After The Successor, second movie with Marc-André Grondin and second round of force! This is the name to follow from Quebec cinema... And this time, it's under the direction of Pier-Philippe Chevigny and in a register all the other things he operates, for a film that shakes just as much. Its output in physical format seems to be the ideal opportunity to reimmerse!
From documentary to fiction
Hired as a translator in a maize processing plant for Guatemalan employees, Ariane (Ariane Castellanos) bridge between the labour force and one direction (represented inter alia by Marc-André Grondin) at least rigid. But if one time she tries to satisfy herself with her role as a translator, she will not be able to endure for long the inhumane working conditions of these seasonal employees.
Pier-Philippe Chevigny This is his first long, which should have been a documentary about the fate of Canadian foreign workers in the PTET program. Not finding anyone who dared to testify against the camera, he retreated to fiction to portray the working (and living) conditions of these workers not like the others. And we will see that a strange rapprochement with a very recent film is required following the viewing of Dissident (Richelieu, in V.O. of the name of the province where the film takes place).
No chains, no masters
How you're going! Compare the latest No chains, no masters of the Simon Moutairou with DissidentIsn't that a little coffee? The first, a feature film on slavery in the French colonies (which is quite exciting despite many shortcomings), the second a film on the working conditions of seasonal workers in a province of Quebec, it must be said that the great gap has enough to make a Van Damme pale. And yet! The position of Massamba as well as Ariane's position is the same in the scale of rule in the world that each film depicts.
Both are trapped in an uncomfortable balance, between their masters (Benoît Magimel as master of slaves or Marc-André Grondin in detestable leader of unity) and the mass exploited beneath them. And they find themselves in this bastard position because of their mastery of the tongue, on either side. An exciting dialogue between two films that – at first glance – have nothing in common, but yet share the very essence of the social position of their main character.
But between the French colonies and those Guatemalan neo-slaves, what really changed? Maybe the transition to capitalistic slurry. And that's Pier-Philippe Chevigny's movie showing it very well! All unpleasant situations of confrontation between an order coming from above and the inhuman situation of an employee are done through an intermediary: the safe distance from a phone call, the intermediary of a translator, the legal route... Threats always weigh as much and crush the bodies, but the dominant washes hands more easily than it does any more.
Naturalist cinema?
We saw, the director's first ambitions were, Dissident, to make a documentary. That's probably why it matters in its fiction so many characteristics of the medium... The frame tightens around the characters, the format only participates more to stifle them in the plan, the shake-cam sticks to the characters in an aspect on the alive... So many recurring gimmicks that could piss off a spectator too accustomed to these film-makers. And yet!
This choice of close-up with a character usually centered in the frame (if the director abuses a hair) makes it possible to make the image feel the absurdity even of their job. By evacuating almost everything that is not his characters from the plan, the film decontextualizes each of the repetitive tasks imposed on the workers. Thus, we will never really understand what is going on in this factory, but we will see several times these modern-day slaves excavate (more than 40 hours a week) the same pit, to avoid it being blocked by corn yarn. The spectator thus finds himself in the same posture as the workers whom he sees on the screen, and the plan of this capitalistic inhumanity which – in the name of the sacrosanct profit and the queen profitability – prefers to impose a unique and ultra-specialised post rather than a global view of the entire production chain.
Anyway, after the dreadful Chambers red, one of the biggest freckles of the year with The Successor and now a virulent charge against economic liberalism with Dissident, Quebec cinema once again proves its vitality and its look at the contemporary world at once offbeat and lucid. A sacred trio that can only advise you to discover, especially as Dissident Get ready to land in physical format! And it makes us want to discover Mercenary, the new short film of the director of Dissident with always Marc-André Grondin and an equally corrosive theme.
Data sheet
DVD Zone B (France)
Publisher: Blaq Out
Duration: 86 min
Release date: October 15, 2024
Video format : 576p/25 - 1.37
Soundtrack : French (Quebec), Spanish (Guatemala) Dolby Digital 5.1 (and 2.0)
Subtitles French
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