Quirky director Quentin Dupieux brings his unique brand of kooky to this year’s Arrow Video FrightFest with his latest film Incredible But True. A strange fusion of drama, comedy, and science-fiction, Incredible But True joins Alain (Alain Chabat) and Marie (Léa Drucker) as they move into their first house. One with an intriguing feature…
Incredible But True begins with Alain and Marie speaking to the camera. They appear to be subjects of a documentary. Just as they are about to share their story the image cuts aways and joins Alain and Marie at an earlier point in time. As they walk around a potential property, the realtor discloses to them a rather weird asset that it has. In the basement is a hole. The hole leads to somewhere dazzling: twelve hours in the future. What’s more, a trip down the duct makes you three days younger. In love with the house, and tempted by the hole, the pair immediately snap it up and the fun begins.
What on the surface presents itself to be a time-travel riddle, Incredible But True has a much more grounded purpose. The film uses its strange portal to explore humanity’s relationship with ageing. Alain has no interest in the hole; Marie becomes obsessed with it. Society has long pushed women to appear as youthful as possible for as long as they can. Wrinkles and ageing are viewed as the kiss of death for women. A whole cosmetic industry preys on anxieties, presenting a variety of lotions, potions, and surgery to stave off the ageing process. Marie perfectly exemplifies the quest of so many women. What makes her story so interesting though is that she isn’t bothered about being old, just so long as she looks good. In Incredible But True Marie finds the ultimate treatment and spends her life going up and down the hole to reclaim her youth. It’s a tragic tale, but one that, despite its sci-fi origins, is all too familiar in our image-obsessed society.
Whilst Alain is content to continue to grow-old gracefully, Incredible But True does present a male-counterpart to the fear of ageing. This comes in the form of Alain’s boss, Gérard (Benoît Magimel) who is experiencing a midlife crisis. From the excessively opulent fast cars, to his string of young beautiful girlfriends, Gérard is desperate to remain relevant. He even goes so far as to invest in an electronic phallus. His approach is typical of many men’s denial about getting old and there’s a stark amount of truth hidden within the more comedic elements. The contrast between the approaches reflect society’s own gender divides – men placing a desire on virility, women on appearing youthful.
Just as all the pieces are in place, and events get really interesting, Dupieux does something unexpected. Rather than spend the next forty minutes plus exploring the story, he instead places what feels like the second half of the narrative into a simple montage. It’s a jarring mananouvere, the viewer being unaccustomed to such a method of story-telling, but it certainly spices things up. The message Dupieux is trying to communicate would be lost by a more traditional structure. In a climate of films that feel excessively bloated and a constant cycle of repetition, this device is a welcome innovation. By hitting the fast-forward button, Dupieux demonstrates how our obsession with remaining young can overtake us and cause our whole lives to pass us by.
Ageing and the things people will do to prevent it is an incredibly complex idea to explore. This story could have easily been the foundation for some warped Cronenbergian body horror, but Dupieux executes it with just the right blend of humour and tragedy. His approach makes Incredible But True more accessible, and frankly rather charming.
Incredible But True
Summary
A quirky and exciting analysis of the ageing process told in an innovative way, Incredible But True is a highly original and thoroughly entertaining piece of art.
Incredible But True was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2022.
