Au Poste! Aka Keep an Eye Out, written and directed by Quentin Dupieux - 10 out of 10

Au Poste! Aka Keep an Eye Out, written and directed by Quentin Dupieux

10 out of 10

This is a fabulous comedy!

The script is fantastic and the cast does it more than justice, with the famous – for cinephiles – phenomenal Titan from Belgium, Benoit Poelvoorde – already glorious in 1992 when he gifted the cinematic world with a landmark – Man Bites Dog – and the equally outstanding Gregoire Ludig.

Gregoire Ludig portrays Louis Fugain, a witness that is also a suspect and is invited for an interrogatory at the police station:

Au Poste!

The man has discovered near the building where he resides in an apartment with his wife, the body of man, when he had the first unfortunate initiative to look for his documents in the pockets of the corpse.

The questioning and the dialogue in general are superb, sparkling, sprinkled with dark and often absurd humor, involving characters that are at times brilliantly stupid, then paradoxically intuitive and creative.

The Titan from Belgium, Benoit Poelvoorde portrays Le Commissaire Buron, an alert, often confused though, intrepid, sometimes offensive, comical, original, jocular, frequently indifferent police detective…

He thinks there are quite a few details in the account of the witness that are at least bizarre, if not incriminating in the story of the witness – although at later stage he would just state that Fugain seems rather idiot and he cannot imagine him capable of  committing a murder in cold blood.

The police precinct is the place where there seems to be no order, people come and go, the men and women that are supposed to be so well organized, attentive to details are comical characters, in a state of flux and demonstrating an infinite capacity to stumble, make silly assumptions, write stupid reports.

Commissaire Buron has to go out for a chore and asks his colleague, the only one present in the room, Philippe, to watch over his witness – suspect, while he is absent, but meets with a ridiculous, outrageous resistance from the man that had been ordered by another superior – the detective is also higher in the hierarchy – to write a preposterous paper on why would one want to become a police officer.

When the investigative official finds what the task is, he is baffled, then somewhat amused, perhaps even aghast to a certain extent and demands his fellow if he would give him the order to take a pistol and shoot himself in the head, would he obey and carry it off…

Philippe is not without merit when he considers the case and answers that if he were to suffer from an incurable disease and that would be contagious, and then probably he would execute the command, after which he finally agrees, after much haggling, to keep an eye over the suspect – witness, having established what that means in practice.

Philippe has a blur over one eye, a rather interesting proposition made to the public instead of the usual eye patch, a technique used at the news when there is a face we should not see, and he sits on the desk looking at Fugain, with an insistence that is in itself mirthful, even in the absence of the dialogue that provokes laughter.

For he identifies a setsquare on the table that he is sure that the suspect looks at with too much attention, provokes him on the subject and when he is dismissed for proposing such a ridiculous scenario, he explains that this object can be used to be inserted in his neck, provoking his departure and therefore allowing the man to escape free from the precinct…

Crazy at that sounds, the continuation transforms Philippe into a sort of prophet, although he is mistaken on the details – he wants to find and show his official badge, but has no idea in which corner that is – preposterous premise indeed – and as he looks for it, he stumbles, falls to the floor, inserting the setsquare into his only good eye and therefore killing himself.

Louis Fugain is overwhelmed by this new development, panicked and under pressure of time, for his interrogator is soon to arrive, he figures that he is already under suspicion for murder in the case of the corpse he had found and he would have no chance to convince the authorities that this death was accidental and the officer just fell to his death.

He tries to hide the body in a cupboard, from where one hand would evidently hang out in a while, where a janitor has to find something and we are all breathless to see the reaction when the dead body is found, but only the artificial eye of the deceased is recovered from the carpet…

Meanwhile, the events of the night are narrated, for the witness has to account for seven comings and goings, all related to the police by an obnoxious neighbor that opens her door and spies on whoever calls for the elevator, during which he went for fresh air, shopping, moving his car from a forbidden space and finally finding the cadaver that he is suspected to have produced himself, by murdering the man.

Many details are stupendous, like the scene when the wife of the late Philippe comes to his office, talks about being pregnant but faces an astonishing indifference from Commissaire Buron, is told by Louis Fugain that her husband had a very bad stomach and left…

Not just one, but a couple of Reversal of Fortunes follow in an incredibly creative, fresh, original scrip for what is in essence a wonderful comedy!