IMDb plot summary: Liège, Belgium. Sandra is a factory worker who discovers that her workmates have opted for a EUR1,000 bonus in exchange for her dismissal. She has only a weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses in order to keep her job.
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. Starring Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, and Catherine Salée.
Two Days, One Night stars Marion Cotillard as a woman who has just been fired from her job after her boss held a ballot among the employees as to whether they should get a financial bonus or let Cotillard go. When it's revealed that one of the coworkers convinced everyone to vote against her by lying to them, she requests a second ballot and then has the weekend to convince everyone to agree to keep her on. I recently watched Rosetta by the Dardenne brothers and was unenthused, but this one worked for me. Cotillard's character's task is SUCH hard work, and it's so humiliating to ask each coworker one-by-one whether they could please forego additional money they need to help save her job. I love the variety of responses we get, from anger, to relief, to shock, to defiance, all feeling equally human and equally possible. The good responses make her task seem vaguely possible, while the bad ones make it seem unachievable. No surprise, Cotillard is absolutely incredible in this. Her exhaustion and despair is perpetually under the surface, sometimes becoming visible, and I immediately saw myself reflected in her, in the moments when I have absolutely no spoons left but have no choice but to try to forge ahead anyway. A marvelous film I will have to revisit.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Two Days, One Night > Le voyage au Groenland
Two Days, One Night > Kuroneko
Two Days, One Night < Cam
Two Days, One Night > The Farewell
Two Days, One Night > The Cat Returns
Two Days, One Night > The Last Unicorn
Two Days, One Night > Breaking Away
Two Days, One Night > A Man for All Seasons
Two Days, One Night > Kramer vs. Kramer
Two Days, One Night > Chariots of Fire
Two Days, One Night < The People Under the Stairs
Final spot: #497 out of 3947, or 87%.
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