User reviews

LA LOI DU MARCHÉ's main quality is its honesty. Lindon, as the cdntral character, portrays the current Everyman, with the added burden of a handicapped child, which makes things that much more difficult. Lindon's performance is first class in its simplicity and honesty, but his wife, and his fellow workers also do very well in their smaller parts.

Direction is interesting, often using cinema verité moves, and it keeps targeting the sordid nature of human survival in the current world.

This is the problem we all face: we work to survive and, as we do, we compete with others also trying to survive, and we survive by ratting on them, and exposing the illegalities they commit. Given that no human is a saint, it is obvious that it is only a matter of time before you find somehing to send someone out of the "paradise" of employment. And once that has happened, the way back into the job market is well nigh impossible.

That is the law of the market, a law where human rights are easily trampled under the weight of economic and performance considerations, and where spying on, and suspecting, fellow human beings is bread and butter.

Lindon's character is looking hard for a job to meet his child's treatment's costs, and he has to accept duties that most of us would probably feel dismayed about. And so does he, and that is his moral dilemma by movie's end.

LA LOI DU MARCHÉ is not easy to watch, but its honesty makes it a must.

I had the honor to watch the premiere of this beautiful film in Cannes. I am glad to see that there are still experienced directors that can make film like this one: relatively low budget, simple cinematography, a few but good actors, few locations but with a very good story telling. Stephane Brize' is able to tell his story in an entertaining way even if mainly using long uncut scenes and very simple camera setting. No shot and counter shot, none of the usual Hollywood techniques. The director take his time lingering to build tension and emotions.

Everything is based on the skills of the actors, with witty dialogues and situations that recalls the sitcom but with a dramatic treatment. It's an intelligent critic to the French society. Every young filmmaker should watch and learn from this film.

This is less a 'drama' than a documentary of what happens to people when their already difficult lives are made worse by thoughtless organizations and stupid funding regimes. Thierry has been laid off from his factory job. Presumably, he has stuck this sort of mindless work because he has a disabled son who needs constant care. Thierry is doing everything he can to keep his family together whilst barely scraping together an income. Unemployment is made worse by the organisations who are supposed to be there to help him back to work. They send him on inappropriate training schemes wasting everyone's time and effort as there is no work to be got afterwards. After numerous humiliations Thierry gets himself a shop security job and finds he's forced into making judgements about others that are, in reality, in as dire straights as himself. We wonder at what point he will break, and what he will do when he breaks? Its not a good ending but then, this is all too real for far too many people.

A Ken Loach-a-like - showing real lives at a genuine pace, but without the hard edge. If the movie set out to show the crushing mundanity of the the lives of working class people, it succeeds. However, do not be put of by this, as the main protagonist manages to demonstrate a dignity throughout. Nevertheless, do not expect a hubris- cum-nemesis tale. It looks at the workaday politics that the majority of life's cannon fodder are forced to negotiate. A scene in which his performance at interview is analysed by peers is upsetting, demonstrating the schadenfreude characteristic of the socially-challenged, enjoying the notion that somebody is worse off than themselves... If you like Loach derivatives, you will certainly enjoy this.

This is a Mike Leigh/Ken Loach-style drama, great contemporary social realism, French style, and all the better for it.

A middle-aged man's existence becomes precarious after he's laid-off from his skilled job. Transitioning via the unemployment industry to supermarket security guard is the challenge for our hero. His dialogue with petty bureaucracy is obviously the same in France as it is here. There is claustrophobia and frustration with the relentless, compassionless uselessness of the so-called support.

Witnessing with him a check-out worker's send-off after a lifetime on the job is suitably excruciating. The young, new boss has the honour of fare-welling simple, loyal Gisele who always smiles and was never late in 32 years; a career trajectory from the check-out to the deli section.

The little guy or gal, when he falls out of work, is screwed, especially if he's in his 50's. There are themes of the exploitation and degradation of working life and also of the demands of caring for a disabled dependent.

The story evolves slowly, documentary style, long takes in naturalistic settings. We experience the frustrations and humiliations of the unemployment industry through his jobnetwork appointments and programs. Futlity is a theme.

There are many lovely features and brilliant, understated acting mainly from Vincent Lindon who received a five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes premiere and went on to win the best actor prize both there and in the Cesar Awards.

This is a story about personal principles in our times; a disturbing look at the banal cruelty of modern employment and the struggles and battles of life more generally. When Mike Leigh and Ken Loach have lost their mojo, director Stéphane Brizé picks up the baton for the prols and gives the audience a measured, low-key, steadily building drama with big pay-offs.

The Measure of a Man is quite gut-wrenching and brilliant in its simultaneous simplicity and complexity. It should be compulsory viewing for all supermarket managers & Centrelink and Jobnet (Australia) employees.

Let's Go To The Pictures, Three D Radio, Andrew Bunney

Austere and open portrait of the tragedies hidden in the first world. The film has two great assets in its favor, firstly the leading actor who portrays and illustrates with excellence the hard tasks suffered by unemployed people. With his bludgeoned dog facial expressions and film-raising acting strength. The second is the editing, the film is composed of clearly defined scenes with three acts connected by quick editing cuts. Some parts can be cut out and it would not affect the plot, but by joining them together we experience with greater realism the life of the protagonist and how he is affected by the misfortunes and joys of his existence. This offers us a greater degree of empathy for the character without excessive exposure. Unfortunately when he shares presence with the rest of the cast, even if they are not bad actors, they do not reach the interpretive level of the first In short, recommended film if you want to see a very human drama

The French Film La loi du marché was shown in the United States with the title The Measure of a Man (2015). It was co-written and directed by Stéphane Brizé.

