Aveux non avenus
2026 · 2m
Directed by Constance Berthelot
Genres: biography, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, surreal, theatrical
Claude, in a whirlwind of clothes and emotions, navigates between femininity and masculinity in search of their identity, in a film inspired by the surrealist, non-binary artist Claude Cahun that blurs the borders between eras, gender and reality.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A biopic of a surrealist icon *should* be experimental, but Berthelot plays it too reverently—the whirlwind of clothes and identity feels more like a fashion montage than genuine subversion, which is exactly what a film about Claude Cahun shouldn't be.
Berthelot's formal rigor in collapsing temporal and gender boundaries through mise-en-scène—the deliberate blur between eras, the sartorial syntax—positions this squarely in the lineage of essay-film biography, where visual precision replaces narrative exposition.
The film lives or dies on the editing rhythm between wardrobe shifts and performance moments; if Berthelot nails that cut—that instant where costume becomes identity rather than costume—two minutes becomes enough to crack something open.