Le diable dans la boîte

Lauded far beyond its station when it was released , "le diable dans la boîte" (= jack in the box) seems today terribly dated ; the cast and credits were appealing though:how can you be wrong when you deal with highly talented Jean Rochefort and Mickael Lonsdale? A screenwriter such as Jean -Claude Carrière who worked with Luis Bunuel (notably in "le charme discret de la bourgeoisie" and "le fantôme de la liberté".) It's extraordinary that in this flick he was never in the business of supplying acidity ,bite,savor,poetry ,let alone humor ......

The seminar , and its interminable scenes , with an unbearable coach ,makes the viewer use the fast forward button ; the hunger strike is not credible a single minute , most of the time ,Rochefort ,with the exception of the last scenes , seems fresh as a daisy : he's even got a masseuse to cheer him up!

Lonsdale and Rochefort have some good scenes where they are together ,without the excess luggage ; their lines ,dealing with the very reason of working,producing ,sacrificing the man for the firm , are exactly what the movie was supposed to aim at. They take their best shot with a crackerful of clichés (the aging executive, his wife and her yoga , the colleagues who do not care about his being fired till the press and the media pick up the story and then support him and even have a wild time in the offices of the society , the boss discovering "true" life watching the sunset , etc)boooing ! No cigar,and not even close.....

To be on the dole is no picnic ; by and large ,you are not proposed a new job in a new firm with an astronomical 12,000 francs a month !you do not become a hero overnight ! And all in all,individual rebellion is somewhat selfish , particularly when you're not part of the working class.