No. 67 (2022) FULL TIME (A Plein Temps) August 7th.

 

Film No. 67 (2022)  August 7th.  4:00 PM  PALACE Cinema 2,  Raine Square,  Perth City.

 

"Validate my pass with yours"(Julie very inappropriately asks a trainee with much to lose to cover for her, so she can attend a job interview).

Winner Best Director & Best Actor (Laure Calamy) at the inaugural Venice Film Festival Horizon Extra Awards to encourage innovation for film artists developing films of more than 60 minutes in duration.    

This film is such a stressful experience, but brilliant none the less, A Plien TEMPS is going to raise your heart-rate. I doubt director Eric Gravel (CRASH TEST ALGAE, 2017) would make any apologies for such a reaction. After all, my hero when it comes to naturalistic cinema, Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake) insists that his audience be anxious about the fate of his characters.

Julie (Laure Calamy), a single mum, with the weight of the world on her shoulders, juggles her responsibilities admirably as we get to know her during a week in her life. She lives in a small suburb on the outskirts of Paris  and relies on: a public transport system suffering from union disruption, a tired child carer, and the good will of others, in her role as a chambermaid in a busy 5 star city hotel.

Gravel does not waste a scene as we will Julie on. The movie plays more like a 88 minute distance running race than a naturalistic portrait of a mum doing her darndest, through ingenuity, love and dedication, to fulfil her responsibilities. The tension is real from the first close up of Julie suddenly wakening to the sound of her alarm. With each scene there after, her week is like a sprung coil, gradually tightening.

It's a smart film that winds its audience around its little finger. An hour into TEMPS your hopes are beginning to get dark for Julie ... I so wanted her to win through. A late scene at her local railway station is brilliantly built by Gravel. And then there is the conclusion. Predictable? maybe, but realistically what are the alternatives? 

This is Eric Gravel's second feature. He writes and directs this tense thriller without a weapon, a murder, a courtroom or a wide-eyed detective. His hero is a mum navigating life where she faces moment after moment of split second decision making, each playing as a sliding door moment. A PLEIN TEMPS is an example of tight, intelligent film making.  11GUMS.