Li'l Quinquin

P'tit Quinquin

With an opening scene like a blasphemous homage to Fellini’s Dolce Vita and a delightful deadpan humor that automatically brings Aki Kaurismäki to mind, born provocateur Bruno Dumont innovates without straying from his basic philosophical course. In the familiar setting of Dumont’s filmography, rural northern France, the body of a murdered woman is found stuffed inside a dead cow. A bumbling, grumpy inspector undertakes to solve the curious case, with little Quinquin, a loud-mouthed boy prone to racist outbursts, constantly getting underfoot. Firmly committed to the themes of latent, violence, apathy towards evil, and the disenchantment of death, Dumont wonders for the umpteenth time if the devil lives among us – only this time he phrases the question in an irresistibly entertaining way. And for the first time, he leaves a chink of optimism: if these two dysfunctional heroes know what to do when faced with the monster, then there is indeed hope for us all.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Bruno Dumont
Script: Bruno Dumont
Cinematography: Guillaume Deffontaines
Editing: Bruno Dumont, Basile Belkhiri
Actors: Alane Delhaye, Lucy Caron, Bernard Pruvost, Philippe Jore, Philippe Peuvion, Lisa Hartmann, Julien Bodard, Corentin Carpentier, Pascal Fresch, Jason Cirot, Baptiste Anquez, Stéphane Boutillier, Frédéric Castagno, Andrée Peuvion, Lucien Chaussoy, Cindy Louguet, Céline Sauvage, Bruno Darras, Sébastien Liss, Yacine Kellal, Didier Hennuyer, Myriam Habibe-Zahmani, Raphaël Leroy, Catherine Juritt, Cédric Lemaire, Eric Legagneur, Raphaël Mourgues, Stéphane Gallais, Nathan Labit, Coralie Renzi, Benoit G
Production: 3B Productions
Producers: Rachid Bouchareb, Jean Brehat, Muriel Merlin
Co-production: Arte, Pictanovo, Le Fresnoy
Costumes: Alexandra Charles
Sets: Karima Rekhamdji
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: France
Production Year: 2014
Duration: 198'
Contact: mk2 Films
Awards/Distinctions: FIPRESCI Prize – Tromsø IFF 2015, Critics Award Honorable Mention – São Paulo IFF 2014, Best Series, Best Direction – L' Association des Critiques de Séries 2015, Top 10 Film Award – Cahiers du Cinéma 2014

Bruno Dumont

Bruno Dumont directed his first feature film at the age of thirty-eight: The Life of Jesus in 1997, shot in Bailleul, his native town in Northern France. This film earned him immediate recognition: selected for the Directors' Fortnight, it received a Special Mention. Exploring a demanding, singular, raw cinematographic path, Bruno Dumont returned to Cannes in 1999 with Humanity, in Official Competition. He was awarded with the Grand Prix and a double prize for the interpretation of the two non-professional actors. Bruno Dumont moved away from the North of France to shoot in the California desert, Twentynine Palms, a road movie selected at the Venice Film Festival in 2003. In 2006, Flanders, a harsh film about the ravages of war, received the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Bruno Dumont then directed two films on the themes of religion, mysticism and their drifts: Hadewijch and Outside Satan. After a biopic with Juliette Binoche, Camille Claudel 1915, Bruno Dumont opened up to a new audience with the brilliant success of the mini-series Li'l Quinquin, a much more comical project than his previous works. He continues on the same burlesque path with Slack Bay, which was presented in Official Competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. He then turned his attention to the tragic fate of Joan of Arc and directed the musical Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, selected at the Directors' Fortnight in 2017 and then Joan of Arc selected at Un Certain Regard in 2019 where he received a Special Mention from the jury. The film also received the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc. France, starring Lea Seydoux, an acerbic satire of the media world through a portrait of a star journalist, was selected in competition at Cannes Film Festival in 2021. In 2024, Dumont's new feature, the galactic comedy The Empire premiered at the 74th Berlinale.

Filmography

1997 The Life of Jesus
1999 Humanity
2003 Twentynine Palms
2006 Flanders
2009 Hadewijch
2011 Outside Satan
2013 Camille Claudel 1915
2014 Li'l Quinquin (TV)
2019 Joan of Arc
2021 France
2024 The Empire