THE STORY – A photographer at the peak of his career abandons his success to pursue writing, facing financial hardship and personal struggles as he chases his true passion.
THE CAST – Bastien Bouillon, André Marcon & Virginie Ledoyen
THE TEAM – Valérie Donzelli (Director/Writer) & Gilles Marchand (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 92 Minutes
As anyone who’s ever looked for a job since 2008 knows, it seems like people are always saying, “It’s tough out there.” It’s not surprising that most people turn to short-term “gigs” to make a quick buck. This type of impermanent employment serves to fill in the gap between long-term, traditional employment, but because they’re set up under the guise of being temporary, it’s easy for workers to be underpaid and undervalued when taking on these types of jobs. “À Pied D’œuvre (At Work),” the new film from French director Valérie Donzelli, with a screenplay by Donzelli and Gilles Marchand, explores this area of unreliable employment. Adapted from the book of the same name by author Franck Courtès, who based the story on his own experiences, it’s a charming, surprisingly lovely little film that, in its own unassuming way, makes an impressive statement about the ways that the gig economy forces workers to not only put their skills on the market, but also their humanity.
The film’s central character is Paul (Bastien Bouillon), a 42-year-old Parisian author between book publications. After his wife (Donzelli) leaves him, taking their young adult son and daughter to live in Canada, Paul moves into a basement flat, gives up his job as a photographer, and begins picking up odd jobs on Jobber – a website where workers bid continuously lower amounts to secure temporary micro-employment. After a rough start, Paul eventually buys his own tools and equipment to adequately perform the roles of handyman, gardener, mover, and a wide range of other blue-collar positions. In doing so, he begins to find inspiration for what may be his next book, all while learning more about his fellow man and the wide range of human behaviors.
In that way, the film is essentially a series of vignettes as Paul goes from job to job, encountering situations both hilarious – like a stressed out young woman and her incapacitated boyfriend who need help taking down a comically large loft – and more grounded – most notably, an older woman clearly going through personal issues who ends up as a passenger to Paul’s rideshare side hustle. The film portrays every person Paul encounters, whether pleasant or less so, with an equal degree of respect for their humanity. Donzelli’s direction proves to be a great equalizer. Nobody is a target for unfair ridicule, outsized pity, or anything in between.
This egalitarian tone helps gently guide the audience to the film’s viewpoint of Paul as an exemplar of the contemporary working class. The film smartly doesn’t shy away from examining his inherent privilege; both his ex and father are shown to be doing just fine for themselves, and his sister even tells him, “You’re not poor for real.” But at the same time, it’s emphasized that Paul is what might be uncharitably called a low-skilled worker; his educational and experiential credits are both unimpressive, and he only speaks French. Therefore, it makes sense for him to turn to the specific avenue of self-employment that he does. And in an ideal world, which capitalist-based societies claim to be a model of, all people, including artists, should be able to live comfortably while working in their chosen area, even if that field is unstable.
In fact, the manner in which Paul acquires his gigs through Jobber can be seen as representative of the logical endpoint of a competitive free market. Rather than being abstract, as is the case in traditional employment, on Jobber, the aggressive, cut-throat nature of the modern economic structure is literalized, as workers willingly underbid their own skills in hopes of being chosen for the job. And given that workers are rated and reviewed not only based on their abilities but on their personalities, the workers put every part of their being up for sale – an apt summation of the bloodthirsty nature of capitalism. As Paul puts it, it’s a “race to the bottom.” Thanks to her unobtrusive direction, Donzelli guides viewers to organically make such realizations and conclusions.
As Paul, Bouillon delivers a fantastically truthful performance. He keeps himself mostly bottled up throughout – an appropriate choice given that Paul must be as inconspicuous as possible while on the job. This means that when he does briefly allow his emotions to come to the surface towards the film’s end, it’s even more impactful. And his observational narration throughout the film is well-delivered, never feeling like it’s in the way of the story, and performed in the tactful manner of the clearly intelligent wordsmith that Paul is.
“À Pied D’œuvre” is a timely, vital exploration of the perils of the gig economy. It makes its points subtly, so much so that it could easily be viewed as a singular story of an individual rather than indicative of a societal issue. But no matter what audiences get from it, it proves to be an engaging and moving, down-to-earth film.
