Recent Dardennes

The Unknown Girl (2016) (d. Dardenne Brothers)
Two Days, One Night (2014) (d. Dardenne Brothers)

I wish the Dardennes’ The Unknown Girl was less white savior-y than it is. Why does the victim have to be a young black female immigrant? This is the same world as their La Promesse, which came out 25 years ago. Has Belgium not changed in the last two decades? O have the imagination of the filmmakers remained the same? What would happen to the ethical, political, and aesthetic universe of the film if the roles were to be reversed? A daughter of African immigrants becomes a doctor and realizes she could have saved the life of a young white European woman? Why does the young man go back to his village, signaling someone who is deeply rooted in the country, while the victim is presumed from the start as being non-Belgian? There is something troubling here. I love the Dardennes and their brand of socially conscious cinema, but this one just seemed dated and its idea of feminism is too limiting.

Two Days, One Night. Honestly, isn’t Marion Cotillard’s casting a bit distracting? She has so much star power and it’s kind of difficult to see her as a working class heroine. I believe this was made around the time of her Chanel campaign. On the other hand, I’m beginning to think it’s exactly her star status that makes the film work. The unbelievability of her role adds to the tension already present in the film’s two major themes: economic precarity and mental health condition. Not only has she have to fight for her job, but she does so while battling depression. Each attempt at convincing her co-workers to forgo the bonus so that she can keep her job is shown as extremely taxing, psychologically. I found this depiction so necessary in cinema: not just being depressed but confronting people, with a huge chance of rejection, while feeling depressed. That’s some heavy shit, folks. In my life, I am and was not able to do it. Here, she has the support of her husband who might be overzealous just a bit in making her do the rounds. Man, I didn’t and don’t have that either, the support of a loving life partner. Plus she befriends some of her coworkers in a more meaningful way. Who else can make cinema like this but the Dardennes? I think we can root for her and believe that she can do all this in the limited time she is given in large part because of who is portraying her: a star who has the time and resources to deal with these things even if she ever goes off the deep end. Then we get the fantastic climax. Does she win or lose? Go watch the movie. She says she is happy, and it’s an incredible statement which ties together the two or more tensions in the film: she is happy because she fought for her rightful place at work and in the world. For a depressed person to say that is gold. Fuck, now I’m crying.

#2018 #2019 #65