THE SECOND ACT Trailer (2024) Léa Seydoux

THE SECOND ACT Trailer (2024) Léa Seydoux

THE SECOND ACT Trailer (2024) Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Raphaël Quenard, Quentin Dupieux
© 2025 - Signature Entertainment

"Total nonsense, don't listen to what they're saying." Unifrance has revealed the first look teaser trailer for the new film from Quentin Dupieux titled The Second Act, which will be the Opening Night premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival this month. The fest kicks off May 14th – and this will be screening on that same day and opening in French theaters, too. Dupieux has been cranking out films non-stop, with Smoking Causes Coughing, Yannick, and Daaaaaali! just in the last few years. This next one stars Léa Seydoux as Florence, Louis Garrel as David, Vincent Lindon as Guillaume, and Raphaël Quenard as Willy, plus Manuel Guillot as Stephane and Françoise Gazio as Rose. Here is the setup: Florence (Seydoux) wants to introduce David (Garrel), the man she's madly in love with, to her father, Guillaume (Lindon). But David isn't attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy (Quenard) instead. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere (called "Le deuxième acte" or The Second Act in French). This kooky teaser is another clever meta joke from Dupeiux - a hilarious way to introduce a film.

Here's the first look teaser trailer (+ poster) for Quentin Dupieux's The Second Act, direct from YouTube:

The Second Act Film

The Second Act Poster

Here's the initial synopsis to set things up: Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father, Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. The Second Act, also known as Le Deuxième Acte in French, is written & directed & edited & shot by acclaimed eccentric French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (once known as "Mr. Oizo"), director of many other strange films including Nonfilm, Steak, Rubber, Wrong, Wrong Cops, Reality, Keep an Eye Out, Deerskin, Mandibles, Incredible But True, Smoking Causes Coughing, plus Daaaaaali! and Yannick as his most recent creations. Produced by Hugo Sélignac. This is premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as the Opening Night Film playing in the Main Competition to kick off the festival. It will also open in French cinemas starting May 14th, 2024 on the very same day. No final international release dates are set yet - stay tuned. Who else wants to watch?
The Second Act

Theatrical release poster
French Le Deuxième Acte
Directed by Quentin Dupieux
Written by Quentin Dupieux
Produced by Hugo Sélignac
Starring
Léa Seydoux
Vincent Lindon
Louis Garrel
Raphaël Quenard
Manuel Guillot
Cinematography Quentin Dupieux
Edited by Quentin Dupieux
Production
companies
Chi-Fou-Mi Productions
Arte France Cinéma
Distributed by Diaphana Distribution
Release dates
14 May 2024 (Cannes)
14 May 2024 (France)
Running time 80 minutes
Country France
Language French
Box office $3.8 million[1]
The Second Act (French: Le Deuxième Acte) is a 2024 French comedy film written, shot, edited and directed by Quentin Dupieux. It stars Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, Raphaël Quenard and Manuel Guillot. The plot follows a young woman who brings her boyfriend to meet her father.[2] It is a meta-comedy about actors in a doomed film production.[3]

The film had its world premiere as the opening film at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2024 and was released theatrically in France on the same day by Diaphana Distribution.[4]

Plot
Florence wants to introduce David, the man she is madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David is not attracted to Florence and wants to get rid of her by throwing her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

Cast
Léa Seydoux as Florence
Vincent Lindon as Guillaume
Louis Garrel as David
Raphaël Quenard as Willy
Manuel Guillot as Stéphane
Production
In January 2024, Léa Seydoux revealed in an interview with Télérama that she had recently completed two weeks of filming for an unannounced new film by Quentin Dupieux, then titled À notre beau métier ('To Our Beautiful Profession'), which would also star Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard. Seydoux read the script in one sitting and quickly accepted the role out of admiration for Dupieux who she described as an "extraordinary filmmaker" whose style of humour "hides an increasingly social depth, through imperfect and clumsy characters." She described the film as a mise en abyme about "actors who play in a lousy film" and confront their characters and lines, and appraised it as "crazy" and "very, very funny".[5]

