2002 / 48m - France
Comedy, Mystery
3.0*/5.0*
Nonfilm poster

Watches

August 23, 2020

3.0*/5.0*

A very early Quentin Dupieux (short) film. If you're a fan of the man's work it's definitely worth seeking out, as many of his signature elements are already present here. Still, it's all very rough and it's clear Dupieux was just testing the waters with this film, wondering whether this director business was something he'd like to pursue.

Nonfilm follows a film crew on set. The title is pretty appropriate, because it doesn't take long before the director doesn't have enough people left to shoot an actual film. That doesn't stop him though, even when the camera and sound crew are gone he continues to "shoot" his film. Talk about dedication.

Dupieux is known for his absurd comedies and Nonfilm neatly checks all the boxes. Sadly the camera work feels a bit cheap (documentary-style handycam work doesn't really fit here), the actors are rather poor and the material is too limited, even though Nonfilm only lasts 48 minutes. Still, I had a couple of good chuckles with this one.