Sans Fard
2026 · 2m
Directed by Maxime Hollenweger
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
Candice wants to break up with Antoine but lacks the courage to tell him; his technique remains: doing everything so as to no longer please him.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A breakup told entirely through *anti-seduction*—she weaponizes indifference instead of confrontation, turning romantic sabotage into slapstick philosophy. It's a premise that shouldn't work, but the absurdist inversion of who's actually breaking up with whom is exactly the kind of conceptual judo most scouts sleep on.
Hollenweger operates within a lineage of French comedic minimalism—the economy of gesture and restraint recalls both Tati's observational eye and contemporary European short form—though the two-minute constraint occasionally works against the satirical precision the setup deserves.
The entire film hinges on Candice's micro-expressions during Antoine's obliviousness: that split-second when passive aggression becomes almost tenderness, and you realize the real sabotage is emotional, not behavioral—a single sustained performance choice that reframes the entire dynamic.