The Second Act was filmed entirely in the Dordogne department and more precisely in Périgord noir region, from 4 December to 22 December 2023.[6] It was shot primarily at the aerodrome of Condat-sur-Vézère, a small private airfield still in operation. The existing airfield building, a former restaurant which has long been used for weddings, was converted over the course of a month by artisan craftsmen. The Atelier des fac-similés du Périgord (AFSP) in Montignac-Lascaux was involved in construction of the sets. The aerodrome's landing strip was disguised to give it the appearance of a lost highway.[7] The production also filmed near the AFSP in Montignac-Lascaux.[6] Thierry Bordes of Ciné Passion en Périgord, an association which supports film productions in Dordogne, claims that Dupieux has made "the longest tracking shot in the history of cinema" in The Second Act.[7]

Production for the film was kept fully secret from beginning to end.[7] The owner of the aereodrome, Roland Boissière, described the production as having the "greatest secrecy" and did not even know Vincent Lindon had come to film on his property.[7] Hugo Sélignac produced the film through his company Chi-Fou-Mi Productions,[3] It was co-produced by Arte France Cinéma.

Release
The Second Act was selected to be the opening film at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere out-of-competition on 14 May 2024. It was released theatrically in France on the same day by Diaphana Distribution.[4]

Reception
The Second Act received an average rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 31 reviews.[8] On Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 28 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.1/10.[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 12 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[10]

References
"The Second Act (2024)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
"Quentin Dupieux's new comedy to open the 77th Festival de Cannes". Festival de Cannes. 3 April 2024. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
Keslassy, Elsa (3 April 2024). "Cannes Film Festival to Open With Quentin Dupieux's 'The Second Act' Starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon". Variety. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
Wiseman, Andreas (3 April 2024). "Quentin Dupieux's 'The Second Act' To Open Cannes Film Festival; Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel Star". Deadline. Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
Morice, Jacques (2 January 2024). "Léa Seydoux : "C'est assez récent l'idée que je m'accepte comme actrice"". Télérama (in French). Archived from the original on 18 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
Bonamy, Laurent (4 April 2024). "Festival de Cannes 2024 : le film d'ouverture, de Quentin Dupieux, a été tourné intégralement en Dordogne". Sud Ouest (in French). Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
Bertrand, Marc (4 April 2024). "Le film d'ouverture du prochain Festival de Cannes a été tourné en Dordogne". France Bleu Périgord (in French). Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
"Critiques Presse pour le film Le Deuxième acte". AlloCiné (in French). Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
"The Second Act". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
"The Second Act". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
External links
The Second Act at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
vte
Films directed by Quentin Dupieux
Nonfilm (2001)Steak (2007)Rubber (2010)Wrong (2012)Wrong Cops (2013)Reality (2014)Keep an Eye Out (2018)Deerskin (2019)Mandibules (2020)Incredible but True (2022)Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)Yannick (2023)Daaaaaalí! (2023)The Second Act (2024)

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Categories: 2024 films2024 comedy films2020s French films2020s French-language filmsFrench comedy filmsFilms directed by Quentin DupieuxFilms shot in DordogneFilms about filmmakingArte France Cinéma films2020s French film stubs
Signature Entertainment has released a poster and trailer for writer-director Quentin Dupieux’s (Rubber, Daaaaaali!) French comedy The Second Act.

The film stars Léa Seydoux as Florence, a woman who brings her father to a restaurant to meet the love of her life, David (Louis Garrel), completely unaware that David has lost interest in her and is trying to palm her off onto his friend.

Joining Seydoux and Garrel in the cast are Vincent Lindon and Raphaël Quenard. Watch the trailer below…

David has a date with the beautiful Florence, but her needy and clingy behaviour is becoming a total turnoff. He decides to introduce her to his friend in an effort to convince him to take Florence off his hands. Unaware of David’s plan to palm her off, Florence prepares for their date and convinces her dad to tag along to meet the man of her dreams. As the four meet dinner quickly turns into chaos. But is it all an act?
The Second Act arrives on digital on December 2nd.
The stormy clouds outside the Palais might have dampened some spirits as the credits rolled on the opening night film of the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Or maybe it was the movie itself.

“The Second Act,” Quentin Dupieux‘s talky French comedy about the making of the first movie directed by AI, mustered a lukewarm 3.5-minute standing ovation on Tuesday night in Cannes.

Dupieux attedned the premiere along with his French cast of Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon and Raphaël Quenard. The four actors all politely stood as a camera quickly passed by through the tepid applause.

