Talk to Me
2016 · 4m · France
Directed by Christophe Gautry
Genres: animation, comedy, romance
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
Two ex-lovers reunite after years apart and decide to spend the night together.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise is deliberately ordinary—exes, one night, will-they-won't-they—but Gautry's animation style refuses sentiment, leaning into awkward comedy that undercuts the romance beat-for-beat; it's a film that knows exactly what genre it's supposed to be and then gently sabotages it.
A formally restrained piece that understands the lineage of romantic animation—the careful color palette, the economical gestural performance—while maintaining its own tonal clarity between tenderness and irony across just four minutes.
The entire film pivots on the decision to animate these characters with such graphic, almost architectural simplicity that every micro-expression—a glance held a fraction too long, a hand almost touching—carries disproportionate weight; it's an object lesson in how constraint forces specificity.
Festivals
- Berlin International Short Film Festival (Interfilm) 2016, Official Selection
- Animatou 2016, International Competition
- Festival Internacional de Curtas de São Paulo 2016
- International Short Film Festival Ciudad de Soria 2019