The Comedy of Work
(La comédie du travail)
With Roland Blanche, Sabine Haudepin, Henri Déus.
France, 1987, 35mm, color, 90 min.
French with English subtitles.
Actually a comedy of unemployment, which is defined as possibly the worst, or maybe the best, thing that ever happened to this film's group of protagonists: a middle-aged loan officer, his successful wife, a champion of professional joblessness (and mountain-climbing enthusiast), and the employment agency professional who falls passionately in love with him. This film's honest work involves potatoes, ditch-diggers, a wheelbarrow, doomed love, jam in bed, and gunfire involving dueling employment agencies.
PRECEDED BY
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Opening Tries (Essai D’overture)
Directed by Luc Moullet.
France, 1988, 35mm, color, 15 min.
French with English subtitles.
This fifteen-minute film, a prime example of Moullet's short work, is a deadpan illustration of methodological persistence. It's tempting to label it a documentary about problem solving, gender roles, and cultural relations, but it's mostly about ways to open a bottle of Coca-Cola. One of these requires welding goggles.
