Hey folks, Harry here... this is the exact sort of weird fucking shit that I love! Read this, and if at the end you're not the least bit interested... well... I weep for you, cuz when you pull that tree out of your ass you'll find an emptiness that only a film like this could have filled. Heh. Here ya go...
Dear Harry & Co.:
I doubt that you'll print this because you crazy nerds probably couldn't care less about some French guy you may only have seen in IRREVERSIBLE (Monica Bellucci gets raped! ROFLMAO etc.), but if you do, know that I caught the first ever screening two nights ago. This a WORLD EXCLUSIVE underground AICN report, thus! :)
I am currently in the South of France, near the Spanish border to be more specific, a region where, typically, nothing happens in the world of cinema. But as all things are destined to change eventually, France's fantastic actor/director/writer Albert Dupontel visited the city of Perpignan first to present his new movie, ENFERMÉS DEHORS, to preview audiences. The film will hit French theaters on April 5.
Festival goers and French cinema lovers among you may remember the actor Albert Dupontel from films like LE CONVOYEUR (aka CASH TRUCK, which WB is remaking with Andrew Kevin Walker as scribe), Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT and as the fire extinguisher wielding buddy in Gaspar Noé's awesome (if slightly headache inducing) IRREVERSIBLE.
As a director/writer, he's surprised audiences with the cult hit BERNIE and LE CRÉATEUR. Fans of Terry Gilliam will find many "winks" to the master's work. And, surprise surprise, Terry Gilliam even makes a surprise (and well masked) appearance as a homeless man in ENFERMÉS DEHORS (loosely translated: TRAPPED OUTSIDE).
This brings me to the story: it's so simple that it's almost dumb. Or perhaps it's so dumb that it's brilliant. Dupontel plays a homeless man addicted to sniffing glue (which makes him hallucinate all sorts of whacky nonsense like poster babes emerging out of an ad to hug him) and, well, that's pretty much all he ever does... until he meets a naked man standing on top of a bridge who, after waving with a stupid grin, jumps into the river below, a rope attached to his leg. He wasn't a bungee jumper, it turns out (he never came back up), but a cop who decided he couldn't take it anymore.
So our "hero" puts on the cop uniform so he can eat in the police cantina for free. Of course he soon gets pulled into an absurd series of events, is forced to do police duties (not easy for a junkie) and will meet the woman of his life, whom he'll try to help to find her baby, taken "hostage" by its grand parents.
I know, it sounds rather retarded and, I can assure you, it really is. :) But I've rarely seen a film where cartoon humor is translated so well into a live action film that, to my surprise, only cost 4 million dollars.
It's a great ride and a worthy homage to Terry Gilliam, Monty Python and the best in slapstick animation.
If you publish this, call me NewJorg.
