Avida (film)

Avida

Industry	Film
Founded	2006
Founder	Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern
Headquarters	France
Products	Black comedy film

Avida is a French black comedy film from 2006, both penned and helmed by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern. Filmed in black-and-white, the movie utilizes surreal humour alongside sparse dialogue.

Plot

The narrative follows a deaf-mute individual and two ketamine users employed at a private family-owned zoo who devise a plan to abduct the dog of a corpulent billionaire. Their plot is interrupted by an incident in the lion enclosure. Seeking ransom, the kidnappers consent to fulfill the billionaire’s final desire: to accompany her on a mountain climb where she wishes to end her life.

Filming

Principal photography took place in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area between 25 July and 20 August 2005. Scenes set in the zoo were captured at the zoological park located in the French town of Maubeuge.

Style

The film is often categorized by critics as leaning towards surrealism due to its eccentric storyline and unusual characters. Shot in monochrome, it features absurd visual jokes and limited spoken lines. The filmmakers themselves describe Avida as a tribute to surrealism, notably inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1930 work L'Age d'Or.

Additionally, the film honors surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. Its title references "ávida dollars," an anagram of Salvador Dalí coined by surrealist theorist André Breton to critique Dalí’s commercial ambitions and prioritization of fame over surrealist principles. The concluding scene depicts a hand holding a watch that obscures the billionaire’s face, followed by a color segment featuring artwork reminiscent of Dalí’s style.

Release

Avida was chosen for inclusion in the official selection at the 59th Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened out of competition on 21 May 2006. It later premiered theatrically on 13 September 2006, distributed by Ad Vitam Distribution.

Box office

On its opening day in France, the film recorded 1,220 ticket sales and amassed 6,982 admissions over its first weekend. By the conclusion of its run in theaters, it had achieved a total of 22,827 admissions.

Critical response

The film holds an average score of 3.1 out of 5 stars on the French review aggregator AlloCiné, based on 19 critiques.

Deborah Young of Variety characterized Avida as a combination reminiscent of Monty Python, Jacques Tati, and cartoons from The New Yorker, praising the directors for their ability to reinterpret surrealism with contemporary comedic elements.

See also

• List of black-and-white films produced since 1966