In one of the great ironies of cinema history, there has never been a great biography of the great Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali. Yes, I know Ben Kingsley played him in 2022’s “Daliland,” but when I said a great biography, I wasn’t thinking of that dull and uninspiring biopic. Now, French director Quentin Dupieux has churned out “Daaaaaali!” And guess what? There still hasn’t been a great film biography of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century!
For that matter, “Daaaaaali!” (Yes, that’s six letters “A”s, although, for the life of me, I don’t know why) isn’t so much a biography as it is a mere snapshot in time. Remember how 2019’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” centered around the way children’s television star Fred Rogers helped a wayward journalist through a troubling time in his life? “Daaaaaali!” features a similar structure, in that the film’s protagonist is actually a young French journalist (played by Anais Demoustier) who tries, without much success, at securing an interview with the famed painter.
And therein lay the problem. By the time we meet Dali, he’s already the most famous artist in the world. He’s already developed his humorously arrogant behavior. We have no clue how he became famous, nor any concept of how his career began. We begin with Dali at the very top of the arc of his life. He exists in this film merely as a figurehead; someone so self-professingly great he is “out of reach” to the average Joe. “Daaaaaali!” presents Salvador Dali as a cartoon – not as a fully-developed character.
For some reason, Dupieux has used four different (and indistinguishable) actors to play Dali. But it really doesn’t matter, because they all play him as an arrogant buffoon. Perhaps this portrayal is somewhat based in reality, but given his genius, I would have to think Dali were smarter than the court jester we see in Dupieux’s original screenplay.
Judith, the young journalist, is the real star here. Her naivete and tenderfoot sensibility lends itself to Dali’s belittling treatment. We get the sense that he would have treated Edward R. Murrow with more respect. But it is this hierarchy which lends itself to the humor, such as it is, of “Daaaaaali!” The entire exercise feels like something Wes Anderson could have whipped up over a long weekend. Characters come and go ad infinitum, and each scene feels like a set piece (nee a painting) in and of itself.
The film’s funniest and most memorable scene is its first, as Dali – complete with cape, cane, and handlebar moustache – traverses a long hotel hallway en route to Judith and her assistant/helper, who await his presence just outside their room. Dali and Judith shout back-and-forth about the upcoming interview, as the assistant makes a phone call, turns off the room TV, orders food, goes downstairs to pick it up, and so forth – all while Dali continues to approach the room. Just how long is this hallway anyway? A mile?
That opening sequence sets us up for what could have been an absurdist look at an absurdist artist. But the whimsical surreal nature of the opening scene is never repeated. Oh sure, we get occasional cut-aways to water pouring out of a piano into a seemingly bottomless puddle. But that’s almost to be expected in a film about Salvador Dali. My great disappointment is that Dupieux never matches the comedy of that endless hotel corridor hike. “Daaaaaali!” was filmed in six weeks; it feels like it was filmed in six days.
Unfortunately, the one actor who could have nailed the essence and the folly of Salvador Dali is Peter Sellers. Imagine for a moment what Sellers could have done with the character of Dali. But Sellers died in 1980, leaving this earth without gracing us with a portrait of Dali – or many other characters he could have interpreted in his own unique manner. Perhaps it’s simply best for the cinema world to leave Dali alone. Just throw up our proverbial hands and admit it can’t be done. Quentin Dupieux has certainly proven it can’t – at least for now.
