I watched a film on BBC4 the other night, English title Full Time (A Plein Temps) and found it riveting. I'm not sure why it had me on the edge of my seat, it was in many ways simply a chronicle of how to survive: Julie is a mother of two, her ex-husband is late paying alimony, her child carer is starting to find it too difficult to take the children every day. The train strike which complicates an already fraught situation, is what makes this film so edgy. Julie lives in a small village on the edge of Paris. Every morning, she drops her children off at the carer's, an elderly lady in the village who tells her that her daughter considers the children are too much for her, and dashes to the train station, where an annoucement informs passengers that all trains to Paris are cancelled and will be replaced by buses. There follows the mad dash to find the correct bus to bring Julie to work. She is employed as head maid in a posh Parisian hotel. She needs the money to keep afloat.
A university graduate, she is searching for a job more suited to her qualifications and which would give her more money. Meanwhile, her ex-husband is not returning her frantic calls to ask him why he hasn't paid any alimony this month. The hot water boiler works on and off so that having a shower or washing hair is problematic. The children play her up. And the transport strikes get worse.
Finally she gets an interview for a marketing job in Paris. Getting to the interview is a mad juggle of her housekeeping duties at the hotel and besting the train strike, the congested traffic and the lack of taxis in Paris. Julie is not a heroine in the Hollywood sense of the word, she is
blessed with that quality of pragmatism which the French possess in
abundance and although down, she is never out.
Yes, I sat on the edge of my seat and rooted for Julie, my heart in my mouth in case she didn't make the train home or couldn't get to the interview or didn't get the job. By the time the film was over, I was a nervous wreck. That night, I dreamt I was lost in Paris and couldn't find my way home on the Metro. You might argue that there is nothing remarkable about the story, but the acting is superb and the tension practically pulses through the scenes. Rarely have I been so caught up in a film.
I read that the film, released in 2021, has been a huge success in France, so I guess it's not only me who got hooked. At any rate, a film well worth seeing. In fact, a film which nearly every single mom will identify with. There - I've finished a sentence on a preposition. That's what watching French films does for you.