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In the meta film, these French stars play actors making a romantic comedy they know is pointless, as it’s the first movie written and directed by AI. In the opening scenes, we learn that Florence (Seydoux) wants to take things to the next level with David (Garrel), but he is no longer attracted to her and tries to pawn her off on his homophobic friend Willy (Quenard). Florence’s father (Lindon) is open to meeting her new boyfriend. Or so it seems that’s what’s happening — as the movie continues, each actor is revealed to be playing a different part from who they really are.

Popular on Variety
“The Second Act,” which opened in France on the same day as its Cannes debut, has received mixed reviews. But that’s an expected occurrence for the festival’s first screening. (Other opening night films have ranged from Johnny Depp’s period piece “Jeanne du Barry” to Nicole Kidman carrying the dud biographical drama “Grace of Monaco.”) Of “The Second Act,” Variety‘s Peter Debruge wrote that “practically every scene overstays its welcome, including the otherwise smart final shot. Dupieux’s strategy seems to be flipping or repeating certain punchlines for fresh effect, which is fine for a while, until you realize that neither ‘The Second Act’ nor those second-degree readings have much to say.”

While the movie itself might not live in Cannes infamy, the opening night ceremony featured its share of big moments to launch the world’s most glamorous celebration of cinema. Fighting back tears, Meryl Streep accepted an honorary Palme d’Or from Juliette Binoche.

Streep recalled the last time she attended Cannes, with the 1988 Australian drama “Evils Angels.” “I was already a mother of three, I was about to turn 40 and I thought that my career was over,” she said.

The ceremony also featured a spotlight on this year’s Cannes jury, led by “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig.

Seydoux, a mainstay of French cinema, has gained popularity among English-speaking audiences as a Bond girl in 2015’s “Spectre,” and most recently featured as Lady Margot in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.” Her breakthrough role in “Blue Is the Warmest Color” (2013) earned her a Cannes best actress award, and the film also won the Palme d’Or. She served on the 2018 Cannes jury.

Dupieux’s film “Deerskin” previously opened the Directors Fortnight in Cannes in 2019. “The Second Act” is playing out of competition at Cannes.

Read More About:
Cannes Film Festival, Lea Seydoux, Quentin Dupieux, The Second Act
DIRECTOR:
Quentin Dupieux

PRODUCER:
Hugo Sélignac

STUDIO:
Chi-Fou-Mi Productions

RUNTIME:
85 Minutes

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Cast
See All Cast & Crew
Headshot Of Léa Seydoux In The 'Le Deuxieme Act' (The Second Act) Photocall at the 77th annual Cannes
Lea Seydoux
David
Cast Placeholder Image
Louis Garrel
Florence
Cast Placeholder Image
Vincent Lindon
Guillaume
Reviews

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The Second Act is a 2024 film that follows the story of a character navigating a pivotal moment in their life. As they face a critical juncture, they must come to terms with their past decisions and confront the consequences of their choices. The film explores themes of self-reflection, growth, and redemption as the protagonist navigates this transformative period.
Et voilà, The Second Act, a bubbly apéritif to open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the latest bit of mischief from Quentin Dupieux, the Loki of the French cinematic universe. Dupieux turns out a film roughly once a year, featuring protagonists ranging from a rogue rubber tire cruising the highway for victims to a giant fly captured by a couple of petty crooks who try to turn it into a sideshow attraction. Each wacky new romp brings new fans into the tent and, on the evidence of his recent cast lists, entices more big-name actors to run away and join his circus.

So roll up here to see Bond girl Léa Seydoux, the baggy-eyed veteran Vincent Lindon and the usually smoldering Louis Garrel along with a troupe of faces familiar to Dupieux’s audience. The three of them play actors shooting what appears to be an especially banal rom-com.

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Lindon’s Guillaume is so righteously disgusted by it, in fact, that he declares early on that he is walking away, deserting this film, leaving movies altogether. How can one morally defend such trivia in a world exploding with war and pestilence? Quite easily, it seems, if the price is right — he soon changes his mind.

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RELATED: Cannes Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

The eponymous Second Act is actually a roadside restaurant that looks as if its first act was to be a gas station; it is as far from the popular image of where one might eat lunch in the French countryside as anyone could get. The proprietor Stephane (Manuel Guillot) is a miserable man who eventually emerges as an incompetent extra in the film our stars are making. It is a film you hope you will never have to see.

