Jean is a bus driver in the industrial region of Liège. Every morning, he picks up workers from the suburbs to take them to the factory and dreams of becoming independent and owning his own truck. He is engaged to Nicole, who is a saleswoman in a department store, but he doesn't see her often because their free time doesn't coincide. An opportunity seems to arise during an advertising competition in which Nicole enters and where he meets Devos, the seller of the furniture Nicole won in the advertising competition. Devos gives him an old truck, on the condition that he work for him for a few months.
This film was released just before the events of May 1968 and it could not have come at a better time; the sixties ,it's the rise of the consumer society ,but many people are left by the wayside;since the very beginning , one feels that the characters, working-class people, are tangled up in ads , in the shops, on the radio,or on TV -which ,for many people in Europa was still a luxury - .Extreme mockery, the hero's wedding becomes a filmed advertisement ; those fake dreams , (the girls dreaming of Spain ,or simply of the deep blue sea), those alms that,now and then ,the capitalism gives to one of them (the TV competition) are sure ways to hold the exploited ones in check;the well-known approach:a carrot ( one day, you can own your truck ,like the hero,you will be your own boss) and the stick ( the police are training with the next demontrations in mind , a daring sequence for the time); for some people take a rebel stand ;if the women's march is marred by the use of the French (in Belgium?)national anthem ,which is anything but an organizing song against the regime , the end of the union meeting sets the record straight with "l'internationale" .
The hero is a naive meek bloke , who still thinks that the Belgian dream can become a reality ;little by little, exploited by a shady
guy who does a bit of business at his fellow men's expense ,he looses his illusions, but the ending is open : the would be friends who exploit his wedding day is it really the way to success? When his truck leaves the place, he will surely find it hard to make both ends meet ;the brand new vehicle,how many years will it take before he owns it? If such a day happens?
Bernard Fresson gives a restrained convincing performance ;a very educated man, although he begins with such works as "Hiroshima mon amour" ,he had to wait till 1968 , to attract the French audience's attention with his part of a cop in another film "Adieu l'ami" t;since he enjoyed ,till his death , a good career ,although too often relagated to supporting parts .
Like Godard in France ,the director displays social concern ;but his movie is much more accessible -and thus all the more scathing - than his colleague's works ,reserved by a highbrows elite .
As usual ,a nice wistful score by Georges Delerue ; a film that should be restored to favor, because it accurately depicts the pre-68 days ,without demagogy ,and with characters of flesh and blood .
Highly recommended .
