly in love with, to her father. But David isn't attracted to her and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The characters ... Read allFlorence wants to introduce David, the man she's madly in love with, to her father. But David isn't attracted to her and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.Florence wants to introduce David, the man she's madly in love with, to her father. But David isn't attracted to her and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

  • Director
    • Quentin Dupieux
  • Writer
    • Quentin Dupieux
  • Stars
    • Léa Seydoux
    • Vincent Lindon
    • Louis Garrel
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.4/10
    4.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Quentin Dupieux
    • Writer
      • Quentin Dupieux
    • Stars
      • Léa Seydoux
      • Vincent Lindon
      • Louis Garrel
    • 11User reviews
    • 62Critic reviews
    • 57Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    Bande annonce [OV]
    Trailer 1:15
    Bande annonce [OV]

    Photos44

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    + 36
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    Top cast20

    Edit
    Léa Seydoux
    Léa Seydoux
    • Florence Drucker
    Vincent Lindon
    Vincent Lindon
    • Guillaume Tardieu
    Louis Garrel
    Louis Garrel
    • David
    Raphaël Quenard
    Raphaël Quenard
    • Christian, dit Willy
    Manuel Guillot
    Manuel Guillot
    • Stéphane Jouvet
    Françoise Gazio
    • Figurante intriguée 1
    Régine Mondion
    • Figurante intriguée 2
    Valérie Vogt
    • L'agent de Florence et David
    Hélène Alexandridis
    • La mère de Florence
    Max Nicolas
    • L'assistant réalisateur
    Thémis Terrier-Thiebaux
    Thémis Terrier-Thiebaux
    • La fille de Florence
    Kim Barrouk
    • La scripte invisible
    • (voice)
    Laurent Nicolas
    • Avatar I.A.
    Guillaume Amorin
    • Client restaurant
    Sandrine Louis
    • Cliente restaurant
    Aurore Sicard
    • Cliente restaurant
    David Maillet
    • Client restaurant
    Josépha Yang
    • Cliente restaurant
    • Director
      • Quentin Dupieux
    • Writer
      • Quentin Dupieux
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews11

    6.44K
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    Featured reviews

    10EdgarST

    Another Dupieux to watch

    Brilliant Quentin Dupieux makes fun of cinema (his own métier) as he did before with theatre in the excellent «Yannick». And he is lucky enough to have a superb cast to give life to five actors who are working in a film, who constantly move from fiction to reality again and again, and who create a quite faithful image of all the vices (above all) and virtues of the people who make films. For them and the audience it is a hilarious and frenetic comedy, in which the story they are filming intersect with the lives of the actors, seen in a three-level game: the role they play in the film, their life as actors within the film, and as professional actors in real life.

    In short, a man (Louis Garrel) asks his best friend (Raphäel Quenard) for help in seducing a woman (Léa Seydoux) who is stalking him and for whom he has absolutely no feelings. To do so, the man brings his friend to the meeting he has with the woman at Le Deuxième Acte restaurant, without knowing that she has brought her father (Vincent Lindon) to introduce him as her future partner. The quartet is joined by the restaurant waiter, played by an extra (Manuel Guillot), who suffers a panic attack and cannot properly pour wine into their glasses without his hand stopping shaking. Between these situations and the reality of the actors inside and outside the film, the events flow. Lindon receives a call to act with Paul Thomas Anderson, the actor who plays the extra has similar self-esteem problems as his character, actors turn out to be the reverse of what they pretend to be. And so it naturally flows this irreverent comedy from one of the classic iconoclast filmmakers of world cinema. A very enjoyable film.
    7tributarystu

    The Fourth Wall Is an Illusion

    Quentin Dupieux's movie opening this year's Cannes is a movie about a movie about...a movie? This is all typical Dupieux, questioning our reality in clever ways, and I think everything comes together rather well here.

    We follow two pairs of actors heading towards a meeting at a diner, with each breaking character and the fourth wall ever more often, generating layers of reality that are usually at odds with one another. Questions are asked overtly and implicitly: does anything matter, how do we construct our reality and what about a dash of almost present-day futurism?

    And to top it all off, the movie ends on one of the more meta fourth wall breaks I've ever seen, a bit of a mind-scratcher that cleverly frames the syntax of movie-making.

    I think the ultimate claim of LDA is that the one undeniable real thing is what we feel. Not in "feelings are facts" kind of way, but rather in the effect we can have on other people, whether seen on unseen, quantifiable or not. 7.
    1ealcalay

    What a waste

    What a waste of energy, a waste of resources, a waste of time, a waste of talent. Everything crumbles under the weight of the writing which is so full of clichés one thinks this too is also part of the joke. It is a film within a film whose plot never takes off, whose originality wears thin 10 minutes into the film. It is thankfully 1 hour 20 minutes, an hour too long. I must be in the minority here as the film opened the Festival de Cannes this year. The Second Act was filmed in the course of a little over two weeks and I found myself wondering how, and why, it was chosen to open the film festival.
    4tomlaju

    An other kind of cinema

    The movies from the director " Quentin Dupieux " are still different compared to the others movie that we used to see from the industry well I think so I'm not a client from this kind of cinema you have to like this style if you want to love these projects but " The second act " it's not my cup of tea !!!

    Firts to all the pitch it's very interesting and I was too exiting to find out the rest of script but for me the main idea who talking about is lost during during the process of script, it's too bad that the movie it's a movie in movie directed by AI and just a real story will be great...

    The fact that 2 friends find an solution about the matter of one of them will be great to talking but unfortunately the movie don't talk about that finally...cause it's a movie in movie even if this is staid out finally.... Some scene are funny but not a lot neither...

    The acting was very good, did so long lines it's not easy I don't if this is the improvisation or real lines learned but the acting was enough good l, mainly Raphaël Quenard still great in everything !!!

    The directing as I said it's not my cup of tea, it's not a great directing with good shoots, but it is on purpose and this is the style from the director...but I'm not fan of that !!!

    Not soundtrack unfortunately...

    The movie "Yannick " was great and better than this one in Medium-length film, this movie seem too long cause sometimes the script it's too boring !!!
    5JonyVeana

    Interesting experience

    This was an experiment by the director like a lot of his movies like rubber, a movie where there is two kinds of people, people who take the movie seriously or a a joke and depending of what you choose, your personality traits can be define

    This ls the same, i care about when i was thinking that the situation in the movie was real but when i find out that its fake and its all acting i didn't care anymore.

    I was the side that didn't care, that's the experiment, we are suspects for investigation to this director, we don't matter.

    This is not a real movie, it just an experiment but the experiment are supposed to have people who agree to take part, so 5/10.

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    Reality

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      A local association promoting movie making in the Dordogne region claimed that for this movie, Quentin Dupieux shot "the longest tracking shot in the history of cinema".
    • Crazy credits
      The very long dolly tracks used for the first shot are shown at length during the credits.
    • Connections
      References Diff'rent Strokes (1978)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 14, 2024 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Language
      • French
    • Also known as
      • El segundo acto
    • Filming locations
      • Aérodrome de Condat-sur-Vézère, Condat-sur-Vézère, Dordogne, France
    • Production companies
      • Chi-Fou-Mi Productions
      • Arte France Cinéma
      • Canal+
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $3,801,247
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 20m(80 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.95 : 1

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