With a few brief scenes, Dupieux gives us a firm handle on its plot. Florence (Seydoux) wants to introduce her father (Lindon) to David (Garrel), the man she adores. He has brought along his friend Willy (Raphael Quenard, making his fourth film under Dupieux’s baton). Little does Florence know that David is running scared of her constant attentions and hopes she will fall for Willy instead. They try to play the scene. The music briefly swells; the promise of love swirls between them. All illusion, of course. Slumping from the story into their real selves, drinking the prop bottles of wine Stéphane keeps spilling, they fight like cats.

As a film partly about performance and pretending, The Second Act is constantly folding in on itself, producing one illusion out of the shell of another. “Real” conversations blur with lines from the romcom script or are artfully revealed to be part of a bigger script about the business of making film, enveloping the romcom and its making like a further Russian doll.

In fact, the selves revealed over the table are no more real than lovelorn Florence and her nervous beau; these are actors playing actors playing actors, a meta-fest so layered and shot through with jokes and asides about the film world that you have no choice but to crunch through the layers, as if they were a big millefeuille, and swallow the whole thing.

The truly-real world – our world – also intrudes during a long scene in which Garrel – shifting between playing Florence’s crush and playing the actor in that role – tells his proletarian friend Willy that he wants him to take her off his hands. Willy can’t resist discussing the script as if it were “real” life. “You can’t say that, we’re being filmed!” says Garrel/David. “Do you want to get us cancelled?” Cancellation does, indeed, seem dangerously close. Willy doesn’t care; he digs himself a few more holes while David tries to correct both his unacceptable gender politics and, while he’s at it, his grammar.

It is so like Dupieux to slip a lesson on the subjunctive into a cheeky satirical commentary on our current culture wars. It is also so very Dupieux to carry on shooting his films to look cheap, even if they almost certainly aren’t any more. That’s his aesthetic; it is also a kind of artistic morality.

The Second Act takes place largely on a single set, leavened with a few outdoor scenes. There are no fancy drone shots: mostly, it consists of four people’s eye lines crossing over a table. It is also admirably brief although, at 1 hour and 25 minutes, longer than Dupieux’s usual.

In fact, The Second Act starts to sag as it heads for its final twist. Some of his earlier films seem, by contrast, to stop before their natural ends. Both of these trajectories suggest that Dupieux has grown tired of his subject before he was done with it. Maybe he should have paid more attention when he was writing; maybe he should have spent longer in the editing suite. But if the results are always a bit ragged, does it matter? Dupieux may never make a masterpiece, but his slapdash, wild entertainments are irresistible.

Title: The Second Act
Festival: Cannes (Out of Competition)
Director-screenwriter: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Raphaël Quenard
Sales agent: Kinology
Running time: 1 hr 25 min

Read More About:
Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
Lea Seydoux
Louis Garrel
Quentin Dupieux
Raphaël Quenard
The Second Act
Vincent Lindon
Original title
Le deuxième acteaka
Year
2024
Running time
85 min.
Country
France France
Director
Quentin Dupieux
Screenwriter
Quentin Dupieux
Cast
Cinematography
Quentin Dupieux
Producer
arte France Cinéma, Chi-Fou-Mi Productions. Distributor: Diaphana Distribution
Genre
Comedy | Broad Comedy. Stage Play. Artificial Intelligence
Synopsis
Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four of them meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.
NEW Similar Movies to The Second Act
Rankings Position
#82 The Best Movies of 2024 (so far)
Awards
2024: Cannes Film Festival: Opening Film (Out of Competition)
2024: Film Festival of Catalonia: nominated to Best Picture.
Show all
Critics' reviews
"Dupieux’s strategy seems to be flipping or repeating certain punchlines for fresh effect, which is fine for a while, until you realize that neither 'The Second Act' nor those second-degree readings have much to say"
Peter Debruge: Variety
"A playfully dour satire on the film industry that sees the French absurdist delve further into apocalyptic mood and gallows humor"
Rory O'Connor: The Film Stage
"With a barely-there narrative even by Dupieux's own standard, 'Le deuxième acte' still wrangles a few winning reveals, building to a most savage punchline"
Ben Croll: IndieWire
"'Le deuxième acte' is probably [Dupieux's] strongest film yet"
Jordan Mintzer: The Hollywood Reporter
"If the results are always a bit ragged, does it matter? Dupieux may never make a masterpiece, but his slapdash, wild entertainments are irresistible"
Stephanie Bunbury: Deadline
"The cast are great and the ideas all there, though this attempt at a satire never comes together"
Chase Hutchinson: Collider
"Léa Seydoux’s bizarre AI comedy is a very timely Cannes opener (...) Enjoyably surrealist (...) Ingeniously, Dupieux makes the two possibilities impossible to untwist. Here, artists and their art are inseparable (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
Robbie Collin: Telegraph
Show 3 more reviews
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In France, the concept of irony is referred to as “deuxième degré” (second degree), where the “premier degré” is the literal or surface meaning, which can be twisted as audiences read an entirely different, often contrary meaning into the material. But the game doesn’t necessarily stop there. There is also “troisième degré,” “quatrième degré” and so on, as deep as you want to go.

