The film was produced by Thomas and Mathieu Verhaeghe through Atelier de Production, in co-production withFrance 3 Cinéma.[4]
On 8 November 2022, Dupieux announced on his Instagram account thatprincipal photography for the film had commenced. The post also revealed a cast includingAnaïs Demoustier,Édouard Baer,Gilles Lellouche,Pio Marmaï,Jonathan Cohen, Hakim Jemili, Agnès Hurstel,Jérôme Niel, Marc Fraize andDidier Flamand.[2]Alain Chabat andPierre Niney were planned as cast members but were ultimately unavailable.[7] It was revealed that Dalí would be portrayed by multiple actors throughout the film.[8] Shooting took place in the Parisian suburb ofSaint-Cloud, thesouth of France, and finally in Spain, where a house on theCosta Brava was staged for the film to evokeDalí's house inPortlligat. In the Spanish desert, Dupieux also filmedtableaux vivants inspired by two paintings by Dalí:Necrophilic Fountain Flowing from a Grand Piano (1932) andThe Average Fine and Invisible Harp (1932).[7][9] After six weeks, filming officially wrapped on 23 December 2022.[4]
Daaaaaalí! was selected to be screened out of competition at the80th Venice International Film Festival,[10] where it had its world premiere on 7 September 2023.[1] International sales are handled by Kinology.[4] The film was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on 1 November 2023, but was postponed by Diaphana Distribution to 7 February 2024.[11][12]
In August 2023, it was confirmed thatThomas Bangalter, formerly ofDaft Punk, had composed the score for the film.[13] Bangalter, a friend of Dupieux's, previously made a cameo in Dupieux's 2014 filmReality, a film starring Bangalter's wifeÉlodie Bouchez.[14] Bangalter and Dupieux wanted the score to be its own "character" in the movie. Bangalter exclusively used an ancientzither as the instrument for the score.[15]
In January 2024,Ed Banger Records announced the release of a limited 10" vinylEP containing Bangalter's brief original score for the film and a poster for the film.[16][17] It was released tostreaming platforms on 7 February.[18] The limited vinyl edition was released on 9 February 2024.[19]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 95% of 38 critics' reviews are positive.[20]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[21] OnAlloCiné, the film received an average rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 37 reviews from French critics.[22]
Sight and Sound critic John Bleasdale concluded, "Dupieux shares with his subject an obstinacy to forge ahead and in so doing attains a silliness that becomes dangerously close to the sublime."[23]
