August 31, 2023
FILM: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
DIRECTED BY: EMMANUEL CARRERE
STARRING: JULIETTE BINOCHE, HELENE LAMBERT, LOUISE POCIECKA
RATING: 3 ½ OUT OF 4 STARS
By Dan Pal
When we are first introduced to Marianne, played by Juliette Binoche in the new film Between Two Worlds, she is at an employment agency with many others in the port city of Caen in northern France. We soon learn that she has taken herself off the grid from her life in Paris to work as a cleaning lady and write a book about unemployment, poverty, and other work-related issues. She becomes entrenched in that world and develops friendships with several of the women who are trying to make ends meet. None of them know her background as they assume she is one of them.
The film is based on French journalist Florence Aubenas’s best-selling non-fiction book detailing what she encountered while investigating this life. As the film portrays it, many of the women are dealing with pay issues, highly structured rules, unrealistic expectations, having to work multiple shifts, and often being told they work like pigs. Marianne works hard with them cleaning toilets and floors and later cabins on a large ferry (cruise ship.) She experiences much of what the other women are going through from physical pain to a lack of personal time. Occasionally, she takes them for a rare breather to the beach to spend some time reflecting on their hopes and dreams. Most of their time is spent working though.
Perhaps because the film is based on a real story, a screenwriting choice was made to not structure it using a classical narrative structure. There really aren’t any major conflicts for Marianne until very close to the end of the film. It made me wonder if it would have been better off then to have real cleaning people, rather than actors, playing these roles. It may have given the film an even more raw portrait of who these women are. (Chloe Zhao made that choice for Nomadland and she ended up with an Oscar for it.) However, many of these actors are in fact quite skilled at communicating some of the frustrations faced by these women. Helene Lambert is particularly good as Chrystele, a woman with three young boys who has a personality full of fire. Her dramatic chops really highlight the character’s struggle.
Of course, Juliette Binoche is great as Marianne. She spends much of her time observing the other women and goes about the physical work with an appropriate amount of energy while dialing down her natural beauty with little make-up and a humbling wardrobe. The one area that is lacking from the script though is detail about Marianne’s “other” life. We know only a bit more than the other women do. What drives Marianne to write this book? What in her background suggesting her need to dive into this world so completely?
Once her secret is out there are some conflicts the character must face. Thematically the film seems to be exploring the nature of friendship and if co-workers really share a deep bond beyond work hours. Can one maintain a connection with another person if the relationship is based, in part, on lies. (Marianne does admit early in the film that one of her faults is lying.) On a larger scale, is it ethically wrong to pose as someone you are not? Can a writer ever really know how the other half lives even if they’ve experienced it for a brief period of time?
Between Two Worlds might not spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting the worlds in which Marianne lives but it does do a terrific job of pulling us in the same way it does Marianne. The settings, pace of work, and often inhumane treatment are quite well illustrated. If that is what original writer Florence Aubenas and Emmanuel Carrere were attempting to do, then they do it very well.
Between Two Worlds opens this week in limited theatrical release. In Chicago, the film screens at Landmark Century Cinema.
FILM: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
DIRECTED BY: EMMANUEL CARRERE
STARRING: JULIETTE BINOCHE, HELENE LAMBERT, LOUISE POCIECKA
RATING: 3 ½ OUT OF 4 STARS
By Dan Pal
When we are first introduced to Marianne, played by Juliette Binoche in the new film Between Two Worlds, she is at an employment agency with many others in the port city of Caen in northern France. We soon learn that she has taken herself off the grid from her life in Paris to work as a cleaning lady and write a book about unemployment, poverty, and other work-related issues. She becomes entrenched in that world and develops friendships with several of the women who are trying to make ends meet. None of them know her background as they assume she is one of them.
The film is based on French journalist Florence Aubenas’s best-selling non-fiction book detailing what she encountered while investigating this life. As the film portrays it, many of the women are dealing with pay issues, highly structured rules, unrealistic expectations, having to work multiple shifts, and often being told they work like pigs. Marianne works hard with them cleaning toilets and floors and later cabins on a large ferry (cruise ship.) She experiences much of what the other women are going through from physical pain to a lack of personal time. Occasionally, she takes them for a rare breather to the beach to spend some time reflecting on their hopes and dreams. Most of their time is spent working though.
Perhaps because the film is based on a real story, a screenwriting choice was made to not structure it using a classical narrative structure. There really aren’t any major conflicts for Marianne until very close to the end of the film. It made me wonder if it would have been better off then to have real cleaning people, rather than actors, playing these roles. It may have given the film an even more raw portrait of who these women are. (Chloe Zhao made that choice for Nomadland and she ended up with an Oscar for it.) However, many of these actors are in fact quite skilled at communicating some of the frustrations faced by these women. Helene Lambert is particularly good as Chrystele, a woman with three young boys who has a personality full of fire. Her dramatic chops really highlight the character’s struggle.
Of course, Juliette Binoche is great as Marianne. She spends much of her time observing the other women and goes about the physical work with an appropriate amount of energy while dialing down her natural beauty with little make-up and a humbling wardrobe. The one area that is lacking from the script though is detail about Marianne’s “other” life. We know only a bit more than the other women do. What drives Marianne to write this book? What in her background suggesting her need to dive into this world so completely?
Once her secret is out there are some conflicts the character must face. Thematically the film seems to be exploring the nature of friendship and if co-workers really share a deep bond beyond work hours. Can one maintain a connection with another person if the relationship is based, in part, on lies. (Marianne does admit early in the film that one of her faults is lying.) On a larger scale, is it ethically wrong to pose as someone you are not? Can a writer ever really know how the other half lives even if they’ve experienced it for a brief period of time?
Between Two Worlds might not spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting the worlds in which Marianne lives but it does do a terrific job of pulling us in the same way it does Marianne. The settings, pace of work, and often inhumane treatment are quite well illustrated. If that is what original writer Florence Aubenas and Emmanuel Carrere were attempting to do, then they do it very well.
Between Two Worlds opens this week in limited theatrical release. In Chicago, the film screens at Landmark Century Cinema.