L'atelier (The Workshop) - review

Not a little ironically, considering its premise of a group of young people taking part in a literary workshop, L'atelier (The Workshop - 2017), currently on iPlayer, is one of those French films where seemingly not much is said and even less happens. And yet it manages to be utterly intriguing and quite thrilling too.

The story is set in La Ciotat, a notorious former shipyard near Marseilles, where a (socially and ethnically) diverse group of teens is meant to be writing a thriller together under the guidance of an established author.

This leads to explorations of the creative process and the act of writing, but also of the social and political climate of a France still reeling from the Bataclan and Nice terrorist attacks.

Perhaps because the book to be written has to be a thriller, violence is not only also discussed, but lurking just below the surface: Reality, in the shape one of the members of the group, threatens to overcome fiction right up to the last few minutes of the film. In the end, however, the written word provides its renowned catharsis.

Although ostensibly an essemble piece, the film really centres on only two of its characters, sadly leaving the others two-dimensional or at least under-developed. However, Laurent Cantet, the director, finds the time to travel to that foreign country that is the past by including archival footage of La Ciotat and its shipyard.

The film, which is packed with implicit references to Camus' L'étranger (echoing in its very title) and its despondent view of the absurdity and senselessness of life, keeps the viewer guessing throughout as to its nature. It is a very French, a very cerebral, film but one that is, counterintuitively, not boring. It is also hopeful, and a truly thought-provoking piece.