This really good short by Pascal Deux is based on a simple but powerful narrative principle, illustrating with rigorous ruthlessness the gradual downfall of an individual. Clément, a modern misanthropist (Molière's play is his favorite reference), indeed jumps out of the frying pan into the fire. It takes him seven stages to find himself in the dumps, inexorably segueing into one another as follows: 1)In a sordid café where he has made an appointment with his girlfriend Anna, Clément accidentally bumps into a suspicious-looking customer. To humor the threatening thug, he stands a round of drinks to the whole company. 2)After being kept waiting for an hour and for the umpteenth time, Anna who has had enough, decides to leave Clément. 3)Clément, who is now drunk, is given the the check and realizes to his horror that he owes a huge sum. His "guests" have indeed ordered champagne. 4)Despite his efforts to appease the café owner's anger, poor Clément is beaten up by Seb, his accomplice, and brutally kicked out of the place. 5)Once in the street, he is given an additional thrashing by the man he had bumped into in the first place and his two pals. 6)Clément rings Anna's doorbell and asks her for help but all he gets is his personal belongings thrown out of the window by his irate mistress. 7)From the top of a flight of stairs, one of his attackers tosses into the air the only copy of Clément's manuscript, which finally lands... down a drain! It is this relentless nine minute descent which gives the film its main worth. But Pascal Deux, the director, also makes good use of the settings (the foul bar, the empty streets at night) and directs his actors in a very talented way (Bruno Podalydès is surprisingly sprightly in his characterization of the indecisive dreamer he embodies and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu finds the very right note of annoyed weariness as Anna). Anyway, you can be certain that, after viewing this rather impressive short, you will jump out of the fire into... a sea of satisfaction.
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