bill k
Hardly know what to say but if you have a spare 3 1/2 hours, watch this. You'll think, you'll laugh and then, in the end, you'll scratch your head.
More erudite reviews can be found in the New Yorker, The NYT, etc.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
nefasto r
Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room (or the cow?): yes, it is 200 minutes long so it makes more sense as mini series. I watched it in 2 takes and problem solved.
So what about this amazing movie? I should say that most of the times I find french cinema overrated and boring, well, not this time! "Lil Quinquin" is a work of art, and the proof is that is so difficult to review. I am not even sure why I liked it this much. A rare piece where the absurdism meets the poetic, the comedy meets the despair, the Yin embrace the Yang. But what is truly magical about this film are the characters, as every single one is brilliantly written and executed, with a special thanks to Bernard Pruvost and his expressions, I would have watched 3 hours just of those.
I cannot stress this enough, but it is long 200 minutes and there is not a single scene I would cut, and the more I watched it, the more it grew in me. Yes, this is art. Chapeau.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Must see slice of eccentricity tinged with melancholy, comparisons to David Lynch entirely justified.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Wow, I found this tragic comedy so funny, uncanny. It does with comedy what horror movies do with fear: you are suspended watching the characters, in all their weirdness, go about their business. The director introduces you, scene after scene, to an ethnological farce which acts as piece of the puzzle of a murder investigation And the cast, what a cast, feels true to what you can encounter deep in the French countryside. This is a wonderful and endearing set of weirdos, freaks, disabled, retarded. The 2 protagonists, Li'l Quinquin & his girlfriend somewhat feel like the only 2 with a sense of normalcy. Of course, they aren't but this adventurous (10 yr old?) couple gives the rhythm to a road movie (on a bike) that stays within the confines of the beautiful Northern French Atlantic coast village.
Bruno Dumont is to be commended for his 1st foray into comedy. I laughed so much. In an average comedy movie, I will laugh truly only 2-3 times (sometimes never). Not here, the laughter just kept coming. The Gallic impudence and imprudence is the perfect recipe for a long (3 hours) ride where you'll also learn quite a bit about French people.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Thoroughly entertaining and extremely frustrating is how Lil Quinquin ended up being for me. If you search the internet you will find a lot of fancy reviews that try and analyze, philosophy and compare this to Twin Peaks and True Detectives. Believe me when I say that these comparison are the farthest from the truth. Just because you have two detectives riding around in car trying to solve multiple murders doesn't make this a True Detective clone as well as having a town with quirky characters doesn't make it a Twin Peaks clone. The tone, plots and execution of these two series are completely different then Lil Quinquin.
The set up is that a cow has been found dead in a concrete pit and they end up finding body parts inside the cow. The detective starts his investigation and as the 3 1/2 hour story unfolds, more and more bodies start to pile up. This is the main plot along with kind of a subplot about a boy, Lil Quinquin, and his girl friend who just started summer vacation. You follow their exploits and adventures as they get involved to some extend in the investigation plus doing what kids do in the summer. I have to admit I really like these two kids. They were interesting characters and they did a great job acting. You could also see the love they had for each other at such a young age. They really played off each other well and I give the director credit for finding two kid actors who could do that.
The detective is the funniest and most entertaining part of the film. It's obvious that the director wanted to do a Inspector Clouseau type being very serious with a bumbling idiocy to him. It's not as over the top and crazy as Peter Sellers was, but you can tell.
It is also true that some of the other characters are quirky in some ways but it's mostly done for subtle comedic value. Sometimes it comes off extremely well and other it fails. A good example of failing is during the funeral for the first woman they find murdered. There are two priest conducting the service and for some reason the director thought it would be funny to have these two act like bumbling idiots. They actually turn it into a sort of a Three Stooges routine but not quite as crazy. It just doesn't work and seems ludicrous and out of place to see priest acting like this at a funeral especially when this is a comedy drama and not a full on slap stick film.
Even with scenes like that, I really enjoyed this film immensely.......until the end. Yes, the ending was utter complete BS. Stop reading now if you don't want to know what happened.
So you have this 3 1/2 hour murder mystery with a handful of people that get murdered and the clues start coming together over the story. You have your suspects and perhaps there is one in particular that has a motive and could be the killer, which is Lil Quinquins father. However, you think the thing is going to be solved and BAM....it ends.... No resolution.. No mystery solved... 3 1/2 hours the viewer spent investing in this story, the characters and the murders and the director ends it while the detective is still investigating. I find this a total slap in the face of the audience. I find it a joke that is played on us the viewers. I just can't understand why you would end a murder mystery like that. Can you imagine getting into a great gothic murder mystery novel and the last few pages had been ripped out. One possible explanation is that I read that this was actually a series in France and possible it was going to be renewed for a second run. If that's the case, perhaps we will get a ending revealing the killer and his motive but I have a feeling this was a one time deal and this is how the director decided to end it. Such a good film with a crappy ending and that's very frustrating..
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Dumont's searing hatred for the subject matter runs at a low intensity throughout the film. Careful, artful, modulated disgust!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
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