To go back in film history to 1941, one of the greatest comedies 鈥� 鈥� shows a rich Hollywood director who decides that his silly movies ignore the harsh realities of life in The Great Depression. He decides to go among the poor to make a movie about their plight. His butler warns that a rich man studying poverty is a bad idea. In a new movie, French writer and filmmaker does the same thing with a character who wants to tell the world about poverty. It鈥檚 still an iffy idea.
At the start, Marianne Winckler, (), is looking for work. As she meets with an employment counselor, a desperate single mother interrupts, furious that she鈥檚 getting the runaround. Marianne stays patient. Her resume lists a law degree, but she says since she divorced, she鈥檚 been broke.
Even early in the picture, something feels off. At a job fair, she tells a company rep that cleaning has always been her passion. Becoming a cleaning lady is honorable work, but it鈥檚 hard to believe it鈥檚 a life passion. Marianne also describes events in a voice-over, as if she keeps a diary.
鈥淚 stick to the rule,鈥� she writes, 鈥渘o contact with my life in Paris.鈥� So what is Marianne up to 鈥� because she鈥檚 not a divorcee facing hard times.
The subject is betrayal. Marianne is actually a known author writing a book about people stuck in rotten jobs. She grows close to Cryst猫le () the woman who鈥檇 interrupted the meeting with the job counselor. But Cryst猫le is genuine; she doesn鈥檛 need a book, or a writer, to tell her she鈥檚 trapped. She needs a real friend.
Cryst猫le gets Marianne a job with her cleaning cabins on a ferry between France and England. For bad pay, they make beds and clean toilets under harsh time pressure. The two women connect. Cryst猫le and her three young kids make a birthday party for Marianne and she鈥檚 upfront about everything, while Marianne is not.
Like the films of the Belgian Dardenne brothers or Britain鈥檚 Ken Loach, Between Two Worlds exposes the no-way-out world of the working poor. The workers on the cleaning crew work too many shifts. Marianne is a good reporter. She describes the physical pain from making high and low bunk beds and bending over to do the toilets. And she sees the larger picture 鈥� that these workers are so beaten down by their jobs that they can鈥檛 break free to find something better. Cryst猫le is certain she will never get out of this life.
Between Two Worlds also makes suspense about betrayal in the way Alfred Hitchcock did over and over. The audience knows Marianne鈥檚 secret and endures the tension to see what Cryst猫le will do when she finds out.
The great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman said that the real subject of film is the human face. As Cryst猫le鈥檚 face rarely changes. Cryst猫le is angry and distrustful, and in her few light moments, her smile and laugh only highlight her elemental fury at her lot in life. Whereas Marianne is a marvel of subtle shifts in expression. She鈥檚 a sophisticated Parisian: she knows she鈥檚 lying to her friend. She鈥檚 decided consciously that publishing the book is worth hurting this vulnerable and much younger woman, but she鈥檚 not confident about that choice, and it鈥檚 all there in her face 鈥� the wariness, the doubts. Binoche is one of the fine actors of our time, and she鈥檚 never been better than she is in Between Two Worlds.
