PASSION MUTILEE (Maimed Passion)

Mélanie Foucault / France / 16 minutes

Synopsis

“A man and a woman in a bar don't get along anymore. Through the man's voice-over, we see flashbacks of his life, in a daily life where humiliation and ordinary violence reign.”

Armed with a rather chilling topic, « Passion Mutilée » stands out by its arty old-fashioned short-film form. A welcome choice, but at the root of qualities as well as faults. The editing effects per se are nice, like the opening and ending of the first and last shots; but some of them (superimpositions, jump cuts) would have benefit from being more measured, for example by just punctuating instead of lengthily insisting on emotions or situations that were already perfectly tangible. And some others (rough slow motion) even appear superfluous. Hence a lack of subtlety that can weaken the story at times.

In the same vein: the overall structure surprises, positively or negatively. For us, the first viewing was disconcerting because of the two first minutes’ sound treatment, after which the audience is finally able to understand that this was a distancing allowing the voice-over narration (plus representing the two protagonists who aren’t on the same wavelength, even when they don’t speak). Under these conditions, we don’t think this long intro was a judicious stance. Conversely, even though the post-credits epilogue’s format is theoretically not very appropriate (3 minutes, not minor... especially for a 16-minute film!), the sequence itself is good enough to keep us enthralled all the way and make us perceive this peculiarity as a favourable originality.

Undeniably, everything has been considered. Little interesting details occur here and there, such as colour symbolisms (car, flowers) or subliminal titles (posters, books). We also find gorgeous the poster of the film itself (hereinabove). This care should’ve been applied to the frames too, which are a little too humdrum. This occasionally-impersonal photography, with a few technical flaws (blur), plus a couple of missing sound effects, give the ensemble a little broke look that could’ve been avoided.

The flick’s major asset after all remains its talented cast, notably its main actor Maxime Pipet. Let’s highlight he’s the one who wrote the great text you can hear throughout the film, another unerring good point.

Conclusion

Very nice potential, for a clumsy and charming short-film.

G.W.

« Maimed Passion » joins official selection for the Little Croco Festival’s third edition, nominated in the Drama category.