Between Two Worlds
Juliette Binoche goes undercover as a ferry cleaner in Emmanuel Carrère’s slice of social realism based on the nonfiction work by Florence Aubenas.
Juliette Binoche is the star of this film by Emmanuel Carrère, a work which might not have been made but for her determination to get it set up. She immediately saw the value of a film based on the successful book by Florence Aubenas and became influential in persuading Aubenas to entrust this material to Carrère as the basis of a film to be scripted by him. Somewhat in the mode of George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, the original was a report on the experiences of the author while living among the poor, in her case alongside workers in Ouistreham, the port for Caen in north-western France. Central to it were the harsh conditions imposed on cleaning women who could only survive by accepting work such as that on the ferries which docked overnight.
Between Two Worlds is a reworking of the book in a dramatised form with Binoche playing a character called Marianne Winckler who, like Aubenas herself, is shown to be a writer pretending to need this work and doing so in order to publish a book exposing the injustices of the system. However, the free approach of this adaptation allows Carrère to feature also an entirely fictional character named Chrystele (Hélène Lambert). She is a single mother with three young children who befriends Marianne and who, unaware of her true identity, helps her to take up the same cleaning work in which she is herself employed. But, despite this fiction, both book and film have the same basic aim, namely to present an authentic picture of the lives of those driven to take up night work of this kind. The intense pressure is all too apparent (a time limit of one and a half hours to clean the ferry while in dock which results in having four minutes for each room on board).
While Binoche’s name will help to sell the film, it is important to stress that Between Two Worlds is absolutely the opposite of a star vehicle. Its concern for the working class, their struggles to get by and the exploitative conditions imposed on them reminds one of the films of Ken Loach. Another comparison arises too since, apart from Binoche, most of the players are non-professionals taking on roles very close to their own reality. That prompt thoughts of 2020’s Nomadland and, indeed, Binoche follows Frances McDormand in playing a role that eschews any sense of glamour. She succeeds in taking on the same realism as the figures around her although, hardly surprisingly, she cannot match McDormand in combining that with a charisma that somehow exists alongside the sense of her portraying an everyday person.
That one can make these comparisons means that in prospect Between Two Worlds sounds very worthwhile, but in the event Carrère's screenplay leaves much to be desired. The characters convince and Hélène Lambert in the important role of Chrystele has a lively presence, but these people are hardly rounded out. Thus it is that the children of Chrystele herself hardly make an appearance and other workers such as Marilou (Léa Carne) and Justine (Emily Madeleine) are given personal issues that are never made to count for much. The film also introduces a potential romance when a man named Cédric (Didier Pupin) encounters Marianne at the employment centre and immediately shows signs of being keen on her. Through no fault of the actor, this has a fictional feel to it. Even Marianne herself remains somewhat enigmatic to us since, although voice-over comments and notes written by her make clear in time her journalistic mission, we never know if what she tells Chrystele about herself contains some truth. We may come to understand her position in general terms, but as written Marianne is hardly rewarding to play. There is also a weakness of another kind which limits the impact of this film: due to shooting it in the ‘Scope format the spacious visuals mitigate the sense of the workers always being under pressure and living an existence that feels almost claustrophobic.
On top of all that, the last section of Between Two Worlds pulls it down further. In the last quarter, coincidences and contrivances come into play in order to increase the drama. This includes a belated emphasis on the moral issue of whether or not the author’s subterfuge had been justifiable (there had been the merest hint of this question earlier but suddenly it is emphasised although we are given insufficient detail of the bond between Marianne and Chrystele to make us understand fully why ultimately the latter’s sense of having been betrayed should be so extreme). What this film has to say will for some far outweigh any misjudgments in its execution. Yet the fact remains that, if one turns from France to Mexico, one can claim that comparable material about the exploitative employment of the poor has already been handled with significant success. Lila Avilés made her debut in 2018 with The Chambermaid: it's a film too little-known but it comes close to being a masterpiece and it puts this film very much in the shade.
Original title: Ouistreham.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Hélène Lambert, Léa Carne, Didier Pupin, Evelyne Porée, Louise Pociecka, Steve Papagiannis, Aude Ruyter, Patricia Prieur, Kévin Maspimby, Emily Madeleine, Faïçal Zoua.
Dir Emmanuel Carrère, Pro Emmanuel Carrére, Olivier Delbosc, Julien Deris and David Gauquié, Screenplay Emmanuel Carrère and Hélène Devynck freely adapted from Le quai de Ouistreham by Florence Aubenas Ph Patrick Blossier, Art Dir Julia Lemaire, Ed Albertine Lastera, Music Mathieu Lamboley, Costumes Isabelle Pannetier.
Cinéfrance Studios/Curiosa Films/France 3 Cinéma/Studio Exception/Canal+-Curzon.
106 mins. France. 2021. UK Rel: 27 May 2022. Cert. 12A.
