Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Catherine Corsini
Starring: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marina Foïs, Pio Marmaï, Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, Jean-Louis Coulloc'h
Depending on whom you ask or which media source you get your news from,
France's Yellow Vest protest movement is comprised either of far-right
fascists or loony lefties. From the outside at least, it seems to be a
movement that's attracted anyone who wishes to express anger at the
neo-liberal policies of the Macron regime, regardless of which side of
the political fence they've jumped over to join in. Beginning as a
protest against fuel price hikes, it's a movement that's snowballed to
take in everyone from Marxists to anti-vaxxers. While in
English-speaking territories we tend to air our political gripes to the
void of social media, the French hit the streets every weekend.
Director Catherine Corsini's The Divide takes a
look at the Yellow Vest movement through the setting of a chaotic
Parisian hospital trying to cope with the fallout of another Saturday of
rioting. In France the film was released under the title 'La Fracture',
which is a more fitting moniker, as it refers not just to France's
political turmoil but to the injury sustained by one of its leading
characters.
Comic book artist Raf (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is on the verge
of splitting up with her lover Julie (Marina Foïs), and it's easy
to see why. Raf is, to put it frankly, a lot of work, constantly
badgering Julie, who clearly has had enough of this very annoying woman.
While chasing Julie down a street, Raf falls and fractures her
arm.
She's brought to a hospital in the midst of chaos, with injured
protesters arriving at a rate the hospital can't keep up with. Among
them is Yann (Pio Marmaï), a trucker with a leg full of shrapnel
from a flash grenade (between this and last year's
Les Miserables, the flash grenade would seem to be the weapon of choice for Parisian
cops). Yann wants to get out as quickly as he can, as he needs to return
his truck before his employer realises he borrowed it to attend a
protest.
As the hospital literally crumbles around them, the middle class Raf
and the working stiff Yann bicker about the motivations of the Yellow
Vest movement. She accuses him of being a fascist, while he counters
that her social class are the ones maintaining a status quo that
suppresses low paid workers like himself.
An on and on it goes. If you were previously ignorant regarding the
true motives of the Yellow Vests, you'll be just as befuddled by the end
of The Divide. Raf and Yann make surface arguments with little to back them up, and
at times it feels like you're watching Alf Garnett argue with his
daughter's latest Labour voting boyfriend in an old episode of
In Sickness and in Health.
If there's little in the way of profound political insight on offer
here, there are at least a couple of very entertaining performances from
Marmaï and particularly Tedeschi, hilariously embodying the sort of
angry woman destined to find her way onto the internet as the Karen of
the day at some point.
Ultimately, Corsini avoids taking a side, and if anything she seems to
sympathise most with those outside the political spectrum, the people
who just have to get on with their jobs. This is represented by a tender
performance by Aissatou Diallo Sagna as a stressed nurse working
her sixth grueling shift in a row. As insults are hurled in her
direction, she keeps a smile throughout, all while dealing with her own
troubles involving her family. When protesters turn up en masse, the
hospital takes them in, ignoring the orders of the police. Patients are
patients for this very patient lot.
