L'Emploi du temps (2001)
(Time Out)
Country: FR
Technical: col 137m
Director: Laurent Cantet
Cast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet
Synopsis:
A business executive is fired but for months doesn't tell his family; he leads an itinerant life, first sleeping in parking lots, then working for a smuggler of brand imitations, but returning home with suit and briefcase full of talk of his work for UN in Geneva.
Review:
Brilliantly acted, much of it in closeup, this is one of those French films which devotes time to building up a picture of an enigmatic character. Why he behaves as he does when the crunch must ultimately come, we do not know and there is little background information to enlighten us, save that he found his former job disspiriting. Instead we have this impression of a man whose pride cannot bear relegation to the social scrap heap, nor acceptance of a job (black marketeering) he does not respect; at the same time he sets about swindling his acquaintances out of their savings in a fake investment scheme. He is in every sense lost at times, and the closing shot sees him accept another post of responsibility with a desperate self-assurance of competence on his face.
(Time Out)
Country: FR
Technical: col 137m
Director: Laurent Cantet
Cast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet
Synopsis:
A business executive is fired but for months doesn't tell his family; he leads an itinerant life, first sleeping in parking lots, then working for a smuggler of brand imitations, but returning home with suit and briefcase full of talk of his work for UN in Geneva.
Review:
Brilliantly acted, much of it in closeup, this is one of those French films which devotes time to building up a picture of an enigmatic character. Why he behaves as he does when the crunch must ultimately come, we do not know and there is little background information to enlighten us, save that he found his former job disspiriting. Instead we have this impression of a man whose pride cannot bear relegation to the social scrap heap, nor acceptance of a job (black marketeering) he does not respect; at the same time he sets about swindling his acquaintances out of their savings in a fake investment scheme. He is in every sense lost at times, and the closing shot sees him accept another post of responsibility with a desperate self-assurance of competence on his face.
(Time Out)
Country: FR
Technical: col 137m
Director: Laurent Cantet
Cast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet
Synopsis:
A business executive is fired but for months doesn't tell his family; he leads an itinerant life, first sleeping in parking lots, then working for a smuggler of brand imitations, but returning home with suit and briefcase full of talk of his work for UN in Geneva.
Review:
Brilliantly acted, much of it in closeup, this is one of those French films which devotes time to building up a picture of an enigmatic character. Why he behaves as he does when the crunch must ultimately come, we do not know and there is little background information to enlighten us, save that he found his former job disspiriting. Instead we have this impression of a man whose pride cannot bear relegation to the social scrap heap, nor acceptance of a job (black marketeering) he does not respect; at the same time he sets about swindling his acquaintances out of their savings in a fake investment scheme. He is in every sense lost at times, and the closing shot sees him accept another post of responsibility with a desperate self-assurance of competence on his face.