Cinematography:
Alain MarcoenCast:
Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salée, Pili Groyne, Olivier Gourmet, Christelle Cornil, Rania Mellouli, Alain Eloy, Simon Caudry, Lara Persain (more)Plots(1)
Sandra has only one weekend to visit her colleagues and -with the help of her husband - convince them to sacrifice their bonuses so she can keep her job. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (8)
It's a pity that it's not completed in a same way that it was started (even despite over-the-top starting point). But everything in the first half, despite the theme, that is not melodramatic, credibly anchored in reality and naturalistic from the department "although I (do not) approve this or that decision, I fully understand why the character decided to act like that and how the character came to this decision", is spoiled by the second half where the characters often become rather puppets, which are led through the unnatural and forced film-making decisions that are so lame that it is almost unbearable. After all, the environment for the final decision will start to be prepared at the last minute and not during the entire footage. And none of this would necessarily be such a problem (after all, it's still impressively presented and brilliantly performed; and it's not just about tired out Marion), if these aspects weren't completely contradicting everything that had been successfully developing so far.
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Probably the most strongly structured film by the Dardenns, which is essentially a social thriller par excellence: the heroine has a clearly defined task (to persuade 9 employees to give up their bonuses so she can keep her job), a time limit and an opponent (master Jean-Marc, who allegedly affects colleagues over the phone). The Dardenn dynamics of movements elevated to a complex genre engine, which drives the film to an absolutely ingenious double twist at the end. I am repeating myself...but why not? No one makes films today which, in their simplicity, are able to perfectly reflect the complexity of the contemporary world - moral, personal and economic. No one is able to construct situations in such a way that the viewer is thrown into utter uncertainty, exposed to intense emotional terror without a single sign of manipulation. In the social drama genre, there are filmmakers who are close to Darden's verism, but the original is unmatched. An unpretentious monument to human tenacity, dignity, Marion Cotillard, and an urgent testimony about the state of contemporary society. Film-life. Without a single inkling of pathos. Besides that which evokes it in similarly unappealing attempts to achieve some sort of description.
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Belgian social realism? Not interested. I haven't seen anything as manipulative as this in a long time. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne didn't even notice in their quest for an experience that an attempted suicide cannot be dismissed with a single stomach pump and have that chapter closed. It's a fake, naive, and dare I say, stupid film. It pretends to arouse interest and emotions, and festival audiences are thrilled, some simply because they believe that the truth lies in Marion Cotillard (in the absurd logic that an actress who portrays a well-groomed character is not truthful and vice versa).
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After 12 Angry Men come 16 dissatisfied men and women. They are stuck in their unsatisfying jobs, which makes them easy to manipulate. They might not even be aware of their dependent position in the capitalist system if Sandra had not approached them with her request. The main dilemma that they are faced with is whether to conform and vote with the majority or to weigh their decision and possibly take on greater responsibility. While the indecisive co-workers have to struggle a bit with their own morals, Sandra fights for her lost self-respect, family stability and faith in her own existence. She would most like to not be seen or heard. She would most like to simply not be. Her self-confidence has fallen to less than zero. Marion Cotillard expresses the character’s feelings of shame and resignation through timid gestures, a hunched posture, a blank expression on her face without makeup and excessive gratitude for every display of humanity. ___ The long shots/sequences that comprise each of the encounters enable her to portray a change of mood from apathetic sadness to cautious joy, from resignation to determination in one go and without losing contact with the setting (which in the Dardenne brothers’ films conditions the behaviour and positioning of the characters). Mainly thanks to her family, she slowly realises that regular doses of Xanax and self-denial are not the only way out. One of the things that makes this apparent to her is the slowly waning interpersonal solidarity. It evidently makes Sandra happy if she can share something with her loved ones, such as a song (sung together in the car) or food (the film begins with taking a cake out of the oven; her husband works as a cook). ___ The brief moments of happiness liven up the intentionally and repetitively stultifying narrative structure. However, the repetition of the same types of situations does not diminish the film’s dramatic potential. We can count down the remaining time and how many people are left to visit, and after the pattern is established, we are kept in anticipation of how the next co-worker that Sandra approaches will respond to her request, and whether it will be a man, a woman, a white person, a black person, a younger person or an older person. The social and ethnic diversity of the supporting characters, none of which is a one-dimensional stereotype, and the effort to take the motivations for their decisions into account and their various responses are indicative of the filmmakers’ empathy, as they do not judge or simplify, and they do not handle the characters as if they were inanimate tools to further the narrative (you have the feeling that the characters exist even outside of the space staked out for them in the film). ___ The setting of a deadline and the structuring of the narrative into brief segments takes Two Days, One Night out of the realm of documentary-style verism that is characteristic of some of the Dardennes’ earlier films, but the strong humanistic message has not been weakened in any way by the more elaborate structure of the plot. Furthermore, the development of the drama never seems overly forced, thanks to the smooth incorporation of more conventional narrative elements (a suicide attempt, leaving an abusive husband) into the flow of the action and the consistent consideration of socioeconomic determinants. ___ Thanks to the clear structure akin to that of a folk ballad (but without a clear ending) in which the protagonist faces a difficult test, the Dardennes were able to emphasise the allegorical subtext and timelessness of the drama, which is outwardly tied to a specific situation and setting. With its apt metaphor for the capitalist system (the workers are at each other’s throats while the boss skates), the film doesn’t slip into didacticism while presenting us with the same questions that Sandra indirectly challenges her co-workers to ask. Would we put our comfortable membership in the majority over our own inner ethical convictions? Would we sacrifice ourselves for a person with whom we have almost nothing in common except our social status? These are questions that I am afraid to answer. 80%
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The problem starts with the source material, based on the fact that the Docent of Evil at the head of this blah blah company, while scratching a Persian cat with a necklace, thought he'd fundamentally mess with his employees' weekend laziness by assigning them ethics and morality homework for Monday. Either they kick the ass of the incompetent Marion Cotillard, whose psychiatrist is, in my opinion, not exactly in the right place, or they get to keep their sizable annual salary bonus. That might at least add some balls to the next teambuilding. This starting point isn't that bad a priori, but it doesn't match the cancerously earnest treatment (btw, except for the last two points, Dogma cut and dried) without an ounce of perspective, which proves once and for all that a faithful portrayal of depression is not a cinematically attractive discipline, no matter how much Cotillard beats herself to death on camera. It's not subversive, it's not innovative, it's not remotely entertaining, and it's not viable in what it tries to convey. I appreciate the resignation to formal aesthetics, where the steaminess of a poor-quality summer weekend is enhanced by individual scenes set in hideous satellite suburbs, gas stations, apartment complexes, and McMansions, but that's what we’ve got Ulrich Seidl for.
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