Petit crabe
2017 · 28m · France
Directed by William Wayolle
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
Jeanne, young and bitter, works at the fish shop by the sea out of spite; Elvis has his life and his boat, and Kevin's visits from Lyon unsettle the small world she has built.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a Rohmer-coded portrait of small-town ennui that doesn't subvert much—just sits in the malaise like everyone else expects it to, which honestly makes it feel more like homework than provocation.
Wayolle's compositional restraint and his refusal to resolve Jeanne's bitterness into catharsis marks a formal maturity; the film knows exactly what tradition of French provincial cinema it's inheriting and deepens it through measured pacing and negative space.
The decision to keep the camera fixed on Jeanne's face during other people's conversations—letting us read her resistance rather than cutting away—transforms what could have been a familiar coming-of-age into something genuinely private and precise.