"Human Resources," Laurent Cantet's first theatrical
feature, is a present-day look at class struggle in a provincial
French town. The realistic dialogue is enhanced by the use of
nonprofessional actors, many of them factory workers cast to fit
their fictional counterparts.
Fresh out of college, Franck
(Jalil Lespert) returns to his
family and boyhood home. His train ride into town through the gray
skies and bare trees of Northern France provide the backdrop for a
young man whose own emotions become as muddled as the landscape.
Franck finds himself caught between three loyalties: his new job as
a factory management trainee; the workers, many of whom are grade
school friends; and his family.
The father/son relationship becomes Franck's most difficult
internal struggle. His father, an assembly line worker for thirty
years, has sacrificed so that his son might ascend to a higher
class. Franck is in a Catch-22; his family has put him through
business school to become an executive, but his executive position
clashes with the working-class lifestyle of his family. Furthermore,
his close associations with the executives pits him against his
childhood friends, the union workers who view him now as just
another greedy suit. Franck becomes isolated from the people who at
first greet him with open arms.
Franck's initial reasons for signing on with the factory are
based on the best of intentions. His nostalgic memories as a child
in a working-class family are tied to the factory-hosted picnics and
weekends. He hopes to become a force of positive change for the
workers from within the executive echelons. His first assignment is
to review worker responses to a proposed 35-hour workweek. But when
Franck's superiors use his research to justify more layoffs, he soon
finds the politicking and deception plied by his fellow executives
not to his moral taste.
Disgusted with the actions of his superiors, Franck hopes to make
amends by helping the union secure the positions of the workers
singled out for the pink slip. Franck's critical flaw is his
arrogant idealism in the face of real problems. His attitude is in
direct conflict with the pragmatism and honesty of his father's
assembly line job, leading to a confrontation with his father on the
factory floor.
Though the themes of the film seem familiar, the carefully
structured plot will never come across as old hat. The story starts
off a bit slow, with a hero's welcome for Franck, the golden boy
home from college, and his courtship of the management. But this
only adds to the juxtaposition of Franck's allegiance to his
burgeoning career, his family and his inability to solve a problem
with no good solution. From the point of view of a college student,
Franck is an interesting and pitiable character, whose situation is
understandably tragic. This is an emotional film with a great deal
to say about the relationships we embrace and those that seek us out
when we exit the classroom and enter the boardroom.
From
Daily
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