Merci Cupidon
1994 · 13m · Belgium
Directed by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy
Genres: comedy, romance, surrealism
Tones: absurdist, melancholic, whimsical
Dans un bar bruxellois à l'heure des fêtes de Noël, deux êtres solitaires aux corps dégingandés se découvrent par hasard. Entourés de couples improbables et d'un groupe de musique fantasque, ils tentent maladroitement de communiquer, jusqu'à l'apparition inopinée de Cupidon.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A Christmas bar romance that summons *actual Cupid* as narrative resolution—most scouts would smooth that weirdness into sentiment, but Abel and Gordon lean into the absurdist collision instead, letting their gangly protagonists fumble through genuine strangeness while surrounded by improbable couples. This is the kind of premise that makes you squint and then suddenly realize it's the only honest way to tell that story.
The directorial trio situates this within a lineage of Belgian surrealist cinema—the whimsy recalls a tradition of formal playfulness that treats the fantastic as mundane—and the 13-minute structure demonstrates precise control, each beat of miscommunication and ensemble oddity calibrated for maximum emotional clarity despite the dreamlike apparatus.
The entire film hinges on those elongated, uncoordinated bodies moving through space: the decision to cast for physical awkwardness rather than charm transforms every gesture of romantic reaching into something both comic and genuinely vulnerable, and that choice alone carries the weight of two characters trying to connect.
Reviews
A la maladresse des corps et des sentiments, répond une rigueur certaine de la mise en scène. Proprement théâtrale, la mise en scène insiste donc sur la solitude des personnages qui sont à la fois réunis et séparés.