The Second Act (film)

The Second Act (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. It is a meta-comedy about actors in a doomed film production.

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.

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".

The Second Act was filmed entirely in the Dordogne department and more precisely in Périgord noir region, from 4 December to 22 December 2023. 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. The production also filmed near the AFSP in Montignac-Lascaux. 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.

Production for the film was kept fully secret from beginning to end. 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. Hugo Sélignac produced the film through his company Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, 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.

Reception
The Second Act received an average rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 30 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 28 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.1/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 12 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.