Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré (2003) User Reviews

Mergers and acquisitions

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 17 February 2005]

The title in English for this film is "Work Hard, Play Hard", which is the slogan for the McGregor group, the company at the center of the story. Of course, it bears no resemblance with the original French title that perhaps makes more sense.

This film deals with the realities of what is happening in the work place today. It's sort of a universal phenomenon in which the fate of people that have given their lives working for a company, suddenly, face an uncertain future. A few of them will end unemployed because these workers are expendable.

Director Jean Marc Moutout presents us with the intrigues within a successful company. Philippe Seigner, a young and talented would-be executive type, is hand picked by his immediate superior, not because of his credentials, but because the boss thinks he can carry out the hatchet job without any qualms. Since Laurent has no scruples, he expects nothing else from his subordinate.

Philippe meets and falls in love with the single mother, Eva, who sees in the young man someone she can love. Alas, Philippe will surprise her with an unusual turn of events that will separate the two lovers forever.

The acting is first rate. Jeremie Renier seems to be a natural actor. Cylia Malki and Laurent Lucas, are quite good, as is the rest of an ensemble cast under the sure direction of M. Moutout.

coping with emotional challenges

[steven-288 · 8/10 · 23 February 2005]

The protagonist in this movies is young Philip. He has chosen (or received) a career in a big consultancy company in Paris that specializes in restructuring company. He meets a girl in the Paris metro he fancies and they get together.

Throughout the movies Philip goes from feeling happy to feeling very frustrated. This movie is not about maniac managers, single mothers looking for a partner or regular people fearing redundancies.

Philip is the focus of this movie. Although occasionally we get a glimps of the secrets of the people Philip is dealing with the story is really about him and the relationships with them.

This boy is young and doesn't understand the people close to him. He doesn't understand his boss because his boss what to let Philip go through what he went through when he was he junior. His boss believes this is the only way to the top, which is where he wants Philip to end. In the end his boss gets his way not because he's good but because he is the only person Philip knows that has plans for him.

Philip doesn't understand his girlfriend. This director really got it right by showing the spectator what Philip apparently doesn't see. These moments make the movie very good.

Philip has to interview workers of a company he and his boss are restructuring. Philip can't deal with them because he doesn't know his own emotions very well. His boss helps him by putting him back on track after Philip wants to quit the mission. Although the movie doesn't show how his boss does this I bet he did it by telling Philip about the emotions Philip is feeling that prevent him from doing his right. Since Philip doesn't know his own emotions this probably impresses him so much that he agrees to continue although he wanted to quit. His boss offers Philip something he longs for but can't get to by himself - understanding his own emotions - so his boss becomes the most important person to Philip.

His girlfriend, her little daughter, her mother, the workers all loose something because Philip doesn't know how to deal with himself. This is truly a sad story but also a very good movie. You liked Dogville maybe you'll like this as well.

Finally a film about "social issues in a corporate takeover" without clichés.

[stuka24 · 8/10 · 7 February 2009]

I felt a lot with this movie, specially after the ending, it all made sense. I have seldomly heard better placed music, it goes right to the point of emphasizing the climates, but without having a clear "message". It's suggestive, not omnipresent and telling you what to think. I am more of a "classical music" person, but in this case, rock or whatever modern it is that they are playing, for once transmits feelings and nuances, while not intruding with the story.

When I read the synopsis I feared another: "Ressources humaines" (1999), which already copied "Wall Street" and others. We all know the story: "the young brash executive coming up with the best CV. is recruited for doing the 'dirty work' at a company that's reducing personnel. He's a sensitive chap, probably a love interest makes him suffer a bit for the laying off he's got to do, but the 'big time' comes when in the list he sneaks out the name of his dad or some other 'helpless relative/ significant other' and then his morale has to come to terms with the fact that 'it's not only numbers, it's your dad'".

As the young men were listening to classical music in a super car I thought: "the same scene than in "Ressources" (where the boss listens to Vivaldi, and that creates a striking contrast between the dirty job they've got to undertake. Besides, it is intended to show how "elitist and far removed from reality" the executives are). Well, no.

