Between Two Worlds (2023) | Dir. Emanuelle Carrère
Léa Carne, Émily Madeleine, Hélène Lambert, Juliette Binoche, Évelyne Porée. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.
Text: Belle McIntyre
French filmmakers seem to be in a mood of self-examination on issues of social justice, turning out films based on the immigrant population, life in the rundown bainlieu neighborhoods, full of crime and drugs, the working poor and recently focused on the gig economy. The milieu is fluid and ripe with possibilities given it’s variety, lack of regulation, and under the radar status. This film is based on the book The Night Cleaner by Florence Aubenas – an autobiographical exposé of France’s gig economy.
Juliette Binoche. Courtesy of Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.
The opening scene is outside a government employment office crowded with people needing jobs, lined up outside and crowded inside. A particularly aggravated young woman has many axes to grind and makes quite a huge scene. One can empathize with her frustration at the bureaucratic wall of indifference to her desperate situation. Into this scene is Marianne Winkler (Juliet Binoche) applying for a job with no working experience for the last 20 years, which leads to the option of “maintenance engineer” (euphemism for cleaner). She gratefully accepts the lead and goes through all kinds of humiliating interviews and training exercises to procure this minimum wage job. All we know about her is that she is new to the industrial city of Caen and knows no one. She gets fired from her first gig and has to move down the ladder to even less desirable situations.
DidierPupin, Juliette Binoche, Léa Carne, Héléne Lambert. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.
She finally finds herself on an all female work crew who clean the cabins on the ferry which goes daily from France to England. They are picked up and taken by bus where they are ushered in like a swat team to clean all of the rooms in a couple of hours. (4 minutes per room). It is exhausting and back breaking work. The tedium of the work is leavened by the comraderie which develops between the team. Marianne fits in with the team and forms some friendships, notably with the firebrand from the opening scene, Chrystele (Hèlene Lambert). But we do notice her taking notes on incidents at the end of the day. She also acknowledges qualms about her deception with women she has grown fond of. Ultimately, she is exposed by accident, as a writer doing research for a book about the exploitation of women in the gig economy. This does not go down well with Chrystele, who feels totally betrayed.
Hélène Lambert, Léa Carne, Juliette Binoche. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group.
Even when the book comes out with all of the best intentions, it is anything but certain that it will make any difference in the lives of the women. The women are all played by non-professional actors and they are very natural and convincing. It must be said that the subject is not particularly cinematic. It is neither gritty in the manner of Italian neo-realism nor hard-hitting with villainous characters. But it is obviously a sincere piece of work which was led by Juliet Binoche who had been trying to get it produced for several years. So, Bravo to her. It shines a light on some unpleasant facts of life.
