Tout à la fois.
In the last couple weeks, I feel like I've finally connected with the best films of last year, whether it's a matter of my programming, opportunistic discovery, or, more mundanely, release dates. This latest from the Dardenne Brothers has been my most anticipated for some time now, and I was surprised to see it turn up in Madison this early in 2015. Credit that to Marion Cotillard's well-deserved Oscar nomination.
I've always been impressed with the two Belgian brothers' ability to create some of most organic, naturalistic films in world cinema about timely, tangible issues. Two Days, One Night (another utterly minimalist and vague title), is about a mother's struggle to keep her job at a solar panel manufacturer, Solwal. The film is instilled with the Dardennes' usual desperation of the lower-middle class, and the simple plot is given a heightened cinematic quality through generally light editing room manipulation. I've made no secret that I adore the "real-time" approach that Richard Linklater has used so effectively in the last twenty-five years. While the scenario is perhaps less severe than something like L'enfant (which I watched for the first time less than twenty-four hours after this) where a young thief/father must reconcile his past and form a new value system, the time flow of Two Days, One Night instills it with urgency. Still specific in its situation, it seems to offer a broader and yet somehow deeper commentary on working class oppression.
Without delving into the whole assault on unions by so-called conservative think-tanks (in the US, anyway), Two Days, One Night presents Sandra Bya (Marion Cotillard)'s dilemma as representative of an epidemic throughout the world- that wealthy management is finding ways to turn workers on each other through a false sense of productivity. The Dardenne Brothers never throw this issue at their audience; instead it is carefully woven into the plot of Sandra attempting to return to work after a medical absence as the movie progresses. There's a genuine sense of concern with each encounter, as Sandra is forced to ask her fellow sixteen workers to each take a 1,000-euro bonus pay cut so she can return to the workforce. One gets the sense that altruism and pettiness exist in equal measure in the world.
Earlier this year, I complained about The Grand Budapest Hotel pointlessly summarizing itself mid-film; well, I'll take the heat for hypocrisy, because Two Days, One Night does it repeatedly, haha. However, unlike that moment between Gustave and Zero, it is an extension of the theme of this film, especially in Sandra's confrontations- a constant struggle to redefine her own will and reason to continue battling soul-consuming depression. Through this time-compressed journey, more internal than external, Sandra explains her situation in slightly revised detail or provides a slightly different angle each time, parceling out the information in dialogue the way a patient writer would revise a short story. However, the Dardenne Brothers find a way to miraculously translate the speech so that it rarely, if ever, feels pre-written. The role of Jean-Marc is particularly interesting in Sandra's explanations; [spoiler] because he's not seen until the end of the film, Sandra's shifting opinion on his intimidating behavior is a key motivator.
When Sandra is met with a negative response to her request to take a bonus pay cut, she treats that single answer as the entire world's answer to her existence. Cotillard's fragility in the role reflects the filmmaker's intentions- emotional reality. For awhile, husband Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) appears one-dimensional, because his responses to Sandra's surrender are of a life coach. However, upon thinking about his character further, this is his sincere attitude towards her- a mix of helplessness and pity. And so he sacrifices his identity in order to cater to her whims; however, is this the desired route to restoring familial balance? The film provides some short but well-articulated looks at their marriage that are tied directly to Sandra's uncertainty about her life and work.
Immediately after watching Two Days, One Night, I considered the significance of bottled water. I feel like an essay could be written on its multifaceted application alone. It's a symbol of Sandra's fight to metaphorically stay above water (at one point, she has a dream about her daughter Maxime drowning), but it's also a comment on marketing and consumption. H20 is a necessary resource that should be a human right, but modern corporations have decided to bottle, brand, and sell it at a premium price to people who cannot afford it. The exact price of spring/purified water escapes me at the moment, although I think a bottle is quoted as something like one euro at one convenience store. I really wish I had a DVD copy right now so I could cut together every instance Sandra is seen drinking from a bottle- one more cycle in the film's many.
Additionally, as I was leaving the theatre (in which I was probably the youngest in the audience), I noticed this kind woman talking to a far-sighted elderly woman who needed assistance to her seat as the movie started. The younger woman briefly talked about [spoiler] the film's optimism. However, I respectfully disagree. The Dardenne Brothers' strongest trademark is their perfectly ambiguous, affecting endings, and this film is no different. As Sandra's coworker Alphonse (Serge Koto) predicted, management reveals that her re-employment will only happen if he is laid off, thus repeating the cycle in which this film began. She is powerless to prevent any reconsideration, stopping for a moment to recognize the people who've cared enough to protest and resist violence. Violence, of course, can all be traced to ignorance and greed, thus subtly elevating the Dardenne's message of pacifism and compassion.
If this has been a rambling, rather incohesive review, I apologize. However, if there's one point to be made it's that the Dardenne Brothers achieve a realism and understanding of social issues in a way few other filmmakers, especially in this generation, have. The two directors inherently possess such regard for the human condition. And paired with Marion Cotillard's screen presence, one of the best actresses of her generation, this film achieves profound resonance. How shameful is it to include a trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey, a empty, misogynistic fantasy, before this wonderful film. If Marion doesn't convince you with her commitment to 100+ takes on certain scenes (which make the film unnervingly unwatchable to her), then nothing else will. There's more meaning in one or two minutes of Two Days, One Night than in the entirety of some other films I've seen in the last year.
A brief word from Reverse Shot's Genevieve Yue:
"...the film’s drama lies less in the outcome than in the repetition of these individual encounters, which the Dardennes show in full. Each begins with Sandra speaking the same words, yet they end differently, with responses ranging from cold reprobation to violence to tearful gratitude. All are tense, unpredictable, and magnificent."
Images: 1 from Show Film First ; 2,8 from Film Int. ; 3,6,7,9 from IndieWire ; 4,5 from The Nerdist
Posted
7th February 2015 by
Grant
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