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GOCRITIC! Animateka 2022

GoCritic! Review: Inglorious Liaisons

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- Milena Pantović reviews Chloé Alliez and Violette Delvoye's teenage love triangle story which captures a range of human emotions and behaviours through minimal means

GoCritic! Review: Inglorious Liaisons
Inglorious Liaisons by Chloé Alliez and Violette Delvoye

The screening of Inglorious Liaisons, an animated short by Chloé Alliez and Violette Delvoye, brought liveliness and colour to the opening night of Animateka’s 19th edition, in vivid contrast to the monochrome palette and experimental landscapes of the films which came before it. The film is a wonderful depiction of a typical love triangle, and all its ins and outs, which unfolds at a teenage house party.

The setting for this French-Belgian stop-motion film is a colourful and eventful evening filled with alcohol, overly active hormones, and loud music enjoyed – and endured – by a familiar range of high school archetypes. The late arrival of one particular heartthrob, Jimmy, causes a spot of trouble, leading potential girlfriend Maya to question her feelings for him, as well as her feelings for her best friend Lucie.

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The teens are turned on: brilliantly, Alliez and Violette use light switches for their characters’ faces, capturing a range of human emotions and behaviours through effectively minimal means. The makers’ creativity – and humour – can also be found in the film’s finer details, including bottles of alcohol and ‘pimples’ on the faces/switches, all of which create a credible and funny picture of a teenage party.

Alliez and Violette convey the excitement and angst of a teenage house party perfectly. A close-up capturing Jimmy’s confident cockiness emphasises his side-swept fringe, while POV shots of Maya and Lucie glancing at one another as they dance with different partners alternate between longing, sympathy and annoyance. Within its efficient eleven-minute runtime, Inglorious Liaisons shows care and empathy in its humour. Its colour, music and characters combine to explore sexuality and the frustration and confusion of stereotypes in a light-hearted but not at all shallow manner.

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