After The Law of the Market, Stephane Brizé returns with a new social film "punch" carried by Vincent Lindon. Selected at the last Cannes Film Festival, En Guerre left empty-handed. Criticism of this profound and powerful work that offers one of his best roles to Lindon.
A film that oscillates between fiction and documentary
The first thing that strikes in At War is its balance between fiction and documentary. Like a balancing act, Stephane Brizé will manage to find his rhythm and his fragile happy medium between a very realistic vision of the subject, and fictitious contributions to mark the spirits. A complex dance to find and especially to keep until the end of the work. If the film falls too much into fiction, it loses its interest, if it is too documented, the film loses its scope, becoming only an exercise in documentation. The filmmaker seeks to be as close as possible to the striking employees, exhausted, who are fighting for their rights. The proximity to the character of Vincent Lindon places the spectator as close as possible to this group of rebellion, tired of seeing the refusals of the State and the big bosses to help them.
With this dual approach, Stephane Brizé opts for a realistic bias. Punctuated by fake TV reports, En Guerre is also embellished with stylized cinematographic flights thanks to an impactful staging, a lively editing and a supported soundtrack. Stephane Brizé knows how to breathe life into his story. He takes fictional characters but tells very current facts. A political film, En Guerre seeks to denounce the inhumane treatment of their employees by large companies. Stephane Brizé takes sides with the employees but does not demonize the adversary, the politicians and the big bosses. Similarly, it does not magnify these employees, highlighting internal contradictions, disruptive elements, etc. The great strength of En Guerre is its realism in the face of the current social and political situation of our country.
At War is an uncompromising work
A real slap, Stephane Brizé's film takes the viewer by the throat. The scripted choices are uncompromising. Almost fatalistic, the director confronts the small power of a few employees with the steamroller of an unjust society. The earthen pot against the iron pot. Stephane Brizé shows that to obtain compensation, employees must move heaven and earth. A losing battle that will not end well. Stephane Brizé seeks to highlight the terrible reality of our society that stigmatizes the poorest and weakest to fatten the most powerful and richest. En Guerre echoes the current situations that continue to multiply: strikes, demonstrations, blockades. It is his ability to be so current that gives the film its full identity, which manifests itself as an echo of time, but also as a warning: the people must not let themselves fall asleep. En Guerre is also punctuated by a note of hope in its approach to solidarity, and demonstrates the ability with which a group of Men can rise up.
Stéphane Brizé is bluffing in his search for a balance between reality and fiction. En Guerre is powerful, brilliant and never boring, thanks to a realism embellished by a licked staging.
