At War – first look review

A mid­dle-aged work­er reads out one of many let­ters sent to the employ­ees of Per­rin indus­tries: ​“From all of us in Sun­der­land to all of you in Agen.” Inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty comes through for the 1100 French peo­ple work­ing in the auto­mo­tive parts plant which has been ordered to close. Sol­i­dar­i­ty doesn’t pay the bills, though.

In At War, Cannes dar­ling Stephane Brizé returns to the main com­pe­ti­tion with a trudg­ing, cacoph­o­nous insight into the guts of indus­tri­al activism (or lack there­of). It’s a top­ic the French know all too well. Vin­cent Lin­don is the only pro­fes­sion­al actor in the film, lead­ing a most­ly seam­less ensem­ble of fight­ing work­ers, demand­ing their already-agreed rights from a qui­et­ly com­pla­cent man­age­ment body. Thus ensues the epony­mous war; a gru­elling back-and-forth of end­less con­ver­sa­tions, argu­ments, outcries.

Recon­struct­ed and suf­fi­cient­ly con­vinc­ing TV news reports frame the intrigue, as it begins in media res – employ­ees aren’t hap­py, boss­es aren’t seen, few peo­ple are being heard. In pri­vate con­ver­sa­tions too, the pace is relent­less, cap­tur­ing the simul­ta­ne­ous des­per­a­tion and neces­si­ty to keep mov­ing even if it’s to go round in circles.

Brizé has pre­vi­ous­ly won three César awards (includ­ing one for Made­moi­selle Cham­bon in 2009), but no Palme d’Or as of yet. Lin­don is no stranger to the fes­ti­val him­self, hav­ing picked up the award for Best Actor in 2015 in Brizé’s own The Mea­sure of a Man. Their lat­est col­lab­o­ra­tion could chan­nel these past suc­cess­es to win over this year’s Jury – if only At War was just a bit more galvanising.

There is a blunt­ness to the strik­ing work­ers’ vio­lence which anchors the film as an episod­ic event. From a pri­vate meet­ing to a heat­ed board­room argu­ment, the length of each new con­ver­sa­tion is tan­gi­ble as it reach­es its cli­max and then fiz­zles out. Brizé’s cam­era is clin­i­cal in its style but mobile enough to infuse a great sense of ciné­ma vérité to a sto­ry that’s almost too trans­par­ent to mask as pure fiction.

Care is giv­en to an atmos­phere clear­ly enhanced by aes­thet­ic tropes though. A slight­ly dis­so­nant score adds grav­i­tas to cut­away scenes while lead­ers and fight­ers catch their breath, and it’s hard to believe the pas­sion­ate per­for­mances were only mas­tered in 23 days on set. How­ev­er, a (melo)dramatic end­ing leaves a bit­ter taste and threat­ens to ruin the cred­i­bil­i­ty At War had earned until this point. Things don’t always get bet­ter, but does that mean we have to go to such lengths our­selves to make them even worse?