Is ‘Le Vertige’ a Hit? Find Out What Cannes Viewers Think of Quentin Dupieux’s New Film!

Quentin Dupieux brought two films to the Croisette: Full Phil, featured in the Midnight Screening, and Le Vertige, which closed the Directors’ Fortnight. The latter tells the story of Jacques (Alain Chabat), who tries to persuade his friends Bruno (Jonathan Cohen) and Fabienne (Anaïs Demoustier) that they are all living in a simulation, and that certain glitches are proof of this.

Jacques visits his friend Bruno to share a significant revelation: all of humanity is living in a simulation…

What did the audience think of Quentin Dupieux’s new film? On AlloCiné, the film currently has an average rating of 2.9 out of 5, based on 138 ratings and 35 reviews.

A New Masterstroke from Dupieux

Viewers praise Dupieux’s bold artistic choice. By bringing together Alain Chabat and Jonathan Cohen, the director achieves a huge success and remains true to his unique style. With its radical originality and chaotic humor, Le Vertige stands as another testament to his distinctive flair.

MakingOf (5/5): “A classic! GTA meets The Sims in a French auteur film! An anti-AI film! Dupieux delivers a funny and profound movie.“

Carole_35 (5/5): “A dizzyingly hilarious film! The actors are fantastic, more real than real! I loved it 🙂“

Dieseldanton (5/5): “In the end, it becomes clear: Le Vertige is not just a great animated movie. It’s a graphic knockout, an inadvertent anti-AI manifesto, a magnificent anomaly. The kind of work that suddenly makes everything else in the world look low resolution.”

François (4.5/5): “This time, Dupieux hits the mark. The same year as a lackluster Full Phil, the wild director of Rubber and Mandibles creates a work as original as it is funny, quirky, and lively. Playing with memories of the PS1 era, the feigned acting of Chabat and Cohen satirizes a modern era dominated by digital dependency and the allure of reflections. A truly innovative proposition and the feeling of being thrust into a genuine endeavor. Bravo, it’s really funny!“

Coric Bernard (4/5): “This new Quentin Dupieux film is true to his usual style. Made in 3D animation with the eyes and voices of the trio Chabat/Cohen/Demoustier, the director plunges us into an absurd and hilarious world where reality is seriously questioned. The script is well-crafted on a wild and enjoyable topic. It’s a pleasure to follow this original and puzzling film.“

The Limits of the Concept

For some viewers, Dupieux remains trapped by his own concept, leading to a perceived narrative weakness and uneven pacing, paradoxically burdensome for such a short film.

Audrey L. from Club Allociné (3/5): “If you grew up in the era of ‘ugly 3D video games’ (count me in), the film isn’t even that bad to watch (you get used to it). All the system glitches are there, tenderly reminding us of the old GTA filled with graphical flaws, highlighted by the quirky comments of the Chabat-Cohen duo. Don’t look any further, Le Vertige is just a short, fun interlude of 1h07, with a light script but promising a visual delirium and some good laughs from the cubic 3D version of the Chabat and Cohen duo, which even makes one nostalgic for our old ugly games… Right?“

Shawn777 from Club Allociné (3/5): “The problem is that the concept doesn’t go much further. It feels like Dupieux had this idea to make a 3D film, wrote the script in an afternoon, and started production. The film still looks too rough, and the second half is quite disappointing, drifting further from the initial concept. Instead of pushing the absurd further, Dupieux trips over a plot that’s banal, even worthy of a soap opera. And I even found myself bored several times, because the pacing doesn’t always hold up, a shame for a film that’s barely an hour long! In short, Le Vertige isn’t bad but disappoints by not being fully committed to its approach.“

Naughty Doc (2.5/5): “Le Vertige is frankly funny for 30 minutes, Dupieux understanding that visuals also contribute to the comedic identity of this work between prank and audacity: Alain Chabat and Jonathan Cohen in a fictional world with a PS1/Dreamcast aesthetic. The humor thus arises from the movements and interactions between elements, as if machinima characters were trying to understand they’re in a simulation. But then Dupieux shifts towards something else (a critique of the marketing world essentially) which, in my opinion, completely dilutes the thematic and creative paths of the project.“

Ombeline Marchon (2/5): “What a disappointment! I rushed to see the new Dupieux, so inspired lately (I’ve seen Daaaaaalí three times, I’m at seven for Yannick and The Second Act). I expected a great time, both crazy, funny, and smart, and I was bored. I laughed maybe three times. The concept was interesting, but it goes around in circles… and in vain. Too bad.“

AlloC2Flo (1/5): “For a movie, this old video game-style 3D is just unbearable. Maybe okay for a small series on the net, but here it completely ruins the experience. Bringing such great actors together for this, is just throwing money away. Dupieux is really out there, it shows in the story which is out of this world, and only a fan of this director might appreciate this new dizzying cinema experience…“

In Summary

With Le Vertige, Dupieux pushes his aesthetic to the extreme by opting for a deliberately dated 3D animation. The Chabat-Cohen duo works wonderfully, but the film divides opinion. While fans of the director enjoy his quirky humor and assumed chaos, others struggle to follow a storyline considered too thin, which its brevity does not suffice to mask a certain narrative emptiness.

Le Vertige currently in cinemas.

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