Keep an Eye Out (French: Au poste!) is a 2018 French surreal black comedy film written and directed by Quentin Dupieux.[1] The story centers on Louis Fugain, who discovers a corpse outside his apartment building and is subjected to an absurd all-night interrogation at a 1970s-style police station, where reality blurs with hallucination amid eccentric officers and illogical events.[2] Starring Grégoire Ludig as Fugain and Benoît Poelvoorde as the bumbling Captain Buron, the film runs for 73 minutes and explores themes of absurdity and police procedural conventions through stream-of-consciousness storytelling.[3]Dupieux, known for his absurdist works such as Rubber (2010) and Wrong (2012), crafted Keep an Eye Out as a gleeful subversion of the cop genre, featuring one-eyed detective Philippe (Marc Fraize) and other quirky characters that heighten the film's chaotic humor.[2] Produced in France, the movie premiered at festivals like the La Rochelle International Film Festival on June 30, 2018, before its theatrical release by Diaphana Films on July 4, 2018.[4] It later received a U.S. theatrical release on March 5, 2021, distributed by Dekanalog.[4]Critically, Keep an Eye Out has been praised for its breakneck pace and commitment to illogical comedy, earning an 86% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews, with audiences scoring it at 74%.[1] While some noted its scattered narrative as a drawback, the film's innovative blending of fourth-wall breaks and surreal elements has solidified its reputation as a standout in Dupieux's oeuvre of deadpan surrealism.[2]
Plot
Synopsis
Keep an Eye Out! opens with a surreal prologue in which a mustachioed man in a red Speedo conducts an orchestra in a meadow, only to be chased into the woods by arriving police officers.[2] The main narrative centers on Louis Fugain (Grégoire Ludig), an unassuming man who discovers the fresh corpse of a naked man outside his apartment building late one night and promptly reports it to the authorities.[3] He is immediately taken to a dimly lit police station for interrogation by the gruff Commissaire Buron (Benoît Poelvoorde), who chain-smokes cigarettes, exhaling smoke through a conspicuous hole in his chest—a bizarre visual gag that underscores the film's absurd tone.[5] Buron subjects Fugain to relentless, circular questioning about his movements that evening, demanding a precise recounting of seven trips he made in and out of his building via the elevator, each time for mundane reasons like retrieving a misplaced item or checking on a noise.[6] As Fugain explains his alibi in fragmented flashbacks, the scenes grow increasingly disjointed, with present-day characters inexplicably invading his memories and accusing him of inconsistencies, heightening his frustration and Buron's suspicion that he is the killer.[7]The interrogation is repeatedly interrupted by eccentric figures and escalating absurdities. Buron briefly steps out, leaving Fugain under the watch of Philippe (Marc Fraize), a paranoid, one-eyed rookie policeman obsessed with protocol and demonstrating his preparedness by insisting on showing Fugain his badge despite warnings.[8] In a slapstick sequence, Philippe trips over a metal wastebasket while retrieving the badge, impaling his remaining eye on its sharp edge and dying instantly in a pool of blood—a shocking, farcical accident that leaves Fugain in panic.[6] Desperate to avoid further incrimination, Fugain hastily hides Philippe's body in an office locker and attempts to conceal the mishap when Buron returns, all while the questioning resumes with repetitive demands for clarification on trivial details, such as why Fugain's wife Fiona (Anaïs Demoustier) was sleepwalking or why neighbor Sylvain (Orelsan) kept knocking insistently at the door.[7] Additional gags punctuate the tension, including Fugain casually eating a raw oyster—shell and all—like a snack, and Buron's young son casually mentioning his father's prior suicide attempt mid-interrogation.[5]As the night wears on, the surrealism intensifies with temporal distortions in Fugain's recollections, where unrelated events like watching unedited footage of galloping horses on television bleed into the narrative, and characters debate linguistic tics such as overusing the word "actually."[2] Suddenly, the office walls lift away, revealing a theater stage and applauding audience; the entire interrogation unfolds as a meta-fictional play, with the characters breaking the fourth wall to bow theatrically, leaving Fugain—the actor playing the suspect—visibly bewildered and terrified.[6] In the aftermath, the cast gathers for a celebratory meal, casually critiquing their performances, but the illusion shatters further when Buron, now revealed as the real Commissaire, arrests the actor Fugain for the actual murder of the one-eyed Philippe, whose on-stage death was no accident, trapping him in an endless loop of questioning.[5] This twist culminates the film's exploration of absurdity and authority, blending comedy with disorienting reality shifts.[8]
Themes
