An excellent short, which presents all the specific qualities of its literary equivalent, the short story. In this third part of the Pierre Alt trilogy, the writer-director once again displays his mastery of the art of brief narrative. Just like Maupassant, Somerset Maugham or Carver in a limited number of pages, he manages to express a lot of things in a restricted number of minutes (9'35'' to be accurate). Doesn't "Chambre 18" encapsulate in such a tiny bubble fifteen years of the life of five individuals, two men, a woman and three children? And doesn't "Chambre 18" manage to intrigue and move the viewer with two or three natural settings, without any spectacular car chase or hair-raising explosion, simply by inviting viewers to take a second look at scenes of the ordinary life before stunning them by means of a brilliant final twist?. A regular précis indeed of the art of short story writing (and short films making for that matter). Difficult to be too detailed about the story imagined by Pierre Alt, precisely for the reasons expressed above. It would indeed spoil much of the pleasure to be derived from the screening of the movie. I will be content to say that there is the affectionate rendering of a happy family life (epitomized by the breakfast and departure for school sequence), an extra-marital affair taking place in a hotel room and... No, sorry, don't ask me more, just watch "Chambre 18" and enjoy! What is undeniable is that Alt has a magic touch. He can show family life without cheesiness. He manages to describe an afternoon tryst without being gritty or vulgar. He has the generosity not to judge his characters, whatever their "faults" (at least according to the standards of bourgeois morality). And he has a knack for making physical love something tender and beautiful to see. The actors are very good but a special mention should be given to Valérie Moinet, a delicate and luminous actress who makes the woman she embodies both ultra-feminine and moving. To make a long story short (the very definition of the art of the short story, this set phrase!), feel free to watch "Chambre 18" and you will not regret your choice: only nine minutes and thirty-five seconds of film stock have been printed but they are worth much more.
