Blu-ray Review: Incredible But True

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

When you live in a hot real estate market, people will put up with a lot of stuff in order to finally get a home. Recently my area was a nightmare as houses sold in a day or so after being listed. Investment companies and hedgefunds were paying $100,000 over the asking price to grab homes and turn them into rental properties. People were so eager to grab a house, they did the stupid thing and offer cash without an inspection. Quite a few times they only saw the listing online and didn’t investigate the neighborhood or didn’t care. A house sold for $750,000 that was near a grocery store parking lot where a person had been shot the week before. People now are having to do major renovation projects to fix plumbing and floors that they would have avoided if they weren’t in desperation mode. They just wanted to buy a house instead of being stuck in a rental unit. Incredible But True is about a couple in France who get talked into buying a house with an extremely unique feature.

Alain (The Science of Sleep‘s Alain Chabat) is an insurance broker who is ready to get out to the suburbs. His wife Marie (The Blue Room‘s Léa Drucker) goes along with him as they check out a house. It’s not quite right for them since it has a basement. But the real estate broker is quick to show them a unique feature in the basement. There’s a tunnel in the floor. It doesn’t lead to a sewer or a sub-basement bomb shelter. The agent declares that “This duct leads to something radically life-changing.” He promises if they fall him into the hole, they’ll find something dazzling. Where does the hole lead them? Is he a psychopath and this is his killing room? Turns out they come down a ladder in a top floor room. This seems like a cool enough trick, but things get tricker. The real estate agent informs them at that they are 12 hours in the future from when they entered the duct. Marie quickly uses this as a way to escape a boring day. When she reappears, Alain’s boss Gérard (The Piano Teacher‘s Benoît Magimel) and his wife Jeanne (Caprice‘s Anaïs Demoustier) have been at the house for a while and are sticking around for dinner. During their talk around the table Gérard confesses he received an electronic private part. Alain wants to brag about the time duct in his basement, but Marie stops him. The duct is their private business. She has also found out the not only do you go 12 hours into the future, but your body gets 3 days younger. That’s better than a conversation pit or granite counters in the kitchen. Marie begins to use the duct to restore her beauty, but is this a miracle age defying cure?

Writer-director Quentin Dupieux has done it again. You might have seen his absurdist epic Rubber that starred a psychotic tire. What’s extremely daring is how most of the third act is a montage involving the characters. Who needs dialogue when we just want to jump into the future on the action? This is such an intimate film with the main four characters that we can follow them visually. Dupieux’s use of the montage also makes the film only 74 minutes long so it doesn’t overextend itself. Nobody is looking to go 12 hours into the future to see how it ends.

Incredible But True is such an absurd story with the time travelling hole and the electronic private part. Yet the characters make it seem normal and understandable. The characters don’t act out of the absurd. You can understand why Marie would want to abuse the tunnel. Of course, the boss would have a mechanical member. They are just people who would get wrapped up in such things. Incredible But True is a charming and bizarre film that will remind viewers of the dangers of an unnecessary home accessory.

The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer gives you a view of the duct. The audio features the 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio that was used in the theatrical release and optional lossless stereo audio. Both tracks are in French. The movie is subtitled in English.

Cast and director Interviews (16:44) features Alain Chabat, Benoît Magimel and Quentin Dupieux. The director points out that it’s not about time travel like Back to the Future. The movie is about the relationships and not the jump. He also like that it is a small film so he could work fast on it instead of taking five years to make it happen. He likes the freedom where he can have fun while making movies.

Upside Down, Inside Out (29:14) is an appreciation of the films of Quentin Dupieux by critic Elena Lazic. She goes into how the characters are connected and how they are dreams who are stuck in the drudgery of life. She sees the film as accessible and weird. How else do you explain a movie that features a man’s pants catching fire. She goes into Dupieux’s history and how he started out working on music videos with the same company that had Michel Gondry.

Trailer gallery includes three ways to tease you into the absurdity that seems normal.

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel and interviews with the cast, and reversible poster featuring two choices of artwork

Arrow Video presents Incredible But True. Directed by Quentin Dupieux. Screenplay by Quentin Dupieux. Starring Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker,Benoît Magimel & Anaïs Demoustier. Rating: Unrated. Running Time 74 minutes. Release Date: November 8, 2022.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.