AU PREMIER REGARD
2026 · 2m
Directed by Pierrick Lafond
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
Mathieu and Julie meet for a drink in a bar, as every day; as every day, Julie scrolls through her next dates while Mathieu dreams of the possibilities of the world around him.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise reads like a Hallmark setup until you realize the film isn't interested in redemption or connection—it's just two people in parallel universes, and that refusal to resolve is almost radical, but it needed to be weirder to really land.
A clean, economical chamber piece that understands the grammar of intimate alienation; the bar setting as constraint is classical, and the editing rhythm between Mathieu's gaze and Julie's screen quietly argues something about contemporary romance that feels earned.
The entire film hinges on whether you buy Mathieu's daydream sequences as genuine escape or performance, and Lafond's choice to keep them visually restrained—just enough texture to shift mood without spectacle—is what makes the mundane setup actually hurt.