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Trois huit
2001 Drama
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Summary
The life of Pierre, an ordinary working class man, takes a sudden turn for the worse when
he decides to work night shifts in his glass-producing factory. Immediately, he
is picked on by another man, Fred, who seems determined to make his life misery.
Pierre’s unassuming and gentle nature compels him to suffer Fred’s humiliating
taunts and physical abuse, and he even tries to make a friend of his enemy. In the
end, Pierre’s will is crushed and he hits back. But by this stage, he has
lost the support of his wife and the respect of his young son, Victor…
Critique
If there is one category of film which French cinema has done well in recent years it
is the social realist drama, and Trois huit is
a particularly distinctive and memorable example of the genre. With a grimly uncompromising
depiction of male relationships in a familiar working class setting, the film is both
disturbing and harrowingly realistic. The apparent simplicity of Philippe Le Guay’s
direction exposes the complexity of the relationship of the film’s two principal
protagonists – the near-psychopathic bully Fred and his seemingly willing victim
Pierre. The nature of the relationship between the two men is both baffling and
believable, with a curious dependency that could be mistaken for symbiosis. Pierre’s
lack of self-esteem makes him a willing punch-bag for Fred’s pent-up aggression,
implying there is something darkly masochistic in being a bully’s victim; perhaps
Pierre feels perversely gratified by the time and attention that Fred gives him, the next
best thing to the love that is elsewhere absent from his life. As befits a good
piece of social realism, the film boasts some fine cinematography and faultless naturalistic
performances, including exceptional contributions from the two male leads, Gérald
Laroche and Marc Barbé.
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