For absurdist trickster Quentin Dupieux (whose films “Deerskin” and “Rubber” have found a cult following), “The Second Act” presents a frivolous fun-house mirror, in which actors Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon and Raphaël Quenard play actors playing actors in a pointless romantic comedy. They all know they’re making a bad movie, and one by one, they keep interrupting the shoot to air their personal grievances. But that’s only the beginning in a slender meta-textual doodle selected to kick off the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

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When something seemingly unscripted occurs, the director calls “cut,” and they all break character and begin to critique the day’s shoot. One of the stars hits on another. Two of the cast walk off hand in hand. Are they Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon and Raphaël Quenard in this moment? No, they’re still play-acting, and yet half the joke comes in knowing that a quartet of A-list French stars have agreed to tickle their own images in this way (for example, guess which among them is playing gay).

Popular on Variety
At one point, operating at what is at least the fourth degree, Seydoux declares, “Reality is reality. Period.” Dupieux has been toying with self-conscious devices since at least 2014, when his film “Reality” hit the Venice Film Festival. I hated that movie — an aggressively unfunny amalgam of sketches in which Alain Chabat played an aspiring filmmaker in search of the perfect groan — though contrarian French culture mag Les Inrockuptibles just ranked it as Dupieux’s best. You say tomato, I say rotten.

Still, I’ve been intrigued enough by Dupieux to keep up with his singular brand of surrealism (the films typically run between 70 and 80 minutes), and he’s only gotten better with practice. Or else, through repeated exposure, we’ve figured out the weird thing he does and adapted to appreciate it. Either way, the prolific director’s 2023 output, “Daaaaaali!” and “Yannick,” were accomplished artistic satires, setting up the kind of meta shtick he’s toying with here.

“Yannick” centers around a blue-collar worker who interrupts a boring “boulevard” play he’s paid to attend, ordering the actors (at gunpoint) to make it more interesting. Or, as Edouard Baer (one of six actors Dupieux cast in the role of Salvador Dalí in “Daaaaaali!”) postulates, “No one is an actor. It’s a nonexistent profession. ‘Actor’ is a total invention.” The Surrealist painter goes on to complain about the “unbearable” and “appalling banality” of the film-within-a-film.

Is Dupieux bored with movies? Clearly not, or he wouldn’t keep making them, but he seems to recognize (more than most) that audiences have gotten savvy to the codes and clichés, and so he seeks to subvert them, to weaponize convention against itself, while folding in barbs about the contemporary state of cinema. For example, if the scenes sampled here sound lousy, why not imply that this movie was the first to be written and directed entirely by artificial intelligence?

Improvising the dialogue for a long walk-and-talk scene in which David (Garrel) asks Willy (Quenard) to seduce his clingy girlfriend Florence (Seydoux), the actors riff about political correctness, “cancel culture” and trans identity. “You can’t say that!” David abruptly interrupts Willy. “We’re being filmed.” Cute, except the English subtitles have softened the dialogue (the word “travelo” does not mean “trans,” though sensitivity has scrubbed its equivalent from English usage).

Willy’s lines are meant to be offensive (as David/Garrel makes clear), and it may be instructive for moviegoers to note who around them laughs and at what “level.” The third-degree payoff to that exchange comes nearly an hour later in the film. In the meantime, the characters bicker constantly, as when Guillaume (Lindon) storms out of his first scene, complaining that he’s lost faith in the dying art form … until his agent calls to say he’s been cast in Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film.

