L'Ovalie en vers
2026 · 2m
Directed by Louis de Chabot
Tones: theatrical, whimsical
Two couples of friends meet on the occasion of a Stade Toulousain match; one of the men amuses the gallery by imitating the commentator, and when the other is invited to try, his love of rugby transforms his commentary into poetry.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A two-minute comedy about rugby commentary doesn't sound like subversion until you realize de Chabot's actually using the form itself as the joke—the theatrical escalation from imitation to poetry is almost too neat, too aware of its own structure; it's the kind of thing that works *because* it knows exactly what it's doing, which usually bores me, but here the precision cuts.
De Chabot executes a classically proportioned comic structure—setup, imitation, the invited dare, the revelation of genuine passion—that recalls the tradition of French theatrical comedy while respecting the constraints of short form; the pivot from mockery to sincere poetic utterance is formally elegant, a tonal modulation that requires both editorial discipline and performative restraint.
The entire film hinges on the second man's voice—not what he says, but the *shift* in how he says it, the moment his affected commentary breaks into something unguarded—and de Chabot trusts that performance choice completely, letting the camera hold steady while everything changes in tone and breath; it's economical filmmaking that knows its power lives in one actor's genuine surrender.