Philippe Seigner is a human being, feels sorry for the people he's got to lay off, but he's also human, he wants to succeed, and he also sees (after a very good telling off by his young boss) that the workers aren't exactly good to him either. What I liked about this film it's that it's not "linear" like RH. In here there's not a big "discovery of the truth" like the structuralists would want us to (remember, Levi Strauss and the other Frenchmen, at the Uni :)?). For instance, the employee who resisted Philippe more, after being disgusting to him and to the female lawyer, shows his humanity later in a heartbreaking scene. One may not share his methods, but his logic is clear, he's a man with good principles, and his "they are all good" reply to the questionnaire makes sense afterwards. He's protecting his stuff from what he perceives as a menace. Not a random "baddie", who turns out to be intelligent afterwards, like the union's delegate at RH. Eva is fine as a manipulative beauty. Her mother has one of the best lines: "Don't bring your daughter too much (...) Men don't talk much, and when they do, it's too late".

The "casting" Philippe does is fine, in that in a few glimpses it's as if you didn't need to ask more, you know what it's going to happen to this employees. His chief is very good, again, when he scolds him: "I chose you BECAUSE you care, for I wanted the employees to be heard and feel understood, not just laid off". This movie is universal in that the realities it shows, like older people not being able to come to terms with technology or changes so much, happen anywhere. Not just in the first world. Those employees could be in any factory in the world. Here in Latin America for instance. I'm glad a French film could attain that: many are a bit self centered and gleefully showing the French well, themselves.

If the bad guys don't get you,baby ,then the good guys will.

[ulicknormanowen · 8/10 · 21 March 2020]

Jeremie Rénier is one of the best contemporary European actor ,being able to play everything from the underdog (Dardenne's "L'enfant" ) to a pop singer (Clo-Clo )to the young executive of this movie.He is par excellence the a character actor .

The viewer will certainly side with him during most of the movie : Philippe is generous,chivalrous -the scene in the subway-;he appears as the pure young man who has kept his naivete and who still believes in humanity :as a consultant in a firm in jeopardy ,he shows compassion for the staff : he knows that his work can lead lots of people to unemployment ,and his scrupulousness is a credit to him .

But there's his chef ,brilliantly portrayed by a hardly recognizable Laurent lucas , a go-getter whose sights are fixed high ;Monsieur Paradis (sic) is ruthless,adamant.At globalization time, there's no room for the weak , the "unproductive" worker ,even though" he has been working for the company since he was sixteen ".

That's what 's Roland (Olivier Perrier ,very convincing) cannot understand : he resents Philippe ,who was able to study for a long time whereas he had to climb the rungs without any diploma ;history with its globalization has passed him by ;at 58 ,he is not even given early retirement . Only his colleague Suzanne can understand him ,a union woman ,she 's now a discouraged exhausted woman :Martine Chevalier gives the best female performance in the movie.

The ending might seem revolting ,immoral ,nay obscene : although realistic to a fault ,the director wanted it to be so ;what kind of beast would like such a feast? Drinking ,dancing ,exchanging dumb jokes (that of Snowwhite and her dwarfs meeting the little red riding hood ) , yelling their motto like fascists ,after slaughtering human beings like lambs ;the last lines between Philippe and Hugo Paradis ,comparing "the first economic success to a taking of virginity" adds to the lewdness of the situation.Rénier is so subtle an actor that the viewer is not even able to hate him ;and however ,he does not do what the sentimental audience would like him to .It's very rare that a "hero" turns into a "villain" towards the end of a movie.

"Play hard,work hard" :that's McGregor's company's motto .

RESSOURCES HUMAINES rip-off

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10 April 2024]

If you have seen RESSOURCES HUMAINES, also a French movie describing the ruthless, awful, terrible atmosphere in big companies, you'll also appreciate this one, made by the director of DE BON MATIN, speaking of the same kind of plot. Employees sacrificed on the profit altar, employees that executives immolate without any remorse only because of the stock market. It is disturbing, bitter, but not as powerful though, as RESSOURCES HUMAINES, in terms of characters symphony. Here, the script is a bit more predictable, usual, not as gripping as the Laurent Cantet's movie - where you had this terrififc father-son relationship study. I like the last minutes, when this young woman lies to her lover by saying that her daughter is sick and her mother not available to keep her; she lies only to test him, to checkk if he will change his plans for her. We, the audiences, find out this lie only after. Very rare scheme.