Patrick
2026 · 2m
Directed by Manon Perrier, Laura Gambino, Sam Bertrand
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
Walking in Paris, Sylvain and Camille run into Sylvain's ex-girlfriend Charlotte on a bench with a wretched-looking man constantly eating bananas — Patrick André Patrack, the contemporary artist who has exploded in recent years — and, disturbed by the scene, Sylvain ends their romantic date.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A date sabotaged by the mere *existence* of a banana-eating contemporary artist is exactly the kind of absurdist premise that makes people uncomfortable, which means it's working—this is anti-romance wrapped in comedy's clothing, and it doesn't apologize for the weirdness.
The film understands the tradition of Parisian romantic comedy only to dismantle it with precision; the formal setup (couple, bench, interruption) pivots into something that resists sentimentality through sheer tonal control and an almost Buñuelian indifference to resolution.
The choice to make Patrick visually unremarkable—just a man eating bananas—rather than grotesque or cartoonishly exaggerated is what makes the whole thing sting; the film trusts the audience to feel Sylvain's baseless discomfort, and that restraint is everything.