Eric Cantona is not the only French public figure who yearns to make it in the movies. The legendary novelist Michel Houellebecq is apparently building a film-acting career, having already directed his own adaptation of his novel The Possibility of an Island and dabbled a bit in cinema as a younger man. He is an extraordinary presence in this bizarre and very funny docu-fantasy, a sort of Euro-realist Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Houellebecq plays himself getting kidnapped by three tough-guy amateurs who imagine François Hollande will pay €20,000 (£15,775) to rescue the eminent littérateur. The result is a deadpan and yet cheerfully offensive romp with scabrous and uproarious scenes, as our hero airs his provocative views to his captors.

It’s a sort of upended Stockholm syndrome – they get to like him. This could be a pre-emptive mockery of possible jihadist attempts to punish Houellebecq for his perceived Islamophobia, or it’s inspired by an embattled Salman Rushdie getting to know his Special Branch minders. Or maybe it’s a meditation on the writer’s life: solitary, miserable, waiting for some external “ransom” event for validation.

Houellebecq’s performance is hilarious, looking much older than 58, like Wilfrid Brambell without his teeth in. He is a sulky but submissive child, incessantly whining for cigarettes. I hesitate to say it, but … a star is born.