« Fragile Appearences » is a film about summertime and complicity, a film which has to do with the conjuncture of « now or never », because it is the product of encounters, receptivities, reflections or frames of mind that are like shifting sands – in short, it is a cinema « snapshot ». Characters embark on a novel journey into fiction. Throughout a summer’s afternoon they go for walks, play, dance, laugh, converse, read – work quite simply at being happy. The film ends as the day draws to a close. But this playful construction reveals the filmmaker. Eric Pauwels imparts in it his « relationship » with the cinema. Through gestures and games he opens up his world of references, the elements he takes as a basis like a means of escape, his perspectivist approach to the questions of a film director: sound, picture and story are derived from art, dance, literature, music, theatre – all of the media which nourish his relationship with the cinema. This essentially free and innovatory film-essay is joyful; it is the epitome of obvious pleasure taken in filming, in sensuality, in the constant appeal of shots. The sun is real, the water really flows, the grass is green, you can hear the wind and the actors’ bodies are disturbingly close; it is a closeness of smiles, shining eyes, and skirts fluttering in immediate contact with the skin. (Jacqueline Aubenas)