Une étrange affaire

Set in Paris, a lackadaisical advertising executive, content with his domestic situation with his loving wife, has his life turned upside down when a new ultra-controlling manager takes over the company he works for. The new man begins to intrude upon his life and dominate him, moving his work-life balance into the red. It begins with excessive overtime and gofering, and before long he lets the manager move himself into his house, where he takes no time in the slightest to begin cooking his food, sleeping in his bed and wandering around naked. Needless to say, his domestic life takes a nose-dive as his professional life moves upwards.

This unusual French satirical drama is about a man caught in a trap. A man who loses his personality and quality of life in his pursuit of keeping his boss happy as he eyes his career at the total expense of everything else. It suggests that it is dangerously easy to be manipulated and fall over the precipice when authority deems it the way ahead. I think it is a criticism of capitalist thinking and the abuse of power. Michel Piccoli has a lot of fun here as the overbearing boss, in a larger than life performance of passive aggressive manipulation. Also very good was Jean-Pierre Kalfon as his relentless side-kick François. It's overall an interesting and slightly left-of-centre psychological drama.

What if a man doesn't fit the role of being the centre of his loving wife's life but jumps instead to the opportunity of getting invaded and absorbed by his new boss who expects from him and two colleagues that they constitute a team without borders of privacy like one body and the boss as the ruling head?

What I mean is that this kind of scheme, plot, had already been told in the seventies, but not that much, but from this period, eighties and nineties, and even after, there will be dozens of French films speaking of the inner companies struggles, feuds, human resources fierce trench wars...CAROLE MATHIEU, RESSOURCES HUMAINES, CORPORATE and many many more. Unfortunately a forever modern scheme. Rivalry, pushism, careerism "bloodthirsty and brutal" fights among managers, supervisors, executives; folks ready at anything to rise in their companies, even ready sacrifying their private lives...Lanvin, the promising Lanvin facing a terrific Michel Piccoli at his very best.

An affair less strange than ominous. Upon confrontation with his new boss, whom he has awaited fearfully because of announcements of his rigor, a small employee gratefully accepts the role as a humble servant without realizing that his whole life is slowly transformed into a sort of "free slavery". He is so eager to participate in the system that he ceases to question any of the strange encounters he has with the boss and his obedient followers. His own life stops and is replace by his position as a puppet. In the end, when everything is gone, he is still incapable of refilling the gaps. A striking study on accommodation and the loss of self.

This film is shy, one of those you'll fall over on a sleepless night, on an obscure TV station. And you'll find yourself attracted by its awkward mood and characters (check Jean Pierre Kalfon's performance, amazing here). Truth is, "une étrange affaire" is an "étrange" masterpiece, and I'm not ashamed to say it could have been a Kubrick film in the way it depicts extremely accurately the relationship between a king and his court, and the behaviour of mind bent court followers and how this relationship can work today, in a democracy. Piccoli is at his best, so are Balmer and Kalfon (two very under used and rated french actors) and this is probably Lanvin's best flick (that's if you're a fan of the guy). The film is cruel, and shows how easily a man can get his mind twisted, be it by a ceo or out of a "big company" context, anyone standing on any upper level and how weak and cheap the ways to use are. On that sleepless night, try to stay awake, you won't regret it, even at 4.00 AM.