L'Emploi du Temps
Gainfully Unemployed
14 October 2002
Being made redundant is one of the emblematic experiences of modern life, and this is what has happened to Vincent. Unable or unwilling to confront the situation, Vincent plays as if nothing has happened, leaving for work each day, relaying stories of business meetings to his wife as he sits in truck-stops and stares into space.
In the first scene of L'emploi du Temps (Time Out), Vincent races a train to a crossing, snatching glances sideways as he talks on the phone. The situation is typical of the film - the tension rises imperceptibly until it is almost suffocating.
Through inaction rather than decision Vincent is soon trapped in a situation where his whole life is a patchwork of deceit. A small lie metamorphosises into a big one, as the pressure to maintain his bourgeois dignity leads him to invent an elaborate false existence for himself. He discusses his new UN job with his friends, concocts office politics, sleeps in the car whilst telling his family he is in Geneva. Before long he is borrowing money from his father for a flat and taking money from his friends for an 'investment' scheme to support his lifestyle.
Although the suspense is like that of a thriller, the film is set firmly in the everyday. Vincent attends school fetes and watches his son in judo competitions, but our sense of the 'normal' is unnervingly and effectively undermined. Vincent is suffocating in his professional middle-class existence, but cannot confront it or take steps to change it.
L'emploi du Temps is the latest continuance in a long line of French existential angst and manages to convey a sense of fear and unease in every frame. In Hollywood one takes a machine gun (Falling Down) to solve such problems, but L'emploi du Temps is a far subtler and effective exposition on modern life.
L'emploi du Temps won Best Film at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, and opens in Sydney and Melbourne on 17 October.
