Meeting with Pol Pot (Rendez-Vous), in The Epoch Times

Rithy Panh's MEETING WITH POL POT is a withering indictment of the Khmer Rouge's collectivist madness as well as the media's willingness to obscure the truth for ideological reasons. EPOCH TIMES Rendez-Vous with French Cinema review up here.

Rendez-Vous ’25: The Second Act

Is it personal for these characters, or do the thesps playing them just hate their screenplay? Maybe it’s a little of both. Either way, it will be a rocky stop-and-start shoot in Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act, which screens during this year’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

Guillaume Tardieu does not think much of the man dating his daughter and he likes the actor playing him even less. He makes that clear whenever he breaks character, which is often. He is relatively okay with Florence Drucker, who plays his daughter, probably because she is a pretty big star. Regardless, he is much more interested in the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson he claims he just signed onto.

Second Actis sort of meta, but much less so than many of Dupieux’s previous films. Reality and the film production are supposed to blend together as the actors break character and the fourth wall. However, it is way too easy to tell who is talking, actor or character. That means no bending of minds, let alone blowing them. It all just plays out like an extremely uncomfortable “making of” feature.