L'atelier

This French language film is a slow-paced, introspective, social and psychological study.

A group of young adults, all largely unlikeable for the most part, are brought together on a creative writing course as part of a social project. Their tutor/mentor is a middle aged, middle class female author from Paris who seemingly has not much in common with them.

She is charged with inspiring the group to write a novel - a crime thriller - as a way of developing their character, confidence and self worth. The setting is a French coastal town that has perhaps seen better days, its past industrial shipbuilding prowess now just a memory.

Arguments among the group are quick to surface, and are mainly based on race, politics and prospects. The film clearly sets out to use these group conflicts to raise French cultural issues, and while that is perfectly legitimate it does seem at times that these arguments surface without a great deal of provocation or resolution.

As the group dynamics develop, the film focuses on the relationship between the teacher, Olivia, and one particularly troubled young man, Antoine. Dabbling in far right politics and militia, he appears to have issues with isolation and violence and is evermore on the fringes of the group.

Olivia and Antoine become more intensely interested in each other, and the film does a very good job of keeping us guessing where their relationship is headed. There are sexual tensions, threats of violence and mutual (unhealthy) intrigue building between them in equal measure as the film progresses, and this adds a dose of intensity and drama into what otherwise is a fairly uneventful social study.

Overall, this is a well made though somewhat flat study of political and cultural issues in France, lightly exploring things such as race, immigration, the far right, liberalism and de-industrialisation. The film is lifted by the psychological drama between troubled Antoine and articulate Olivia, but for the most part remains a passable social commentary that raises some interesting cultural questions - in particular the prospects for young adults who may feel out of touch with an ever changing France.

Very much a film for those who like to think about political and social concerns rather than feast on fast paced action.

The storyline concerns a successful novelist who is hired to come to a French town experiencing a post shipbuilding industrial decline to give a workshop to a half dozen young adults (late teens/early 20s) on developing writing/creative thinking skills. Not clear if it's to help develop the youth's futures, or to become writers, or learn cooperative skills, or become well adjusted. The author encourages them to "Do research to make your fiction more real." Good potential for some insight on writing, but what we get for the movie is a lot of immature antagonistic aggressive back and forth from the group which leads me to believe the movie is more about exposing the differences amongst them (racial, gender, religious, political). Some cooperative understanding did surface, but a lot was left unclear which probably mirrors life.

The movie gives attention to the small details to the things that dont cross your mind the final writing of Antoine says a lot about life . it is the still scene we always living in convert everything from its beauty to boredom .

The acting so good . the writing is so good and escaped successfully from being boring movie talk about life to movie makes you think a lot about things .

The French film, "The Workshop", is a difficult film for me to review. On one hand, I appreciated that it dared to address some important social issues facing the country and many other countries. But, on the other, the message seems confusing and will likely leave many viewers wondering what the picture was trying to say…or, if it was trying to say anything at all.

The story is set in a small town which is experiencing hard times. The local shipyard was closed long ago and there is a sense of malaise over the place. Because of this, it's surprising that a published author like Olivia (Marina Fois) would come all the way here to teach a summer course on creative writing. Seven students have signed up for the class and its freestyle structure leads to these young adults revealing who they are and what they think during the discussions. Several of the students are defensive because they are Muslims and the class is working on a murder mystery…and they don't want the characters or story to come off as anti-Muslim. But one of the students, a loner named Antoine (Matthieu Lucci) seems to take pleasure out of baiting his fellow students and bucking the group-think that has been established in the class. Over time, Olivia begins to worry that Antoine actually might harbor real fantasies of murder…and his social media account and that of his friends seem to indicate this is a real possibility. The story, at this point, is pretty interesting and I was hooked. Unfortunately, the teacher's actions and Antoine's from this point on are unpredictable, often confusing and really left me wondering what the message was supposed to be in the picture. In other words, it all seemed to fall apart at the end and left some of the viewers baffled. It's all a shame, as there really are some interesting story elements and it could have been better.

It's oh so French and whilst I'm a real Francophile it really doesn't go anywhere and ends very slowly. That said, it's atmospheric and at least reminded me of the huge difference in the French and British psyche when it comes to all forms of art.

Vive la différence.