Michel
2025 · 2m · France
Directed by Guillaume Courty
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
Two casting directors for the TV talent show « J'ai un super pouvoir » interview Michel, an accountant gifted at mental arithmetic — and agree to cast him, though not for the same reasons.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A two-minute execution that flips the entire premise of a talent show inside-out — the 'superpower' is literally accounting, and both judges want him for completely antagonistic reasons. It's the kind of absurdist sabotage of reality TV that shouldn't work at that length but does, because Courty understands that the joke isn't the setup, it's the mutual delusion of the gatekeepers.
The restraint here is what signals craft: two minutes, minimal staging, yet the piece sits comfortably in a lineage of French satirical short cinema that understands comedic timing as formal precision. The casting directors' competing rationales arrive with the rhythm of a well-oiled farce, each beat placed with the confidence of someone who trusts the audience's intelligence.
What elevates this from sketch comedy to something sharper is the casting choice itself — Michel's affect (neither performing nor defensive, just *there*) is the fulcrum that makes the competing delusions of the judges actually land. A lesser film would oversell his bewilderment; Courty lets him breathe, and everything snaps into focus.
Reviews
Michel est à la fois un objet et un personnage attachant, qu'on a envie de mieux connaître. Quelque part entre la satire et le grotesque, on trouve la substance de tout ce qui fait une bonne comédie : une belle dose de tristesse.