As this year’s competition tips over to its second half we
find a set of brothers from Belgium punting for a third Palme d’Or. They won
here with Rosetta in ’99 and again with L’Enfant in 2005, now Jon Pierre &
Luc Dardenne return to the croisette with Deux
jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night), a starkly contemporary piece of social
realism starring Marion Cotillard.
The concept is clear and the brothers set it up fast. We open on
the casual, domestic Sandra (a plainly clad and brave Marion Cotillard). It’s Friday evening, she’s helping with
dinner. She takes a call to tell her that she’s just lost her job; her colleagues
apparently having voted to oust her in favour of their €1000 bonuses. She’s
naturally distraught but quickly gets to work to change the tide. Her mate
calls to say that the vote will be redone on Monday so Sandra sets out through the gauntlet to try
convince a majority of her 16 workmates to forsake the cash so that she
can stay on.
The game is obviously rigged. Lacking the legal footing to
fire her straight out the employers have set a trap for their
workers by claiming that the company can only afford to pay for one thing or
the other. We learn Sandra has taken time off for her depression. We also
learn the boss is continuing to sway votes. It’s a grubby business indeed but Sandra must soldier on. She seeks empathy over pity and tries her best to
keep the meds at bay, while taking modicums of strength from her friends and family.
The blame of course rests on the bean-counters upstairs, but by extracting them from the equation the Dardennes force us instead to think elsewhere. It's a draining but fascinating exercise as we are requested to try on a host of other people’s shoes. We might think it easy to say where our vote would lie but life is just never that simple.
Two Days, One Night
is a tight, contained piece of work that bears all the hallmarks of its master directors. It's packed with insights on our fundamental relationship with money but is, of
course a starkly humanist effort at heart. A socially conscious and defiant film
that celebrates the strength we all can give and take from everyday
acts of kindness.
Last night Roger Ebert’s widow took to the stage to present
a documentary on her late husband’s life. In her moving speech she referenced
Ebert’s synonymous mantra of Cinema as the "empathy machine". This morning in the
Salle Lumiere we found that machine humming along proudly in rude health.
