Getting Playful with Speed Dating in “Les Mots de la Carpe”

No French is necessary to grasp the humor of the speed-dating encounters depicted in Les mots de la Carpe. At a speed-dating event, animator Lucrece Andreae takes some creative liberties to depict the shape of various oddities of romance-seeking, like (literally) inflated personalities and people who actually compare their date to an ideal sketch, adjusting them accordingly. I was able to enjoy it without knowing a word of French, so maybe there’s even more in it for viewers who just haven’t brushed up in a while. The narrative progression of the film is a little trope-y, but that does little to detract from the expressive visual style and hilarious visualizations of speed dating’s ups and downs.