The Syndicalist ***
by Jean-Paul Salome
French film, 2 h 02
After the success of La Daronne, crazy thriller with the same Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Paul Salomé completely changes register and goes from a slightly clumsy comedy to a breathless political thriller. It must be said that the true story on which he was inspired goes beyond all fiction and sheds a harsh light on the underside of French industrial policy.
Maureen Kearney, CFDT trade unionist from Areva, was found one day in December 2012 tied up and violently attacked at her home after denouncing the maneuvers around the number 1 of the French nuclear industry. Namely a rapprochement with EDF threatening the company’s 50,000 jobs and a secret contract with China with the key to technology transfers that are nevertheless highly strategic.
The director was inspired by the investigative book by Caroline Michel-Aguirre (1) but chose to focus on the personality of this atypical “unionist” transformed into a whistleblower. A colorful woman, always impeccably styled and dressed, able to stand up to the powerful and fully aware of her power. However, behind this armor hide flaws which the investigators, who end up questioning the veracity of the attack, will use to discredit his version of the facts. And from victim to transforming her little by little into culprit.
A shadow theater where dirty tricks reign
Isabelle Huppert, in a disturbing mimicry with the real Maureen Kearney, brings all the ambiguity of her acting to instil doubt in the viewer and make this woman an opaque, typically Chabrolian character. Like this incredible scene, where shortly after her assault, in the hospital, she takes the time to recover from the lipstick for a long time in front of the mirror, her face impassive.
By always standing by his side and as close as possible to the facts that have never been elucidated, Jean-Paul Salomé nevertheless makes of them a sort ofErin Brockovich in the French style and thanks to a perfectly orchestrated staging signs a particularly successful political film. All the characters are named by their real name and take us into a shadow theater where twisted tricks, manipulations, and personal interests reign that send shivers down your spine.
Marina Foïs in the role of Anne Lauvergeon, Yvan Attal in that of Luc Oursel who succeeded him at the head of Areva or Christophe Paou in that of an Arnaud Montebourg, confusing of naivety, complete a convincing distribution and in every respect remarkable to which we can add Grégory Gadebois and Pierre Deladonchamps.