Nouvelle Saveur
Director: Merryl Roche
Writer: Merryl Roche
Cast: Joséphine Japy, Sébastien Houbani, Philippe Résimont, Serge Dupuy
Part of: SLASH Filmfestival (winner of the Short Film Prize)
Seen on: 26.9.2020

Plot:
Marie (Joséphine Japy) got the coveted spot in the prize-winning kitchen of Bruno Mercier (Philippe Résimont), but she struggles to find her place there and reach the expected quality to advance in her position. That she has to compete against everybody else there, especially Thomas (Sébastien Houbani) who has been there longer, doesn’t help either. But one night she cuts herself – and it appears that her blood is the ingredient that was missing in her cooking so far.

I have to admit that I usually snub short films – if I have to choose between watching short films and watching a feature, I will go for the feature in like 99% of cases. So I always like that they show the winner of the Short Film Prize together with the closing film of the SLASH festival, although I have no idea what the competition was like overall. In any case, Nouvelle Saveur was well made and good to watch, although I thought that the idea wasn’t all that revolutionary or fresh. Generally it was a rather conventional short – not bad at all, very well executed, but lacking that special ingredient, that spark that would make it really stand out.