Keep an Eye Out! exemplifies Quentin Dupieux's signature style of surrealism and absurdity, where everyday scenarios devolve into illogical chaos to undermine conventional narrative logic. Similar to his earlier film Rubber (2010), which follows a sentient tire on a killing spree, the movie employs nonsensical elements to create a self-contained world of illogic, challenging viewers to embrace nonsense as a form of cinematic language.[9][10]Central to the film are themes of authority and incompetence within bureaucratic institutions, portraying police procedures as farcical rituals devoid of purpose or efficacy. This critique highlights the dehumanizing nature of power structures, where officials wield control through arbitrary rules and meaningless formalities, reflecting broader social absurdities. The narrative also blurs the boundaries between reality and performance, using illogical shifts to question the authenticity of institutional interactions and personal identity.[11][12][13]Dupieux's visual and narrative techniques amplify these ideas through extended one-take sequences that mimic the monotony of interrogation, interspersed with non-sequiturs that disrupt coherence and inject surreal humor. Meta-theatrical elements, such as abrupt reality breaks and paradoxical storytelling, further emphasize the film's self-aware absurdity, turning the police station into a stage for performative incompetence.[12][2]The film's thematic framework draws from traditions of absurdist theater, particularly Eugène Ionesco's exploration of existential futility in bureaucratic settings, and black comedy influences like Monty Python's nightmarish sketches, which Dupieux has cited as inspirational for his blend of humor and unease. These roots inform a critique of modern alienation and the ontology of the real, positioning Keep an Eye Out! within Dupieux's oeuvre as a pointed yet playful deconstruction of societal norms.[9][13][11]
Cast
Principal cast
Benoît Poelvoorde leads the cast as Commissaire Buron, the obsessive and bumbling police inspector who conducts a relentless, minutiae-focused interrogation. His portrayal emphasizes a world-weary, bullying demeanor, delivering lines with a syncopated rhythm that twists words and heightens the absurdity, marking a more subdued turn compared to his typically high-energy comic roles.[14][15][16]Grégoire Ludig portrays Louis Fugain, the hapless and bewildered protagonist dragged into the station as a murder suspect, where he recounts his evening in exhaustive, interrupted detail. Nahel Ange appears as Louis Fugain (aged 7). Ludig's straight-faced performance as the harried everyman anchors the film's surreal logic, providing a grounded foil to the escalating chaos through his rattled vulnerability and comedic timing.[3][16][17][18]Anaïs Demoustier plays Fiona, the cheerful wife of junior officer Philippe, who enters the interrogation room to offer her perspective on events. Her brief but lively appearance injects additional disorientation into the proceedings, blending domestic familiarity with the station's mounting oddities.[19][20][16]Orelsan appears as Sylvain Buron, the commissaire's son, in a concise yet pivotal surreal interlude involving a late-night delivery to the station. His role underscores the film's meta-narrative shifts, adding a layer of familial eccentricity to the unfolding absurdity.[16][20][18]
Supporting cast
Marc Fraize plays Philippe, a rookie one-eyed policeman tasked with watching the suspect during a break in the interrogation; his fixation on displaying his police badge leads to an accidental death in the bathroom, where he slips and the badge impales his remaining eye, serving as a pivotal slapstick comedic set piece that propels the film's escalating absurdity.[2][6]Philippe Duquesne portrays Champonin, a bumbling colleague at the police station whose clumsy interventions contribute to the interrogation room's farcical chaos, including mishandled evidence and misguided deductions that heighten the procedural parody.[18]The film features brief but eccentric appearances from supporting actors like Jacky Lambert as Franchet, a station regular whose odd mannerisms amplify the surreal atmosphere without propelling the central narrative.[18][1]
Production
Development
Quentin Dupieux drew inspiration for Keep an Eye Out! (original French title: Au poste!) from his affinity for absurdist comedy, particularly the surreal and illogical elements found in French cinematic traditions such as Peur sur la ville, Garde à vue, Buffet froid, Le Magnifique, and Le Père Noël est une ordure. He conceived the script around a confined, single-location interrogation in a police station at night, aiming to blend a logical procedural framework with irrational, dreamlike intrusions that evoke a "softer nightmare" where the protagonist encounters incomprehensible events. This approach allowed Dupieux to explore the tension between banality and absurdity, constructing the narrative unconsciously from surreal ideas before retrofitting them into a coherent structure.[21]The script was completed in 2017, marking Dupieux's return to French-language filmmaking after a series of English-language productions in the United States, including Rubber (2010) and Wrong (2012). This shift was motivated by a desire to prioritize dialogue-driven storytelling and deeper character immersion in his native language, contrasting with the visually oriented, sunlit exteriors of his prior American works. Dupieux wrote the screenplay quickly to capture its rhythmic, text-focused essence, akin to composing music, while incorporating ongoing revisions during pre-production to refine the tone.[21][22]As a low-budget independent production, the film was produced by Atelier de Production in co-production with Cinefrance 1888, Nexus Factory, and uMedia, enabling a streamlined pre-production with minimal rehearsals and a small crew. Initial involvement came from production companyAtelier de Production, which supported the project's intimate scale and focus on French cultural realism.[3][22][23]
