In Daaaaaali !, a young and eager French journalist repeatedly meets artist Salvador Dalí for a documentary film project that never seems to quite get started...

The delightful Anaïs Demoustier (also in Along Came Love playing this year at the SFFF, and from Alice and the Mayor, – SFFF 2020) is Judith, the journalist, while. Several actors take turns as Dalí, reminiscent of how multiple actors portrayed Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. Here, it is Gilles Lellouche (All Your Faces – 2023 Fall Virtual Screenings, Sink or Swim – SFFF 2019), Édouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï (also in Yannick, and The Divide – SFFF 2022), and Didier Flamand playing Dalí.

The result is definitely not a biopic. It is a hilarious and surreal homage to the “Master” and the outrageous and egocentric persona Dalí created for himself. The spelling of the title evokes the exaggerated way Dalí liked to pronounce his own name.

Better to let Dupieux’s production notes introduce the film: “To write and direct this tribute, I connected with Salvador Dalí's cosmic consciousness and let myself be guided, eyes closed. First, the Master ordered me to summon several brilliant actors to play his character (too complex for just one man), then together we visited Buñuel to steal a few images and ideas, then he led me by force into the depths of his morbid anguish and into his dreams to guide me, and finally I just about regained control of my film, to simply make it a declaration of love to this man. As Dalí himself said, his personality was probably his greatest masterpiece. My film modestly tells that story.”

Thomas Bangalter, one half of the French electronic duo, Daft Punk, wrote the catchy soundtrack.