Franchement, ça va
2026 · 2m
Directed by Lilian Alessandri
Genres: drama, LGBTQ+, romance
Tones: contemplative, tender
A man with a bandaged face is worried; his boyfriend tries to reassure him before removing the bandages.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Two minutes of a guy's face wrapped in gauze while his boyfriend whispers reassurance sounds like the safest indie romance move possible—which is exactly why I'm not picking it. Give me the film that makes me uncomfortable, not the one that asks me to feel comfortable feeling moved.
Alessandri positions this within a lineage of intimate reveal-as-revelation, reminiscent of early Tsai Ming-liang's patient camera work, though the restraint here risks dissolving into sentimentality without the formal pressure to sustain it.
The entire film lives in the decision to keep the bandages on for 90 seconds while dialogue does almost nothing—that choice to let silence and proximity carry the emotional weight, rather than the reveal itself, is what separates this from a greeting card.