Casting
The casting for Keep an Eye Out! (original French title: Au poste!) emphasized actors with strong comedic timing and versatility to suit Quentin Dupieux's absurdist style. Dupieux selected Benoît Poelvoorde to play Commissaire Buron, drawn to the Belgian actor's ability to deliver lines with manic energy, as demonstrated in his breakout role in the 1992 black comedy Man Bites Dog.[14] Poelvoorde's experience in versatile comedic performances, including recent works like Saint Amour, made him ideal for the interrogator's eccentric demands.[22]The production, a French-Belgian co-production, presented challenges in assembling talent across borders, such as securing Poelvoorde alongside French performers. Dupieux also cast rapper Orelsan (Aurélien Cotentin) in the supporting role of Sylvain Buron, marking an early acting outing for the musician known primarily for his work in hip-hop and his prior film Comment c'est loin (2015). Grégoire Ludig was chosen for the lead suspect Louis Fugain due to his naturalistic style seen in Et ta sœur (2015), while Anaïs Demoustier took the role of Fiona, inspired by her performance in Caprice (2015). Other key roles went to Marc Fraize as the one-eyed policeman Philippe and Philippe Duquesne as Inspector Kesler.[23][22]Preparation involved limited rehearsals, consisting of a single Saturday session before principal photography to acclimate the cast to the single-location set and refine the overall tone. Dupieux prioritized precise dialogue delivery, with actors memorizing not only their lines but also their co-stars' to enable long, unbroken takes; improvisation was minimal, limited to just a few lines or word additions to preserve the script's controlled absurdity.[22]A notable aspect of the casting was the inclusion of Marc Fraize as Philippe, the novice one-eyed officer whose condition directly ties into the film's recurring visual gag of surveillance and oversight. Fraize brought authentic physicality to the role, enhancing the comedic irony without relying on effects or prosthetics.[22][24]
Filming
Principal photography for Keep an Eye Out! (original French title: Au poste!) took place from September 4 to October 6, 2017, over five weeks, marking director Quentin Dupieux's return to filming in France after several projects abroad.[23][22]The production was primarily confined to a single-location police station set constructed at the Espace Niemeyer, the headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris, to heighten the film's claustrophobic tension and surreal atmosphere.[25][26] Some exterior shots were also filmed in the Paris area to complement the imagined commissariat environment.[22]Dupieux served as his own cinematographer, employing long takes—some lasting up to four minutes—and static shots to underscore the film's minimalist, nocturnal aesthetic with beige tones and a 1970s-inspired look, enhancing its absurd and surreal tone without relying on close-ups or frequent cuts.[22] The confined set demanded precise performances from the actors, who memorized extensive dialogue—up to ten pages per scene—with limited improvisation and no downtime between takes, contributing to the tight, rhythmic pacing.[22]
Music
The musical score for Keep an Eye Out (original title: Au poste!) was composed by David Sztanke, a French musician known for leading the electro-pop band Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree Family.[27] Recorded post-filming in 2018, the score integrates seamlessly with the film's absurd narrative, providing non-diegetic accompaniment without the use of songs within the story world, though an opening diegetic excerpt from Leonard Bernstein's "Adagio - Allegro" sets an initial orchestral tone.[28]Sztanke crafted a minimalist and quirky score blending jazz and electronic elements, characterized by tense underscore during interrogation scenes and whimsical cues that heighten the film's surreal humor.[28] Representative tracks include "Le Stress," which builds unease with sparse percussion and subtle synth layers, and "Thème au Post," featuring playful jazz motifs on piano, saxophone, bass, double bass, keyboards, and drums inspired by 1980s composers like François de Roubaix. Flashback sequences employ percussion-only minimalism to evoke disorientation, complementing the visuals in a single, restrained auditory layer.[28]The sound design amplifies everyday noises—such as dripping water and echoing footsteps—to intensify paranoia and comedic tension, reinforcing the score's role in the film's immersive, off-kilter atmosphere. This post-production approach underscores the surreal elements captured during principal photography without overpowering the dialogue-driven absurdity.[28]
Keep an Eye Out had its world premiere at the 46th Festival International du Film de La Rochelle on June 30, 2018, where it was presented as a French production in the main program.[29] The screening marked the first public showing of director Quentin Dupieux's surreal comedy, which unfolds almost entirely within a police station during an overnight interrogation.[30]The film received its French theatrical debut on July 4, 2018, distributed nationwide by Diaphana Films.[31] This release followed closely after the festival premiere, allowing audiences to experience the 73-minute black comedy shortly after its initial unveiling.Internationally, Keep an Eye Out enjoyed limited festival appearances throughout 2018 and 2019, including screenings at the Sitges Film Festival in October 2018, where it won the Best Screenplay award for Dupieux's script.[32] Other notable runs included the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, contributing to its growing recognition in genre and independent circuits.[33]Promotional events featured director Q&As at various festivals, where Dupieux discussed the film's meta elements, such as its self-referential humor and fourth-wall breaks that enhance the absurd interrogationnarrative. These sessions highlighted the intentional constraints of the single-location setting to amplify the comedic tension.[34] The early festival buzz helped secure broader distribution opportunities beyond France.[35]
