Si j'étais un homme
2012 · 5m · Belgium
Directed by Margot Reumont
Genres: animation, documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, provocative, whimsical
Five young women face the camera and describe, in turn, the man each of them would be, as the filmmaker animates their fantasies of masculinity.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a smart-enough provocation about gender performance, but the execution feels too polite—the animation never actually destabilizes the documentary form, just decorates it. I wanted the film to break its own premise, not illustrate it.
Reumont sits this squarely in the essay-film tradition while respecting the autonomy of her subjects' voices; the animation functions as formal commentary rather than authorial decoration, and that restraint is exactly what makes the gender inquiry land with rigor.
The choice to let the women speak first, then animate their words separately, creates this crucial gap between voice and image that does all the work—it's the formal decision that turns a conceptual idea into something that actually *feels* like imagining yourself otherwise.
Reviews
Avec une originalité qui relève du génie, la réalisatrice mélange les genres, le monde du réel représenté par la live-action et l'imagination féminine montrée par le biais du dessin en 2D. Parfaite synergie entre forme et fond.