AUTOUR DE SOI
2026 · 2m
Directed by Louise Larroque
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, essay film
Tones: contemplative, tender
During a philosophy class on beauty, a teacher invites his students to reflect on whether beauty makes us better; leaving the class, the question keeps resonating with Louis, who discovers that beauty is not a given but an apprenticeship - a way of choosing how to see the world.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A philosophy class meditation on beauty that could've been a TED talk, but Larroque trusts the form enough to let it breathe—there's something quietly subversive about making a 2-minute essay film refuse cheap emotional payoffs and actually commit to the question.
Larroque situates herself squarely in the lineage of the thinking cinema essay—Marker's DNA runs through this—with editing that treats philosophical reflection as a form of montage, each cut a small argument about what constitutes aesthetic apprenticeship.
The singular move here is the decision to keep the camera observational rather than illustrative; Larroque lets the students' faces carry the weight of recognition, and that restraint—refusing to show us what beauty "looks like"—is what makes the premise actually land.