Foutaises
1989 · 7m · Francia
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Genres: comedy, experimental
Dominique Pinon explains to the viewer, in a comedy built on elaborate camerawork, examples of the things he likes and the things he dislikes.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Jeunet's doing a bit here—a guy listing likes and dislikes while the camera pirouettes around him—and it should be insufferable, but the absurdist precision makes it subversive in a way most comedy doesn't even attempt. The premise is a joke about having no premise, which, fine, I respect the audacity.
This is Jeunet establishing his visual grammar before *Delicatessen*: a seven-minute formal exercise in how editing rhythm and camera movement can carry comedic weight, situated squarely in the tradition of visual gag cinema and Surrealist play with mundane subject matter. The craft awareness is immaculate.
Pinon's deadpan delivery against that roving, intricate camerawork creates a friction that makes the whole thing *work*—it's the single decision to keep the performance grounded while the frame dances that elevates what could've been a student exercise into something genuinely alive.