"No plot, no story, no main characters. It's a comedy" Luc Moullet

From his beginnings as a Cahier du Cinema critic and fellow traveller of the Nouvelle Vague, Luc Moullet has followed his own distinctive path over the last 31 years, making just six feature films but dozens of shorts.

His latest, the ridiculous (off-) road movie Parpaillon, is a homage to Jacques Tati, a delightfully wacky collection of gags that serve Moullet's continuous obsession — the eccentric nature of normal human beings. Based on the story La passion consideree cote by Alfred Jarry, here he gathers a ragged band of cyclists, all determined to climb the renowned gradient of the Parpaillon, a mountain in the French Alps - all 2,632 metres of it. As we soon discover, they will use any tactics available to them in order to complete their annual quest. Some already know each other; some will soon meet. Some are running the race to witness it (the TV crew), others to be seen in it. While some cheat, others fall in love; some stop to repair punctures; some to sample the oysters.

Somehow, Moullet maintains a steady but always engaging pace in this absurd non-race to the peak, continually topping himself with one uproarious joke after another, behind each of which lurk astute powers of perception.