LA SYNDICALISTE EXPOSES ONE OF CHINA’S QUESTS TO DOMINATE THE GLOBAL MARKET
Directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, La Syndicaliste is a biopic with three stories. The first is how Maureen Kearney (played by Isabelle Huppert) spent twenty years as a trade union firebrand (whence the title), fighting on behalf of 50,000 union workers to relieve their exploitation. Her trade union history receives praise but no details so that the film can devote attention to the other two stories.
The second story, much longer, is about her objection to Areva’s CEO Luc Oursel (Yvan Attal) intention to sign an agreement that would allow China to buy France’s sole business to build nuclear power plants. She receives support from workers and even seeks to stop the purchase by visiting government ministers.
But the third story, which takes place in 2012, is how she is terrorized several times and then raped. Her account is that suddenly out of nowhere, hearing no sound, her eyes are blocked, then feet are bound, hands are bound, the letter A (or just a triangle) is inscribed on her stomach by a knife, and the knife handle is inserted into her vagina. Hours later, that is how her cleaning lady discovers her. And that is her description to the police. But without any forensic evidence, the male police believe that she fabricates the story. After long and intense questioning, she decides to end the interrogation by confessing that her story is a lie. She recants after release, but her lawyer is unable to convince a female French judge, who rules that she is guilty. She then gets another lawyer, appeals, and wins because a re-enactment proves that she could not have been able to tie her hands. One witness on her behalf testifies that she experienced exactly the same rape modus operandi on another occasion with three masked men but was ignored by the same police investigator. That there were ninja operatives hinted that China was behind the attacks, though the film did not try to do so.
After winning the appeal, she redirects her attention to China’s purchase of Areva but finds that the Chinese have dissolved the company, fired all employees, and now even France will have to contract with the Chinese firm to install another nuclear power plant in the country.
The Political Film Society has nominated La Syndicaliste as best film exposé and best film on human rights of 2023. The film is based on the account in the 2019 book, translated as Sitting Duck. MH
NAPOLEON FOCUSES ON THE MILITARY AND LOVE LIFE OF THE FRENCH GENERAL
The film Napoleon has brought to the screen the rise and fall of Napoléon Bonaparte (played by Joaquin Phoenix) with particular emphasis on his military career and his love life with Empress Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). Financed by Cinémathèque Français and Netflix, the film is a modern restoration of a 1927 French film classic.
His early fame as a commander prompts his brother Lucien (Matthew Needham), a member of the Directorate, to outmaneuver other members of the Directorate so that Napoléon becomes First Counsel and later Emperor. As emperor, he seeks to vanquish all other empires (Austro-Hungarian and Russian) but ultimately is defeated at Waterloo and then consigned to the British island of Helena during his final years.
Director Ridley Scott has brought many important facts and historic figures to light, with battle scenes and a count of war deaths during each battle of Napoléon’s military career, which sum to 3 million casualties. The film accepts the traditional explanation for the defeat at Waterloo because he delayed an opportunity to attack British and Prussian forces before they had established themselves logistically, though a scholar recently attributes his late command to a case of painful hemorrhoids that kept him from a normal sleep the night before.
But there is another side to Napoléon not featured. As his armies expanded to incorporate the rest of Europe as vassal states in the French Empire, he held plebiscites to gain legitimacy. Although the plebiscites only allowed voting to reject French rule, after he was defeated, he had sewed the concept of voting as a new way to select rulers, and the result was a hunger for democracy that took decades to gain fulfillment. MH