INDUSTRIAL relations is a brave choice of subject for your first film.
Laurent Cantet's low key documentary-style adds an artless naturalism that
offers little in the way of entertainment.
The same might be said of Robert
Bresson. Truth is seldom sexy. Neither
is it straightforward. The barest outline of this scenario cannot hint at
the subtlety within.
Franck
(Jalil Lespert) returns from business school in Paris to his
provincial home town, where he takes up the post of trainee in the
personel department of the factory where his father has worked for 30
years.
At that time, the government's 35-hour-week is about to be implemented.
Relations between management and workers is aggravated by a combative
Communist union leader. Franck suggests taking the problem direct to the
shop floor with a referendum, designed to discover the feelings of the
workforce behind the backs of organised labour.
Of course, it isn't as simple as that. The boss flatters Franck, when
it suits him, while using the young man's sharper intellect for his own
ends. The workers are suspicious of anything emanating from management and
his father sees nothing wrong with a boring, repetitive job.
Cantet's cast of unemployed workers makes acting look easy.
Lespert, as
the only professional, pulls off a remarkable feat. Franck is basically a
dull boy, who studied hard at college. The stand he takes at the factory,
where loyalties are divided, requires guts. Lespert follows Franck's
evolution from swot to rebel, without ever allowing himself the
satisfaction of becoming a hero.
From
Inside
out film
<
BACK