To coincide with L’Alliance New York’s ongoing retrospective dedicated to Sophie Letourneur, we present an early short that proved pivotal to the style and comedy of her 2012 Locarno-set comedy Les Coquillettes. Le marin masqué retells the misadventures of two friends — Sophie (Letourneur) and Laëtitia (Goffi) — on a weekend trip from Paris to Brittany.

Based on real events, Le marin masqué pairs Sophie and Laëtitia’s voice-over account of their weekend getaway with a heavily stylized reenactment of those events that’s shot in black-and-white and features all manner of visual and sonic tricks such as pin-hole shots and cartoon sound effects. At the heart of the duo’s tale is the so-called “shady sailor” — long a source of infatuation for Laëtitia, now a cringey loaf who spends all of his weekends at the local club dancing to EDM.

“I wrote it in the morning, still a bit hazy, after a weekend in Brittany at my collaborator Laetitia Goffi’s place…. We came back from the weekend, we decided to turn it into a film, we wanted something immediate and handmade.” SOPHIE LETOURNEUR

Le marin masqué marks the first time Letourneur assembled one of her films as a combination of word-for-word narrative voice-over and visual reenactment. Though she has since become known for this trademark technique, it’s difficult to dismiss the originality of her vision, which offers both a sense of intimacy and distance. In Le marin masqué, Letourneur walks a fine tightrope, openly inviting the viewer to partake in her personal tribulations while avoiding the indulgences so often hurled at purveyors of autofiction by leaving enough room in her film to poke fun at herself, her friend, and the situation they find themselves in.

Sophie Letourneur is a French filmmaker known for heartfelt and intimate comedies that often blur the line between fiction and reality. She studied at the Duperré School of Applied Arts and the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where she started directing experimental videos and documentaries. In 2009, her feature debut La vie au Ranch became a hit across France and set the scene for a career full of mischievous comedies about personal problems small and large.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to Jake Perlin, Chloe Dheu, Elliot Lardenois, Hortense Hervieux, and Ecce Films.