Albert Dupontel’s new film, Second Tour, multiplies the nods to cinema, and from its preamble, pays homage to three cinema legends. Who are they and why is their film dedicated to these personalities?
Fans of Albert Dupontel know that the director, screenwriter and actor often likes to slip in tributes or make dedications at the start of his films. Goodbye Cons was, for example, dedicated to Monty Python Terry Jones, who died in January 2020. Goodbye Up there paid tribute to the media man Alain de Greef and the author and designer Marcel Gotlib.
Second Tour, the 8th feature film by Albert Dupontel, arriving at the cinema this Wednesday is no exception to this rule or rather habit. It is precisely dedicated to three important figures of French cinema: Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Michel Deville.
Albert Dupontel explains *: “Bertrand Tavernier, in addition to being a very great director (The Watchmaker of Saint-Pierre, The Judge and the Assassin and Coup de torchon and many others), was a legendary film buff who nourished me in recent years of his film knowledge and encouraged me until his last days with lists of films to see. With him, I rewatched films that I had little known and discovered other extraordinary ones.“
About Jean-Paul Belmondo, he continues: “He was for me, as for millions of people, an icon of childhood and youth and symbolized acting genius and the pleasure of life. I met him a lot until the end of his life, he impressed me even more because although diminished, he enlightened everyone he met with his optimism and joy..”
Finally, Albert Dupontel returns to the choice of dedicating his film to director Michel Deville, who died in February 2023.While after Bernie, I thought and felt banned from the profession, he called me to offer me the main role of Sachs’ disease, thus considering myself for the first time as having acting value. His films are jewels to be seen and rewatched without moderation.“
Our podcast interview with Albert Dupontel:
Beyond these homages at the opening of the film, Second Tour is full of references, particularly in the choice of the names of its characters. While Adieu les cons multiplied the references to Brazil by Terry Gilliam, Albert Dupontel went to look for a character name in homage to the actor Jason Robards. “Robard, the character played by Philippe Uchan, corresponds to this extraordinary actor, Jason Robards, who played Cheyenne in Once Upon a Time in the West, and especially to the head of the editorial staff in The President’s Men by Alan J. Pakula with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.“
Are there any other identifiable cinephile references? As Albert Dupontel explained to us on the microphone, the public often talks to him about a Hal Ashby film. “Spontaneously in debates, people talk to me about Welcome Mister Chance (Being There) by Hal Ashby, with Peter Sellers, in which a slight idiot is mistaken for a great economist, and at the end of the film is about to enter the presidential campaign for the United States.
It’s a film that has always influenced me. It’s one of my cult films. At the time of Bernie, I was drinking this film. It has come back into people’s psyches. Afterwards, I saw so many films that I can’t even relate to you. Often in debates, people say to me “that reminds me of…”. It’s not conscious. Unconsciously I made references to it.”
Second Tour by Albert Dupontel is currently in theaters.
* Comments from the press kit for the film Second Tour