By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Laurent Cantet
Starring: Florian Beaujean | Julien Souve | Mamadou Doumbia | Marina Fois | Matthieu Lucci | Mélissa Guilbert | Wanda Rammach
Original language title: L'atelier
Country: france
Year: 2018
Running time: 114
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6444838/reference
Michael says: “Laurent Cantet (THE CLASS)has constructed a fascinating film exploring the desire to kill, racism, and class in THE WORKSHOP. Centered around a racially mixed group of blue-collar students in a summer writing class led by an upper-class, middle-aged, best-selling thriller writer, THE WORKSHOP embraces current politics and terrorism to provide fodder for debates and varied viewpoints as the students communally write a novel. The only requirement is that the novel must take place in the town they live in, a French coastal town known for its past, burgeoning seaport where huge tankers were built, which has now morphed into a lucrative yacht-building enterprise. The group quickly determines that the novel will be a thriller involving a murder, and then set out to construct the plot and characters.
“The first-third of the film introduces the characters, and slowly focuses in on two characters in particular, Olivia, the teacher, and one particular student, Antoine. Olivia is well-meaning, empathetic, and struggling to write her next novel. When she observes both creative intelligence and disturbing behavior from Antoine, she is moved to help him. Antoine is ever on the fringes, both in class, and when hanging out a party with friends. He is happiest alone in his room playing video games, yet is gentle and loving his children, while also provocative and aggressive with his unpopular views. Antoine and Olivia are both simultaneously fascinated and repelled by each other, and an unsettling dynamic gradually emerges between them leading to a startling and perplexing climax.
“Cantet and frequent co-writer Robin Campillo (whose directorial effort BPM has won much praise) have constructed a well-paced, thought-provoking, socially relevant film that asks questions without providing easy answers. The performances are uniformly strong, especially newcomer Matthieu Lucci, who gracefully embodies the disconcerting nature of Antoines strangely aggressive behavior while also exposing an innocence that seems to be reaching out for guidance. Ultimately Antoine’s story is universal –intelligent young man living in a confusing time with few prospects and a whole lot of boredom. Cantet shows us a trajectory that resonates in a post-industrial world. 4 cats“