Is it possible to use as popular a song as "Les feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves) without falling into banality? Can you possibly tell a breakup story without showing the protagonists? Those are the two questions director Charles Brabant ("Le piège", "Les naufrageurs") asked himself before undertaking his first film project That is the double challenge the fledgling director (this short was his very first film) set to himself. And that he only partly took up. Regarding the song, Brabant proves successful. His using the version of "Les feuilles mortes" by Jacqueline François makes artistic sense. Thanks to the French singer you do not feel you are hearing this standard for the millionth time. Her performance, neither too cheesy nor too melodramatic, is just perfect. An atmosphere of genuine nostalgia soon builds up and keeps suffusing the 12-minute running time with adequate melancholy. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said picture wise. Not that the images are ugly, quite the contrary : Claude Lalande's somber cinematography hits the right note. It is just that Brabant does not show us enough to captivate and move us. Doing without the actual presence of the separated lovers would have implied to find strong signs and powerful symbols of their broken love affair. Now, the camera is content to slide amid bare trees, over floors littered with damaged personal items, along walls wasting away, in other words Brabant only scratches the surface rather looking deeper into the matter. To be honest, he gets quite close to his target but finally misses it. A little more relief (not too much either) and the result would have been more satisfying. "Les feuilles mortes" remains a respectable effort though. And some people may react more positively than I do. A standard response to such slender material is something that will never exist.
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