Distribution
"Keep an Eye Out" premiered internationally with a theatrical release in France on July 4, 2018, distributed by Diaphana Films.[36] The film reached Germany on December 12, 2019, through theatrical distribution.[37] In the United Kingdom, it became available via video-on-demand platforms in late 2018 and 2019, without a wide theatrical rollout.[38] The United States limited theatrical release occurred on March 5, 2021, managed by Dekanalog, focusing on select cinemas and virtual screenings.[39]Home media options followed soon after initial releases. In France, DVD and Blu-ray editions were issued on November 14, 2018, by Diaphana Films.[40] The U.S. Blu-ray came out on December 28, 2021, via Dekanalog, including extras like director commentary and rehearsal footage.[36] As of 2025, the film streams on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, MUBI, and Tubi, providing English subtitles for accessibility.[41]Marketing efforts centered on the film's surreal black comedy tone, with official trailers showcasing absurd interrogation scenes and quirky humor to attract fans of director Quentin Dupieux's style.[42] International versions featured English subtitles to broaden appeal in non-French markets.[43] In the U.S., the film carried an unrated MPAA classification, noted for moderate profanity, brief nudity, and some violent content in parental guides.[44]
Box office
Keep an Eye Out grossed $1,988,526 worldwide, with the vast majority of earnings coming from its home market in France. In France, the film attracted 266,562 admissions, generating $1,988,526 in revenue.[45][46]The film opened in France on July 4, 2018, earning $624,169 over its first weekend from 95,929 admissions across 195 theaters.[47] Its performance declined steadily thereafter, with second-weekend earnings dropping 57.6% to $264,800.[47]A limited U.S. theatrical release followed on March 5, 2021, but domestic grosses were negligible amid the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on cinema attendance.[10]The film's commercial results reflect the niche appeal of Quentin Dupieux's surreal comedy style, which typically yields low-budget returns comparable to his other works, such as Deerskin ($1,694,055 worldwide).-(2019))
Reception
Critical response
Upon its release, Keep an Eye Out received generally positive reviews from critics, earning an aggregate score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.[1] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 64 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reception from eight critics.[48] In France, AlloCiné reported a press rating of 3.7 out of 5 from 31 reviews.[49]Critics widely praised the film's off-kilter humor and stylistic absurdity, hallmarks of director Quentin Dupieux's approach to genre subversion. Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com awarded it 2 out of 4 stars, commending the "bumble" of its authority figures and Benoît Poelvoorde's performance as the bumbling Captain Buron, which anchors the escalating surrealism.[2] The Hollywood Reporter highlighted its "fun exercise in genre-bending," noting how Dupieux twists procedural conventions into a lean, dialogue-driven farce.[14] Similarly, The New York Times lauded Dupieux for "hitting the notes of darkness and drollery just right" in this bizarre single-location setup.[24]Some reviewers pointed to pacing issues arising from the film's confined police station setting and repetitive structure, which occasionally dulled its momentum. Allen noted that the movie "lacks momentum" despite its absurd premise, making Dupieux's focus on the mundane feel underdeveloped.[2] Slant Magazine criticized its "many dry stretches," arguing that the narrative's abandonment of convention left emotional depth wanting compared to Dupieux's stronger works like Wrong.[50] Variety described it as a "too-tame cop movie," suggesting its brevity and oddity limit broader appeal.[10]The film further solidified Dupieux's cult following among audiences appreciative of his deadpansurrealism.[51] Publications like The Guardian have emphasized Dupieux's growing niche status through such offbeat projects, which prioritize inventive humor over conventional storytelling.[13]
Accolades
Keep an Eye Out received recognition primarily at film festivals and national awards in Europe following its release. The film's screenplay by Quentin Dupieux was awarded the Best Screenplay prize at the 51st Sitges Film Festival in October 2018.[52]At the 9th Magritte Awards in February 2019, Benoît Poelvoorde earned a nomination for Best Actor for his performance as Captain Buron.[53][54]
The film's accolades were concentrated between late 2018 and early 2019, reflecting its appeal in comedic and genre categories across French and Belgian cinema circles.