SECOND SKIN
2026 · 2m
Directed by Adam Quellier
Tones: contemplative, tender
In an elegant salon, a young man and a young woman finish a last glass of champagne, dressed chic as if on a first date in an affluent milieu; seated, they look at each other and the woman asks: 'Do you find me beautiful?'
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Two minutes of champagne and a question—sounds like every overwrought romance short ever made, which is exactly why I'd skip it; unless Quellier's doing something genuinely perverse with the premise, this is just elegant emptiness.
The formal restraint here is what matters: a single question asked in a charged moment of silence, positioned within the grammar of the romance film but refusing easy resolution—this is Bergman-adjacent chamber work, quiet and architecturally precise.
That sustained look between them before she speaks is the whole film, and it hinges entirely on whether the director trusts the actors to hold nothing back in their eyes; if the performance lands there, two minutes becomes an eternity.