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Vimeo Short Film of the Week: ‘La Coupe’

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Short films matter. Vimeo wants you to know it. So do we. That’s we’re taking a weekly look at some of some of the short film world’s best and brightest. This week, we bring you Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ beautifully understated drama, La Coupe.

The Plot: A pre-teen girl’s night in with her dad takes an unexpected turn when the phone rings.

The Film:

In case you were wondering, La Coupe translates simply to The Cut. While that title is a clear reference to the central action within the film — a girl giving her father a haircut — it’s obvious metaphorical implications are at the heart of Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ narrative. Without giving too much away, we should tell you that La Coupe plays much like the opening of an actual wound.

Of course, it’s an emotional wound that we’re talking about in Dulude-De Celles’ film. One that every parent is likely to receive at some point in their child’s life, but also one that simply cannot be avoided. While many films have covered similar “coming-of-age” territory over the years, few have connected with such muted passion.

Dulude-De Celles achieves that effect by keeping her script relatively uncomplicated, focusing her narrative around two, base emotions — the euphoria of youth and the disappointments that come with maturity. As such, La Coupe is a study in dramatic yet understated tonal shifts. The film’s opening moments are punctuated by a boisterous reverence that slowly give way to deafening silences in the film’s second act.

The moments in between are often uncomfortable, even painful to watch. It’s a testament to the nuanced work of stars Milya Corbeil-Gauvreau and Alain Houle that the glaring tonal shifts in La Coupe feel so agonizingly honest. That emotional candor is what makes La Coupe cut so deep. And once that wound is open, you may have trouble closing it.

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Meet The Crew: 

Written & Directed by: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles Starring: Milya Corbeil-Gauvreau and Alain Houle Director of Photography: Léna Mill-Reuillard

We hope you enjoy La Coupe! The film earned raves for Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ on the festival circuit a couple of years back, and even took home the Short Film Jury Prize for International Fiction at the 2014 Sundance Film Fest. Dulude-De Celles wasted no time capitalizing on La Coupe’s success, taking the feature-length documentary Bienvenue à F.L. to TIFF the following year. You can find the trailer for that film (as well as some of the director’s video work) over at the Colonelle Films Vimeo page.

While you’re kicking around, be sure to check out some of the thousands of other short films – animated, live action and documentary – team Vimeo has curated for your viewing pleasure (via desktop or mobile device … SWEET!). You’re sure to find something interesting, and you may just stumble across your new favorite filmmaker.

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Patrick Phillips is a Staff Writer for CutPrintFilm, looper.com and geekinsider.com. He reads a lot, drinks too much coffee, buys too many records and loves writing about movies. Find him on Twitter at @savagedetectiv. Follow his movie tastes right here - https://www.taste.io/users/patphiltaste/ratings.

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