EN GUERRE/AT WAR

France, 2018, 115 minutes, Colour.
Vincent Lindon Melanie Rover, Jacques Borderie.
Directed by Stephane Brize.

This is a very direct and blunt title. It is not the kind of war that the title might suggest, armed conflict, national or international conflicts, battlefields. Yet, they are all present – in the workplace. (The film received some release in Europe in the wake of the weekends of the yellow-vest protest against the Macron government – and audiences will see some resemblances, especially in the vehemence environment protests and demonstrations against big business and their commercial tactics.)

In 2015, the French film, The Measure of a Man, was nominated for best film at Cannes, where Vincent Lindon received the award for best actor and the film itself one the Ecumenical Award. It was a film about an unemployed factory worker and his trying to survive, make ends meet, find some dignity in his social and financial situation. The film was directed by Stephane Brise.

This film, also directed by Brise, takes something of a step, or more than a step, to the Left. And here is Vincent Lindon once again in an intense performance, and also co-producing the film with the director. It is obviously a heartfelt enterprise.

Lindon plays Laurent, a union leader, caught up in the closure of a factory by an international company whose CEO is German. Over 1000 people will be laid off. There are demonstrations, loud protests, intense feeling. The film also uses the device of showing a lot of the action in protest as part of television news, handheld cameras, the audience taken into the middle of the protest, the directness of this kind of coverage. And, of course, plenty of interviews, plenty of shouting – and then the entry of the police, batons, smoke, protesters being bashed…

Laurent represents the people, is the union representative, speaking to the crowds along with some close associates and officials. These are also the representatives who meet with the business leaders – each side of a long table, the workers looking like workers, the business types looking like business types. There is a lot of harsh expression of dissatisfaction, leading to angry outbursts – as well as condescending remarks from the business leaders and their having to apologise.

The screenplay provides a little bit more humanity for Laurent, his years of dedication to union representation, his wife leaving him, but his daughter being pregnant and his going to the hospital for the birth of his grandchild.

Little seems to be being accomplished. There are demands from the unions to meet with the CEO but he is absent in the United States. Eventually however he does agree to come to a meeting. Once again the two sides of the table. But the situation has become more complicated not just by the clashes with business but some kind of internal warfare within the union. Not everybody agrees with Laurent and his vocal demands. They make their own vocal demands. There are others who look to the way of negotiation, some possible compromise, the companies pledging themselves to some kind of financial subsidy.

But, that is not Laurent’s way and there are quite intense sequences of union conflict.

When the protesters occupy the second French factory owned by the company, there are more clashes with the police, at the meeting with the CEO, he has to be accompanied leaving by bodyguards as there has been verbal attack, physical attack.

The audience might be wondering where this story is going: success for the union members, concessions by the business leaders, the impact on public opinion and support for the protest.

However, the film ends with an action which nobody could anticipate, a shock at the ending with the audience, no matter where it stood in its observations of the confrontation between unions and business, challenged to think again.

1. The title, blunt?

2. A film of social justice, the work of the director and actor in previous films?

3. The recreation of the workers’ life, the factory decision, the protests and demonstrations, realistic, the crowds, the action sequences, anger, the role of the police, arms, conflict?

4. The role of the media, the insertion of news reports throughout the film, the scenes, the captions, the voice-over?

5. The issues, the foreign conglomerate, the French factories, the German CEO? Decisions about closure, job losses, over 1000? The effect on families, income, people dependent on their incomes? Bleak future?

6. The work of negotiation? Laurent as the chief negotiator, his work with the unions, his vigour, championing the cause, intensity of argument, deep feelings? His associate group, the supporting woman and her angers, the men in the group? The argument, principles, attempts to negotiate, anger overcoming negotiation? The arguments, unrelenting?

7. The human face of Laurent, his daughter, his ex-wife? The pregnancy and the birth of the child?

8. The opposing forces in the union, their point of view, forcibly expressed, their attitude towards negotiations? Interfactional fighting? The intensity, taking sides?

9. The presentation of the officials, the French, well-dressed, the arguments, the condescending remarks of one of the group, his apology?

10. The president of the Republic, interest, his officials, support? Legislation?

11. The matter going to the courts, the decision against the unions?

12. The going to the other factory, the continued demands, the crowds, protests? The continuing conflicts, the media coverage?

13. The German CEO, in America, his agreeing to meet the group, the two sides of the tables, arguments, anger flaring? Disagreement? The CEO hustled out of the meeting, his bodyguard, the crowds, the police?

14. The TV coverage, the members blaming Laurent and his anger? His accepting this? His silence, his final words?

15. The factions, the board negotiation, the loss of a compensation package?

16. The shock of Laurent, his attitude, covering himself in petrol, his suicide and the effect on the unions and the management?