Say It Loud: 'Daaaaaali!' | New Orleans French Film Festival 2025
A comedy where warped time is more linear than a straight line.
Dear Moviegoers,
What the hell is it with artists like Salvador Dali?
Surrealistic subjects are modus operandi for filmmaker Quentin Dupieux. He can make a movie about a runaway serial killer car tire into a thrilling comedy about storytelling and absurdity. He’s pretty prolific, making one weird piece of cinema after another as if it were easy—and maybe it is. So, it’s no wonder that he’d choose to make an off-kilter anti-biopic of surrealist artist Salvador Dali. What took him so long?
Daaaaaali! is about meek journalist Judith, who has scored a magazine interview with the eccentric man. He appears grandly, dismisses ideas, and walks away too soon after arrival. Somehow, he’s always convinced to come back and attempt another interview with the woman, either by metaphysical visitations from other versions of himself or just by people saying he’s a great figure and couldn’t possibly be greater. Egotistic doesn’t begin to describe these Dali’s.
What the hell is it with artists like Salvador Dali?
Movie reviewers are losing their print spaces at local outlets in droves, so reader support is more critical than ever. Give this publication a share, get a monthly subscription (only $5), and enjoy reading at your leisure!
Dupieux, as usual, turns the genre on its head. Anti-biopic? Yes. But it’s also pro-biopic or, at least, pro-Dali. There are no “traditional” genre conventions that the film could’ve used for fodder here, as Daaaaaali! searches and finds itself in warps of time, place, and perspective. It’s about Dali in his prime, slightly aged, and elderly, navigating the dreams within dreams of a priest who may or may not be trying to manipulate him. Meanwhile, Judith could, herself, be another avatar. Or not.
What is it with artists like Salvador Dali?
All the way charming and hilarious to the point of being a distraction of its own making (a welcome one), Daaaaaali! isn’t a celebration or an explanation. It’s multiple trips down and up imagination’s wake, exposing and espousing the virtues of being weird, of observing weird, of being led by weird, and of admiring weird. In this way, it’s a perfectly natural and normal movie.
What is it with artists like Salvador Dali? Don’t expect to find out, but do expect to be left satisfied and smiling. 4/5
Daaaaaali! screened at the 2025 New Orleans French Film Festival. It’s currently streaming on Mubi and is available for rent and purchase.
Sincerely Yours in Moviegoing,
⚜️🍿
Enjoy some more reading:
