Larmes de putes
2026 · 2m
Directed by Ludivine Faidherbe
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, tense
Sarah comes home to do her makeup; alone, she prepares herself until a message arrives that will destabilise her.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A two-minute mirror scene about makeup and a text message—sounds like the most predictable intimacy-is-fragile short ever made, which is exactly why I'm suspicious it might be doing something genuinely strange with that premise that lesser filmmakers would've missed.
Faidherbe's restraint in the frame—the decision to keep Sarah centered, unadorned, before the destabilization—situates itself in a lineage of feminist introspection films that understand the mirror as a site of both construction and vulnerability, executed with formal discipline.
The kill shot here is likely the moment the message lands: how Faidherbe cuts or holds on Sarah's face in that instant—whether it's reaction or absence of reaction—is probably what separates a competent character study from something that actually *sees* her.