two days, one night

End of the school holidays, so it seemed only appropriate to mark the occasion with a trip to the cinema! I went along to the Watershed this afternoon (yes, I know… it’s ALWAYS the Watershed – but it IS an excellent place!) to see Jean-Pierre+Luc Dardenne’s “Two Days, One Night” featuring the wonderful Marion Cotillard in a ‘deeply affecting social drama’ (in the words of the Watershed’s blurb). Cotillard, as Sandra, suffers from depression and, after a recent long-term absence from work, has been laid off following a ballot of work colleagues who were asked to choose between their EUR1,000 annual bonus or allowing Sandra to keep her job. She ends up being granted a new blind vote when everyone returns to work on the following Monday morning and so launches a desperate weekend bid to convince each of the sixteen workers to change their minds (the original show of hands was 14-2 against her)…

It’s a fascinating, intimate and tough film. It's about defiance, fighting for survival (perhaps that's a little strong?) and about dignity. In many ways, the film reflects these times of (some) management attitudes, short-term contracts and (all too frequently) non-unionised labour… and it's also about people trying to come to terms with depression – and, especially, in the context of family life and tough financial circumstances.

It’s a very powerful, brilliant film (and a strangely uplifting one too) and Marion Cotillard is my new super film idol!