Deux jours, une nuit
Winter 2015 Features series
Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 4:00pm
Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 7:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Screenplay by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Starring Pili Groyne , Fabrizio Rongione, and Marion Cotillard
Rated NR ·
1h 35m
Italy / France / Belgium
Arabic and French
Deux jours, une nuit
In the new film from master filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Rust and Bone, The Kid with a Bike), a working class Belgian mother (Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant, Rust and Bone) loses her job but has a fighting chance—and one weekend—to get it back.
Almost immediately after returning to her factory job following a mental health leave, Sandra (Cotillard) is laid off because her fellow workers voted to receive a bonus rather than keep her as the seventeenth person on the team. When she learns that their team leader persuaded them to vote against her under false pretenses, Sandra convinces the plant manager to hold a second, secret vote. It is now Friday afternoon, leaving Sandra only two days and one night to save her job and, quite possibly, the life her family knows. Swallowing her pride, Sandra sets out with her loving husband (Fabrizio Rongione, The Kid With a Bike, Rosetta) to convince her sixteen co-workers, one by one, to vote in her favour.
Featuring cinematography by Dardennes regular Alain Marcoen, Deux jours, une nuit is executed in the duo’s signature naturalist style. The story’s events unfold in real time through long takes and hand-held shots, enveloping us in Sandra’s world and putting a human face on Europe’s economic crisis.
Cotillard does brilliantly subtle work here as Sandra, always giving us a glimpse of what lies beneath. Despite the high stakes and mounting tension around Sandra’s situation, we are reminded that—whether it is enjoying an ice cream in the park, finding a killer song on the radio, or the simple act of listening to others—there is much that can be accomplished, and savoured, in two days and one night.
“Even if you’ve skipped the Dardennes’ work until now, this is a talking-point movie—and an outstanding lead performance—you need to see. It’s a rare film of unforced simplicity that will stick with you for a long time. And it’s honest right to its perfectly judged ending.” (Kim Newman, Empire)
“A tense dramatic situation and a subtly magnificent central performance from Marion Cotillard add up to an outstanding new movie from the Dardenne brothers.” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)