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Ailleurs Exactement (Review)

We meet again, Travelling. I don’t know what to say about this one. Even the description for the video had me in a daze. But that’s typical of these folks. It has to be something weird. And nothing plays more weird than this one, until I see another short film by these strange folks.

Maxime (Nolwenn Daste) is an ordinary woman who lives an ordinary life. At least that’s what one would think until what she does one particular morning, which is forget which way her pants go on. After several childish attempts, Maxime’s scene changes right when I’m yawning and she decides to call 911 for help. No wait, she hangs up. Maxime chooses to wear a dress instead and head to work where she and her coworkers discuss an important upcoming meeting.

She returns home afterwards, talks to her husband (Guillaume Vanhille) about his day, where a grade 11 student in his gym class is going through the usual mood moment of the month. After seeing how her husband pulls on his jeans to close the window and use the bathroom after sex, Maxime ends up wearing her pants to bed, despite her husband’s dislike, and in the shower next morning. I’m at a loss now.

But her memory doesn’t get any better when she forgets about the meeting that was scheduled, and she goes outside pretending to be a tourist, meeting a man named Julien (Jeremie Graine). Long story short, Maxime goes to an all girl’s party with Julien tagging along and the rest of the dialogue is Julien complimenting every woman’s talent because clearly the real conversation at an all girl’s party would’ve been much more predictable. Maxime leaves, goes to her ex’s (Boris Ravanne) apartment by accident, and it’s obvious she’s got a pretty critical condition. How does it sum up?

I doubt it does. Is this supposed to be some multiple genre type? It’s awkward to make a drama/romance out of memory loss. I mean, Arthur and a couple other shows out there may have made Alzheimer’s into an entertaining plot device, but this is just painful to watch. I’m sure anyone can relate to this if they have said condition, but they probably wouldn’t remember the experience. I think there should’ve been more going on between Maxime and Julien. All they do is share an awkward dialogue scene together. There’s not enough character development but that’s typical in short films. The ending, well, I don’t think it solves the issue at all. Just when I thought I was getting used to Travelling’s work, they surprise me with weirder stuff than the year before.

 

Image courtesy of Morguefile. (I couldn’t find anything else better for memory loss)

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