J'attendrai le suivant...

A lonely woman goes on about her life until one day, the ride on her usual train takes an unexpected turn, changing her life in the mere span of a few minutes.

It's a well-crafted short, from start to finish. The actress does a magnificient job showing the sad, lonely side of the character, which makes the audience take a liking on her earlier in the short. There's humour in it too, and the cadence of the dialogue makes the audience follow the slow but steady flow of the plot.

The simplicity and familiarity of the setting (coming home from work, getting on the train to share your personal space with strangers for as long as the ride lasts) adds to showing how easily events in the short could happen in real life. How humans can be cruel without meaning to, and how they can also be very naive when hope is an option.

The naiveness of the woman, her hope to finally stop feeling lonely, is what gives this short that special touch.

Quite literally an emotional ride, "I'll Wait for the Next One" offers the promise of a fateful encounter only to be challenged abruptly by a surprise ending. The surprise works because our feelings are channeled through the eyes of the woman, whom in becoming the dupe of the male perpetrator forces viewers along to share in her struggle. The film thus raises many questions regarding the nature of the conflict it depicts: why is it not surprising that the man is the perpetrator and the woman is the dupe? Why are we drawn to believe the man's story, and what does his final action reveal about the nature of men as societal beings? Is the ending a fault of the woman or of the man? If the woman is at fault, do women need to just be more careful in an overtly oppressive society? Or if the man is at fault, does he need to be more considerate of the extent to which his actions inflict damage upon society? The depiction is that both the woman and the man are at the extreme ends of their respective depths of capacity for emotional sentiment, and it is a very crude depiction that does little to progress away from the repression inherent to patriarchal societies. However, the responsibility to answer the questions posed by the film lies in the viewer, and as a result so too does the responsibility to make any changes in the real world away from what we see on screen.

"I'll wait for the next one" is a short film released in 2002 and shot in France. The main character is a woman who has no boyfriend or husband and feels so alone that she follows a couple passing her on the escalator to the metro platform with her eyes. On the train she boards, a young man introduces himself and starts to give a speech about how he is looking for love. She is interested in what the young man has to say and listens with a smile.

Although the film has dialogue, it is very interesting that the main character has no dialogue and expresses her emotions through her facial expressions.

As well as the changes in the woman's facial expressions, the film also shows the reactions of other passengers on the same train to the young man's speech, which I felt made it easier to understand the woman's emotions through the contrast.

'I'll Wait for the Next One...' is a dark comedy short film that was made in 2002 in France. A woman who wants a romantic partner rides the subway. When she is riding the subway, a man introduces himself. He makes a speech about his name, his work, and his salary, and how he wants a wife. However, another man who is married says: "Stay single!" and talks about why a man who wants a wife should not get married. After a quarrel between the two men, the man who wants to get married says a woman who wants to get married with him should get off the train. I enjoy this film because the woman has rich emotions. The woman does not say anything, but she is expressive. So, I can understand her thinking and enjoy it. For example, when a couple is passing on the other side of the escalator, she stares at them. We can feel she wants a lover because of her fine behavior. In this way, we can understand her thinking without her dialogue. The action of the man who wants a lover is also funny. I have not seen a performance like his and I can enjoy this action that is not in everyday life. In short, you can enjoy it!

'J'attendrai le suivant' is a comedy short film set in a French metro. The film opens with the main character, a woman, walking through the city to catch the metro, looking a little lonely as she gazes languidly at a couple passing her on the escalator. She boards the arriving train, and as it departs, a man begins to tell her a funny story about himself. He looks for a woman to keep him company, to change his boring routine, and talks about his attractiveness and the kind of woman he wants. The passengers around him laugh, but he turns to the passengers and seriously encourages them to get off at the next station if they are interested.

When watching the film, I want you to focus on the facial expressions of the protagonist. While the conversation unfolds in the metro train, depictions of her listening in are frequently included. Although she has no dialogue at all, her facial expressions surpass those of the other characters and you can easily understand her emotions. (I favour her forlorn, angry expressions.)

It was strange that although the other side of the boarding gate was dark (there was no platform) in the scene where the protagonist got on the train, the platform is visible at the back in the scene where her expression is shown immediately afterwards (the camera should be facing the opposite side of the boarding gate...). Apart from that, however, the camera work was felt to be good because it was from the protagonist's side to capture the man developing his personal story. Above all, the acting and story are beyond reproach and well worth watching.