Amour
2021 · 2m · France
Directed by Pauline Romane
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age
Tones: contemplative, humorous
Over the course of a bath, Pauline sifts through her memories and confronts an embarrassing realization: she doesn't know how to flirt.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A two-minute bath scene about not knowing how to flirt sounds like the most insufferable coming-of-age cliché imaginable—which means Romane probably found something genuinely weird in it, but honestly, I'd need to see it to know if she pulled off the subversion or just made a precious art-school video.
Romane demonstrates formal control in miniature: the contained space of a bathtub as psychological chamber, memory surfacing like steam, the discipline of extracting genuine revelation from such a circumscribed premise recalls the rigorous economy of early Chantal Akerman.
The entire film hinges on whatever Romane does with the water—whether it's a visual motif for obfuscation, a rhythmic editing device, or just the sound design—because in two minutes with one actor and one location, that choice either crystallizes the whole meditation on self-awareness or it doesn't.