L'Emploi du temps (2001)
Directed by Laurent Cantet

Film Review

Having won critical acclaim for his first full length film Ressources humaines (1999), a hard-hitting social drama, Laurent Cantet furthered his reputation as one of France's most promising directing talents with his next film, L'Emploi du temps.   Not only is this a film which is hugely relevant to contemporary Western society but it is also a work of exceptional artistic merit, featuring some powerful cinematography.

The film can be viewed as a bleak comment on the overly excessive importance that work plays in modern life.  Deprived of his job, the film's central character Vincent finds himself totally excluded from society - a point which is reinforced over and over again in the film by the use of intimidating glass windows to separate him from the world he yearns to return to.  It is important that Vincent's exclusion is largely self-induced.  What the film portrays is not someone who is abandoned by society but rather someone who chooses, consciously or sub-consciously, to take "time out" to undertake an existentialist voyage of self-discovery.   All the wounds that Vincent acquires in the course of the film are self-inflicted and are easily resolved, yet he prefers to stay in his own world, alone and detached.

Despite its comparative length (comfortably over two hours), the film scarcely falters for a second, maintaining a gripping intensity and poignant humanity throughout.  Its lack of melodrama and sentimentality heightens its impact and although we do not fully understand why Vincent behaves as he does we cannot help but sympathise with his plight.  This is helped by Aurélien Recoing's restrained but endearing portrayal of Vincent, complemented by sensitive performances from his co-stars Karin Viard and Serge Livrozet.

What is most striking about this film is the quality of he cinematography, and the way in which it draws us into the mind of, and enables us to share the mood of, the film's principal protagonist.  One example of this is the scene where Vincent is taking an alpine stroll with his wife.  The screen is totally blanched out in a snow mist and for a few terrible seconds we share Vincent's isolation when he realises he is separated from his wife - his last link to the world he once belonged to.  Some of the night sequences where Vincent is alone in his car are equally effective, emphasising the quiet tragedy of a man trapped in a world of solitude into which he has willingly fallen.

Like many noteworthy French films,  L'Emploi du temps is a simple, understated film, confidently directed, eminently watchable and very relevant to its audience.  It has a dark, haunting intensity, a compelling humanity and a striking social realism, all of which go to make it one of the most memorable French films of 2001.

Film Synopsis

When he is fired from his job as a high-powered consultant, Vincent hides the fact from his friends and family by pretending to have found a new job at the United Nations.  He goes through the motions of earning his living, but instead of working in Geneva he hides away in a Swiss mountain retreat.  To keep up the deceit, he turns to his father and friends to give him money, ostensibly to invest on their behalf in his new job.  Little by little, his wife Muriel begins to realise that something is wrong, and Vincent's reluctance to reveal the truth forces him into an uneasy partnership with a black marketeer...