Trois huit

In "Trois huit," wildly implausible set-ups lurch clumsily into individual scenes of significant power and thought, causing much head scratching and hand wringing during its running time, but after you think about it for a while it begins to add up. It's a film that you only really appreciate in retrospect. The plot is a frustration of pure contrivance, but it's worth sifting through for what's in between the lines, a seasoned exploration of the complicated psychological relationship between a bully and his victim.

It isn't often that strong direction and acting can redeem a truly problematic script, but such is the case here. I can't honestly recommend it to casual fans of psychological thrillers, but to people in search of something slightly different and quite a bit more thoughtful than usual American fare, it's a fine little time.

A TV drama style film that portrays a guy who is bullied by his fellow worker at the factory. Complex relationships between the two ensue and they are both well acted. Pierre is relentlessly teased by Fred sometimes leading him into a false impression he is his friend and other times physically and mentally torturing him. This is the basis of the film and as such is amazingly well told. I found it very life like and compulsive viewing. Supporting cast play their roles well and I would highly recommend the film.

This is a social film, but especially a bully scheme film, one of the most powerful ever, but not the most famous. Yes, this Philippe Le Guay's film is unfortunately not widely known. Such a shame. I discovered Marc Barbé. And Gerald Laroche too, though I saw it in 1997 for J'IRAI AU PARADIS CAR L'ENFER EST ICI. Here, he is at his right place, I would have never imagined him for the Marc Barbé's role. But, believe me, this topic is not at all exaggerated. Such guys exist, such men who take a sadistic pleasure to bully the others. But I admit it is more often in military camps or schools, than in factories or companies; maybe because this kind of situation can not exist where men and woman are melt. Never. Only when there are only men. However, this film is a fantastic character study. Marc Barbé's best performance, most convincing. Despite he is a pure villain, he remains poignant.

This is kind of a new genre as thrillers are usually felt by the audience to be the product of an overconsumption of addictive, non legal products. Here we have a real situation (in a factory), real personalities (the bad guy is not so bad, a.s.o.), and a very good, rising tension.

'Night Shift' really knocked me out. I hesitate to call it a thriller, I suppose psychological drama is the more apt description, but it packs in more tension and suspense than 90% of today's Hollywood thrillers. I was hooked from the outset, and the film held me in its grip until the closing scene. Refreshingly set in a blue collar background, something Hollywood very rarely (if ever!) does anymore, it's a simple story of a nice guy/family man Pierre (Gerald Laroche) who moves to a new section of the factory he works at and begins the night shift. He tries to fit in with the small group of workers, but one of them Fred (Marc Barbe) relentlessly teases him and plays practical jokes. He tries to take this with good humour but Fred's "joking" escalates and becomes more vicious, and quickly crosses of into outright bullying and victimisation. Pierre tries every way to handle it but things go from bad to worse and he is driven close to madness. The situation is totally believable, and the performances by Laroche and Barbe are outstanding. I was really impressed by 'Night Shift' and highly recommend it. It's a brilliant and unpredictable movie.