Cédric Kahn's 'Making of' Examines the Auteur's Crisis in Meta-Cinematic Comedy

Cédric Kahn's film 'Making of', presented Out of Competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival, is a meta-cinematic comedy that interrogates the relevance of the auteur figure in contemporary cinema. The film contrasts two protagonists: Simon (Denis Podalydès), a disillusioned fifty-year-old director making a film about factory workers fighting relocation, and Joseph (Stefan Crepon), a young man hired to shoot the making-of, who embodies raw talent and passion. Through their mirroring trajectories, Kahn explores the risks and existential toll of authorship, suggesting that the auteur's voice is defined by risk-taking rather than collective anonymity. The film avoids the hopeful circular dance of Nanni Moretti's 'Il Sol dell'Avvenire', instead offering a more tragic view of cinema as an addictive, consuming drug. Kahn's work reflects on the gap between youthful idealism and the exhaustion of experience, leaving open whether Joseph will become a future Simon. The review was written by Carlotta Petracci for Artribune.