The problem with irony at any level is that it makes sincerity almost impossible to judge. The resulting ambiguity serves as a cornerstone of zoomer humor, where the concepts of meta-irony and post-irony obscure the author’s intent so completely that audiences can interpret the material however they like. Some take offense, while others see the too-far elements as deliberate subversions of upsetting concepts. Alas, Dupieux doesn’t take anything too far. If anything, he falls short, getting stuck in the infinite loop of his own cleverness.

Alas, breaking the fourth wall is hardly new. Oliver Hardy did it constantly, and Olsen and Johnson took it to new heights in 1941’s “Hellzapoppin’.” Meanwhile, with “The Second Act,” it’s astonishing how long it takes the strategy to get laughs. The breakthrough comes when the extra playing the bartender at The Second Act (the roadside pub where most of the movie takes place) shuffles nervously over to the table with a bottle of wine. Jokes work best when they surprise, so suffice to say, Dupieux milks it for a good 20 minutes.

Oddly enough, considering the film’s tight running time, practically every scene overstays its welcome, including the otherwise smart final shot — an inspired end punctuation, stretched out like all those “a”’s in “Daaaaaali!” Dupieux’s strategy seems to be flipping or repeating certain punchlines for fresh effect, which is fine for a while, until you realize that neither “The Second Act” nor those second-degree readings have much to say.

Read More About:
Cannes Film Festival, Lea Seydoux, Quentin Dupieux, The Second Act
‘The Second Act’ Review: Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel Question Their Choices in Slight, Self-Aware Cannes Opener
Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (opener), May 14, 2024. Running time: 80 MIN. (Original title: “Le deuxième acte”)
Production: A Chi-Fou-Mi Prods, Arte France Cinéma production, with the participation of Netflix, Arte France, Cine+, in association with Kinology, Diaphana, Cineaxe 5, Cofinova 21. (International sales: Kinology, Paris.) Producer: Hugo Sélignac.
Crew: Director, writer, camera, editor: Quentin Dupieux.
With: Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, Raphaël Quenard, Manuel Guillot.
Slowly, but surely, the lineup for the 77th Cannes Film Festival is being revealed. Last month, Cannes announced that George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” will be an early world premiere on la Croisette on May 15. Today, the festival announced that Quentin Dupieux’s “Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act)” will kick off the proceedings on May 14.

READ MORE: “Furiosa”: George Miller’s latest “Mad Max” Saga will premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival

Premiering out of competition, the official synopsis for the comedy is as follows: “Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.”

The movie stars Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, and Raphaël Quenard. As is the tradition with many opening night films, it will debut in French theaters on the same day.

Dupieux‘s previous film, “Smoking Causes Coughing,” debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival also out of competition.

In recent years, being selected as the opening night film is not always a ringing endorsement. Previous selections include Woody Allen‘s bumpy “Cafe Society” (2016), the unintentional camp of “Grace of Monaco” (2014), “Jeanne du Barry” (2023) with Johnny Depp, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie misfire “Dead Don’t Die” (2019), and Michel Hazanavicius’s “Final Cut” (2022), didn’t set the world on fire. A rare exception this past decade was Leos Carax’s “Annette” which found its fans in 2021.

The rest of the highly anticipated lineup for this year’s edition of the festival will be revealed bright and early on Thursday morning, April 11. Rumored titles include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle,” Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” Edward Berger’s “Conclave,” and David Cronenenberg’s “The Shrouds,” among others.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival runs from Tuesday, May 14 through Saturday, May 25. Look for complete coverage on The Playlist and sign up for our daily newsletter to get all the reviews and news.

TagsCannes 2024Lea SeydouxQuentin DupieuxThe Second ActVincent Lindon
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Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

