L'Atelier

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.

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.

For those who have seen Laurent Cantet's previous film 'Entre les murs', his new movie 'L'atelier' can have a 'déja vu' effect. Both films share the same concept: a group of French teenagers from all walks of life, brought together under the supervision of an adult, talk about their lives and what's going on in society. 'Entre les murs' was almost entirely set in a school building, 'L'atelier' shows a creative writing workshop in La Ciotat, a town on the Mediterranean coast near Marseille.

There are many similarities between both movies, but also many differences. 'L'atelier' delves deep into the psychology of one workshop participant, and also shows the world around the house where the workshop takes place. In a way, it is more complex and deeper than 'Entre les murs'.

The location of the film is very important. La Ciotat is a town in decline, but the local population cherishes nostalgic memories of its past as an important ship building town. Cantet uses historical footage to show this glorious past. The shipyard is still there, but it is no longer in use. The resentment of the locals is a rich feeding ground for anti-immigrant politicians.

These problems will soon dominate the workshop, led by the elegant Parisian author Olivia Dejazet. The kids in the workshop think she is snobbish and doesn't really understand their problems, but she soon shows her teaching talent by coaching their sentiments and encouraging them to use those feelings in their writing efforts.

Dejazet is intrigued by Antoine, a provocative workshop participant who shocks with his extreme and cruel writing efforts. She wants to understand what's going on in his head, partly because she considers using this insight in her next novel. In turn, Antoine tries to analyze Dejazet's way of thinking by dissecting one of her novels. After a while the mutual obsession between teacher and pupil gets out of hand.

'L'Atelier' tackles the problems of modern French society in a very original way. The contrasts are numerous: the intellectuals in Paris versus the working class population in the industrial towns, the Muslim population versus the non-Muslims (the Bataclan massacre is one of the discussion subjects), and the ultra-right populists versus the socialist left. But the film is also a psychological drama between two strong characters, both played very effectively. Laurent Cantet has put French society under the microscope, and shows that there is a lot of dissent, but also much hope for better times.

I think this film is trying to to make a contrast between slick, unreal thrillers and reality. I get a sense of the storyline at the end being improvised so that I never knew what might happen. I was impressed but it wasn't my normal type of film, hence a 7 but could have been 8.

Although I did like the scenes of the main character swimming, I don't know that they were necessary. The other students in the workshop could have been more involved, instead they acted like they were bored, there were possibilities missed for conflict that could have deepened the plot. Overall, I liked the film, it was a view into French life that you don't often see.

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 .