Linda Winsh-Bolard
Bertrand Saint-Jean (Olivier Gourmet), minister of transport, is called during the night to a scene of fatal bus accident. A bus turned over in the dark, snowy night killing several people, some of them kids.
The minister attends the site to give consolations to the victim's families and promise an investigation. It is as much part of his job, as part of damage control.
(This is where my jaw dropped. See a cabinet person attending an accident like this in the USA and you have Santa Claus delivering gifts under the Christmas tree.)
The film meticulously follows the governmental procedures. From the original gendarmerie call to the county and up, and up the ladder, person to person all the way to the minister, who gets up, dresses, tries to find out what and where it happened, gets in the car, then a helicopter and yet another car, followed by his staff at all times, including his PR person, Pauline, who never stops analyzing the situation from the point of dis/advantage for the minister, to writing the speech, corrections, television interview, which doesn't take 5 minutes, and all the way back to office. All the obsessive attention to presentation, media and consequent points gained or lost in everlasting political battle is shown.
Accurate details of daily political life's routine are recorded, sometimes boringly. Endless phone calls, endless meetings, endless speeches , most of them designed to sound good without saying anything, tricks of the trade from the suits and ties to the schemes to show government's interest in people who really mean very little to politicians. The lack of privacy and, at the same time, lack of any real relationships.
Like every group, this one, although top government, is consumed by inner fights for power and desire to survive at the top.
Everything else is secondary. In the myriad of minute details and pretensions some political belief are hidden behind strategies of power fights. Saint -Jean is against privatizations of the train stations, an obvious example of privatization of public industries, his opponent, the minister of finance, is for it. The prime minister uses them both for his own ends, which are to keep his job and his government going.
Gilles, Saint-Jean's first assistant, aide and friend, is firmly for the people and their rights, so firmly he doesn't stop at a surprise moves.
All of them understand that whatever their beliefs, if they lose power, none of them matter.
I expect all the that hypocrisy involved in political survival is supposed to turn the audience off. But I know, from experience, that it is an accurate description of life in politics. People, all people, expect all politicians always to turn out perfect, perfectly prepared and calm. No one is born perfect, everyone has to work hard at appearing so. Preparations for presentations eats up huge chucks of time.
I spent countless hours getting ready or helping to get ready people for some event, with firm understanding that if nothing goes wrong, no one will notice or remember. That is actually the aim. Should anything go wrong, from showing a bit of a slip to a slip of tongue, everyone would notice and everyone will forever repeat it, regardless of what political statement might have been made. The media love a slip, they don't care for reality.
Periodically the narrative is interrupted by strange visions (a naked woman eaten by an alligator?), but politics remain dry and ordinary. I hate to admit it, but professional politics are impersonal, dry and pragmatic.
To those who complaint about endless damage control and spins shown, and practice in real politics, remember that at the beginning of the film everyone is ready to tear the minister of transport apart for the bus accident. It must, somehow , be his fault. Or the government's fault. Or the corporate fault, as of who made the bus. It was not. It was a simple , human mistake. In real life the media endlessly analyze political speeches and pay to attention to what consequences might the promise changes mean to electorate. The public reads pundits spins, not factual analyses of economy. You get what you ask for- mostly performing clowns paid by corporate bucks.
The director attempts to show how complex is governing in the face of real human misery. While politics are played, people suffer. Yet, politics are game of money, and money is always short. Actually, not exactly short but fought over. The bag of money is limited, but greed is not.
In the melee of media control, election and competitions for spots at the governmental through, energy, talent and ability is wasted on personal fights rather than governing. It open the door wide to big, corporate money that comes in and steals national resources.
Saint -Jean is aware of it, Gilles is aware but they cannot change the web that binds them.
The film is often too long and too descriptive. The end is expected and unnecessary, but the gist of how we, all of us, helped to create the political trap that chokes us, is accurate.
Olivier Gourmet's performance is worth an Oscar; not that Oscars are given for films like The Minister. Too close to home. Equally good are the three other main characters: Michel Blanc (Gilles), Sylvain Deble (Martin Kuyper) and Zabou Breitman(Pauline). Each perfected the straits of characters they play. It makes the film look real.
Director Pierre Scholler has a knack for observing and recording reality. He should use it.
Directed by Pierre Scholler , screenplay: Pierre Scholler, Zabou Breitman , Camera:Julien Hirsch, Music: Philippe Schoeller
Olivier Gourmet (Bertrand Saint-Jean), Michel Blanc (Gilles), Zabou Breitman (Pauline), Laurent Stocker (Yan), Sylvain Deble (Martin Kuypers), Didier Bezace (Dominique Woessner), Jacques Boudet (Le senateur Juillet), Francois Chattot (Le ministre de la Sante, Falconetti), Gaetan Vassart (Loik), Arly Jover (Severine Saint jean), Eric Naggar (Le Premier ministre), Anne Azoulay (Josepha), Abdelhafid Metalsi (Louis do), Christian Vautrin (Nemrod), Francois Vincentelli (Le ministre du Budget, Peralta), Stephan Wojtowicz (Le President de la Republique), Ludovic Jevelot (Tintin), Marc-Olivier Fogiel (Le journaliste de la matinale), Brigitte Lo Cicero (La femme du reve crocodile), Jade Phan-Gia (Kenza)