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• Black Mirror: Bandersnatch • Black Mirror • Black Museum (Black Mirror) • Black Tie (30 Rock) • Black Widower • Black and Blue (Better Call Saul) • Black and Blue (Homicide: Life on the Street) • Olly Blackburn • The Blacklist • Blackwater (Game of Thrones) • Blame It on the Alcohol • Blame It on Lisa • The Blessing Way (The X-Files) • Blind Ambition (Family Guy) • Blind Date (30 Rock) • Blink (Doctor Who) • The Blip • Blood Drive (The Office) • Blood Feud (The Simpsons) • Blood Oath (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) • Blood Relatives (Millennium) • Blood (The X-Files) • Blood Ties (Homicide: Life on the Street) • Blood of My Blood • Bloodletting (The Walking Dead) • Bloodline (Fringe) • Blue Harvest • The Blunder Years • Boardwalk Empire (Boardwalk Empire episode) • The Boat (The Office) • Bob Fires the Kids • The Bob Next Door • The Bold Type • Angie Bolen • The Book Job • Book of the Stranger • Boom (Doctor Who) • Boom Town (Doctor Who) • Missy Booth • Booze Cruise (The Office) • Bop Gun (Homicide: Life on the Street) • Borderland (Star Trek: Enterprise) • Born Again (The X-Files) • Born Free (Dexter) • Born This Way (Glee) • Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win! • Bound (Fringe) • Bound (Star Trek: Enterprise) • Box Cutter (Breaking Bad) • The Box (Fringe) • Boy Meets Curl • Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood • The Boy Who Knew Too Much (The Simpsons) • Boys' Club (Parks and Recreation) • Boys and Girls (The Office) • The Boys in the Bar • Boyz 4 Now • Rachel Bradley • Branch Closing • Branch Wars • Brand X (The X-Files) • Brave (Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous) • Brawl in the Family (The Simpsons) • The Break-Up (30 Rock) • Breaking Bad (Better Call Saul) • Breaking Out Is Hard to Do • Breaking the Fourth Wall (WandaVision) • Sian Breckin • Brian Griffin's House of Payne • Brian: Portrait of a Dog • Brian the Bachelor • Brian & Stewie • Brian's Got a Brand New Bag • The British Invasion (Dexter) • Britney/Brittany • Britney and Kevin: Chaotic • Britten family • Kyle Broflovski • Broke (The Office) • Broken Home (Body of Proof) • The Broken Man • Broken World (Millennium) • Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? • Brother from Another Series • Brother from the Same Planet • Brother's Little Helper • Brown Betty (Fringe) • Bruno Mars: 24K Magic Live at the Apollo • Bekah Brunstetter • Brush with Greatness • The Brute Man • The Bubble (Parks and Recreation) • The Bubble (30 Rock) • Bulbasaur • Mike Bullen • George Burditt (writer) • Buried Secrets (Body of Proof) • The Burning Zone • Burns, Baby Burns • The Burns Cage • Burns' Heir • Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk • Business Guy • Business School (The Office) • Butterfly (TV series) • Butters' Bottom Bitch • Buy, Buy Baby • The Buzz on Maggie • Bye Bye Nerdie • Joseph Byrne (Holby City) • C-SPAN • The C Word (30 Rock) • CBUVT • Cabin Fever (Lost) • Cafe Disco • The Call of the Simpsons • Callie and Her Sister • The Calusari • The Camel (Parks and Recreation) • Felipe Camiroaga • Camping (Parks and Recreation) • Can You Hear Me? (Doctors) • The Canine Mutiny • Canvassing (Parks and Recreation) • Captain James • Captain Midnight broadcast signal intrusion • Captive Pursuit • Drew Carey • Boone Carlyle • Carnie Wilson: Unstapled • John Carpenter (game show contestant) • Carpenter Street (Star Trek: Enterprise) • Zoe Carpenter • The Carpet (The Office) • Carrie (2002 film) • Carrot and Stick • Carry On (Supernatural) • Adam Carter • Chris Carter (screenwriter) • Mandy Carter (Ackley Bridge) • Eric Cartman • Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut • The Cartridge Family • Casino Night • Casino Royale (Climax!) • Dan Castellaneta • Castiel (Supernatural) • Casual Friday (The Office) • Casualty series 29 • Casualty series 30 • Casualty series 31 • Catalysts (The Spectacular Spider-Man) • Catch 21 • Category 6: Day of Destruction • Cause and Effect (Star Trek: The Next Generation) • Leanna Cavanagh • CFVO-TV • Chair Model • Chalk (TV series) • The Cham-Cham • A Change Is Gonna Come (Grey's Anatomy) • Change Your Life (Little Mix song) • Christine Chapel • Graham Chapman • Chapter 1 (House of Cards) • Chapter 1 (Legion) • Charlie Don't Surf (Veronica Mars) • Chartjackers • Cordelia Chase • The Chase (Desperate Hous