Lavatory-Lovestory is a 2007 animated short film from Russia, directed by Konstantin Bronzit.
A rather frumpy woman works as an attendant at a men's room. She is lonely, seeing pictures of happy couples in the newspaper and dreaming of love. One day, a bouquet of flowers materializes in the jar where the woman collects the coins paid for entrance to the men's room. Who is her admirer? Will she find love?
Tropes:
- Deliberately Monochrome: A cartoon made by drawing black lines on a white background. This sets the tone for the woman's rather drab life, and also sets up the Splash of Color that is crucial to the story.
- Gratuitous English: This is a Russian cartoon but all the signs are in English. The sign above the rest room says "Lavatory", and the woman reads a newspaper called "Happy Woman" with headlines like "Bravo! Best!" Interestingly, this is averted at the end, with the sign in her booth that says "срочно требуется работник"—"Urgently required worker."
- Gray Rain of Depression: Happens after the woman dashes outside the building into the rain, trying to find her admirer, only to fail.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: No dialogue.
- Splash of Color: While everything else in the movie is black and white, the flowers that the admirer keeps leaving for the woman are brightly colored. This underscores the dramatic impact they make in her life.
- Toilet Humor: In one scene all the men in the stalls are unnerved when the woman starts peeking underneath them in an effort to find her admirer. Later, she accidentally whacks a man in the face with her bouquet, causing him to fall into the toilet.
- Trail of Bread Crumbs: An accidental one, and how the woman finally finds her admirer. She doesn't catch him outside, but she finds a trail of red petals that she follows to a stall—the man has been nervously plucking the petals from the flower.
