À la petite semaine (2003) - film review

Having served a five year stretch in jail, fifty-something Jacques returns to his old friends in Saint-Ouen, hoping to make a fresh start.  Like Jacques, Didier and Francis are struggling to make a living and have been drawn into petty crime just to keep their heads above water.  Whilst Francis attempts to better himself by taking drama lessons, Didier is unable to break his gambling addiction.  On learning that Jacques and Didier have involved themselves with a gang of notorious jewel thieves, Jacques is appalled, but should he risk another spell in prison to help them...?

Sam Karmann’s eagerly awaited follow-up to his popular comedy Kennedy et moi (1999) is this slick urban thriller which stays with the theme of mid-life crisis, but from a completely different perspective.  This is a film which effectively combines elements of modern film noir and social drama to probe the limits of friendship in an increasingly fractured and individualistic society.  Karmann co-scripted the film with Désir Carré, whose real-life experiences provide the basis for the story and doubtless contribute to the film’s startling authenticity.   Carré and Karmann first met many years ago when (along with Jean-Pierre Bacri) they earned a meagre crust working as café waiters.

Arguably Karmann’s best film to date, À la petite semaine offers a convincing portrait of life on the margins, with well-drawn and believable characters struggling to drag themselves out of the mire of social deprivation.  The film would be unbearably depressing were it not for the light touch that Karmann and Carré bring to it, with some streaks of humour that lend a sense of optimism to offset at least some of the gloom.  Although the film is strong on just about every front (the directing and editing are particularly laudable), what makes it so memorable are the extraordinary contributions from its three principal players.  

Gérard Lanvin, Jacques Gamblin and Clovis Cornillac show us three contrasting facets of desperation through their devastatingly convincing portrayals of three hopeless losers caught in the existential vortex of mid-life crisis.  Cornillac’s performance is worth singling out for special praise; it is a truly harrowing experience to watch his character’s Teflon-coated outer shell disintegrate under a relentless barrage of shocks and setbacks, to reveal the terrified, utterly desperate child beneath.   À la petite semaine is a sobering yet tongue-in-cheek reminder that life for many is not a long and happy pleasure jaunt, but a constant struggle to survive.

© James Travers 2010

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