''Final Cut'' () is a 2022

zombie comedy Zombie comedy, often called zom com or zomedy, is a film genre that aims to blend zombie horror motifs with slapstick comedy as well as morbid humor. History The earliest roots of the genre can be found in Jean Yarbrough's '' King of the Zom ...

film written and directed by

Michel Hazanavicius Michel Hazanavicius ( ; born 29 March 1967) is a French film director, screenwriter, editor, and producer. He is best known for his 2011 film, ''The Artist (film), The Artist'', which won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 84th Academy Aw ...

. It is a French remake of the 2017 Japanese film ''

One Cut of the Dead is a 2017 Japanese Independent film, independent zombie comedy film written and directed by Shin'ichirō Ueda. It follows a team of filmmakers and actors who are tasked with making ''One Cut of the Dead'', a zombie film, zombie horror film for l ...

''. It stars

Romain Duris Romain Duris (; born 28 May 1974) is a French actor. He is best known for his role in Cédric Klapisch's ''Spanish Apartment'' trilogy, which consists of '' L'Auberge Espagnole'' (2002), '' Russian Dolls'' (2005), and '' Chinese Puzzle'' (2013) ...

and

Bérénice Bejo Bérénice Bejo (; born 7 July 1976) is a French-Argentine actress best known for playing Christiana in '' A Knight's Tale'' (2001) and Peppy Miller in '' The Artist'' (2011). Her work in the latter earned her a nomination for the Academy Award ...

. The film revolves around a crew remaking the film depicted in the original film. Yoshiko Takehara reprises her role as a producer. The film was released in France on 17 May 2022, and for screening at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

as its opening film the same day.

Cast

as Rémi *

as Nadia *

Grégory Gadebois Grégory Gadebois (born 24 July 1976) is a French actor. Career Before his career as an actor begin, he worked as a mover. He studied at the CNSAD in the class of Catherine Hiegel and Dominique Valadié. He was a member of the Comédie-França ...

as Philippe * Finnegan Oldfield as Raphaël *

Matilda Lutz Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz (born 28 January 1992) is an Italian actress and model. She starred in the 2017 horror film '' Rings'' and action thriller film ''Revenge''. She also appeared in the Netflix series '' Medici - The Magnificent, Part 1'' ...

as Ava * Sébastien Chassagne as Armel * Raphaël Quenard as Jonathan *

Lyes Salem Lyès Salem (Arabic: إلياس سالم) (born 1966 in Algiers) is an Algerian actor and film director. His first film as director, '' Masquerades'', won several prizes in France. Filmography As director * ''Lhasa'' short 1999 * '' :fr:Cousin ...

as Mounir * Simone Hazanavicius as Romy *

Agnès Hurstel Agnès Hurstel (born 5 September 1990) is a French actress, comedian and radio columnist. She is co-creator, co-writer and lead actress of the series ''Jeune et Golri'' (2021–present), which won the award for best French series at Series Mania ...

as Laura *

Charlie Dupont Charlie Dupont (born 23 May 1971) is a Belgian actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. Charlie Dupont was born in Tournai, Belgium. His acting credits include '' Hard'' (2008), '' Largo Winch II'' (2011), '' Let My People Go!'' ...

as Fredo * Luàna Bajrami as Johanna * Jean-Pascal Zadi as Fatih * Raïka Hazanavicius as Manon * Yoshiko Takehara as Madame Matsuda

Production

Hazanavicius came on board the project during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 after producer Vincent Maraval acquired the remake rights and approached him. Filming began on 19 April 2021 in Paris.

Release

The film was scheduled to premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in January 2022, but it was pulled from the festival after in-person screenings were cancelled in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases. It was subsequently announced that it would premiere at the

2022 Cannes Film Festival The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival is a film festival that took place from 17 to 28 May 2022. French actor Vincent Lindon served as jury president for the main competition. French actress Virginie Efira hosted the opening and closing ceremon ...

. Originally scheduled on 15 June 2022, the nationwide release in France was moved up to 17 May 2022, the same day as the festival premiere. In April 2022, the Ukrainian Institute urged the festival and Hazanavicius to rename the film's French title, , as the letter Z had become a militaristic symbol in support of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Hazanavicius at first said it was too late to change the title but he made sure that the film would be referred to exclusively by the international title, ''Final Cut'', during the festival. However, on 25 April 2022, it was announced that the French title was changed to .

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 71% of 45 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Although it'll be more satisfying to viewers who haven't already seen the original, ''Final Cut'' offers playfully entertaining meta commentary on the art of the remake." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called the film "an entertaining piece of work - and a genuine oddity, ostensibly about cinema, but more about the live theatre experience. It may yet have found a way to breathe new life into the zombie genre itself." Conversely,

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "the first Hazanavicius movie where the filmmaker seems barely in control of what he’s doing. It’s a messy and annoying one-joke movie that repeats the joke over and over again."

References

External links

* {{Michel Hazanavicius 2022 comedy films 2022 films French comedy films 2020s French-language films French zombie films Films about filmmaking Films directed by Michel Hazanavicius Films scored by Alexandre Desplat Films shot in Paris Remakes of Japanese films One Cut of the Dead Wild Bunch (company) films Zombie comedy films 2020s French films