In a short introduction before the film began, the presenter pointed out the the actual translation of the French title would be "The Law of the Market." Both titles tell us something about the plot of the movie. "The Measure of a Man" emphasizes the basic humanity of the protagonist. "The Law of the Market" emphasizes the basic inhumanity of the marketplace-driven society in which he lives.

Vincent Lindon plays Thierry Taugourdeau, who has lost his skilled labor job because of a factory closure. (Other displaced workers want to sue the company for pulling out of France to go elsewhere. Apparently, this isn't legal if the company is making a profit in France. However, Thierry isn't interested.)

Thierry is accustomed to getting a good salary in a respected job. As the film opens, we learn that he has taken a three-month course in order to learn how to be a crane operator. He informs the government employment counselor that the course was worthless. Companies will only employ crane operators that are already experienced construction workers. Why did they advise him to take a course that couldn't lead to employment?

The film continues in the same vein. Thierry truly wants to work to support himself, his wife, and his son with cerebral palsy. (The son is portrayed by Matthieu Schaller, who does indeed have cerebral palsy.)

We follow Thierry from frustration to frustration as nothing he does brings him employment. Finally, he obtains employment, and that is where the measure of a man begins.

This is a fascinating--but painful--movie to watch. We're accustomed to unhappy stories in which the protagonists are down-and-out, and the situation is hopeless. This plot doesn't fit into that mold. Thierry has had a comfortable, middle-class life. He's intelligent and resourceful. Even so, he can't counter the forces of society that tell him that he and his family have to move down a notch--or more--in order to survive.

Vincent Lindon is brilliant in this role. We can identify with him and it is not a comfortable feeling. Lindon won the Best Actor award at Cannes for this portrayal, and I'm not surprised. It's worth seeing this film just for an opportunity to watch a superb actor succeeding in a difficult role.

We saw this film in the excellent Dryden Theatre in Rochester's George Eastman Museum. It was shown a part of the outstanding Rochester Labor Film Series.

For reasons I don't understand, this movie has a dismal IMDb rating of 6.8. Possibly, reviewers found it simply too depressing. Yes, it's depressing, but it reflects reality, and I think it's definitely worth seeking out. It's available on DVD and Blu-Ray. It's too important a film to miss.

A realistic and at the same time dramatic film by Stephane Brize which remains unfinished! Despite Vincent Lindon's admittedly excellent performance and avoiding any melodramas about a social phenomenon such as unemployment, he does not touch the subject in depth, thus presenting a one-sided image. This costs the film, because it lacks the courage to answer which key questions and leaves the viewer unsatisfied as to the social phenomena that lead man to his wrong choices. The system, the establishment, is omnipresent dominating the masses and leaving little room for any dignity. A dignity lost in the daily grind of survival. There is no more tragic thing than this and we live it without realizing the loss of our very existence. Thierry realizes it as soon as he can in the thick of things and simply makes his move...

A very fine movie about life in the modern global economy. First the hero is cheated by a so-called training business center when he finds out there's no chance of his being hired for what he was trained in and the business knew it (see Trump and his so-called university -- but what do we expect from an illiterate egomaniac?). The hero who is barely hanging on to middle class life by his fingernails is constantly humiliated or badgered by experts who are "trying" to help. He winds up with a job at a box store in security where he sees people/customers humiliated, long term clerks fired for minor infractions caught on CCTV (that's the object, the co. -- a Walmart copycat -- is trying to trim down the staff and goes after long-term employees, one of whom commits suicide on the store premises). The hero also has a son with multiple sclerosis who has to pass inspection in order to qualify for college. This is what the social/economic net boils down to. The director is telling the truth ...

The Measure Of a Man

As a person grows older, so does the amount of responsibility. The carefree days slowly fade away and eventually the 9-5 grind becomes the norm. One common fear for this majority is the loss of income. Nothing's scarier than losing your income and having to figure out how to pay for thousands of dollars worths of bills. Most individuals don't have enough to last 2-3 months. Most don't even have 1,000 dollars saved. This with many other factors can be a death sentence for people, and The Measure of a Man presents this fear in a harrowing light

The Measure of a Man (directed by Stéphane Brizé) follows an unemployed factory worker (played by Vincent Lindon) by the name of Thierry Taugourdeau, in working-class France. With the combination of age and only have a niche set of skills, finding work proves to be an obstacle.

The director pulls no stops when it comes to grounding the film in reality. The film almost seems like some sad documentary. Each conversation scripted to be as grounded as possible. One example would be the scene right from the beginning. It establishes in the first couple of minutes just how dire Thierry's situation is. You watch as her argues with agency worker, explaining how he just spent months training to be a crane operator, just to find out that experience plays a huge factor in the hiring process. You see how much this weighs on him, and how it affects the people around him.

The film comes with no score, other than the one song for the credits at the end of the film. Another decision made to contribute to the realism of the film. No dramatic cues telling you how to feel. This was a risky movie, and fell onto the actors to actively convey the emotions in the film. This decision, for the most part, pans out perfectly. The only times it doesn't work out is when the scenes seem to drag on just a little too long, which seems like a reoccuring theme. During the film, there's a scene where Thierry and his wife (played by Karine de Mirbeck), are selling their mobile home they used for vacation. They haggle on the price, and the awkward exchange feels qeniue at first. Eventually, it goes on for too long, and you feel like it's a little forced. Thankfully, these scenes are few in between.

The Measure of a Man presents a fear that any working person has time to time. I would almost say this is the best horror thriller of the year based on the fact that it presents you with a real world problem, and makes you feat it. I've never felt more drive to do my job than after I saw this film. The amazing performances combined with the realism provided by the script creates a film that leaves you wondering "What if this happened to me?"

8/10

If Ken Loach and his team didn't see this movie before making I Daniel Blake I'd be amazed. Not in any way a copy, The Measure of a Man takes the same sympathetic look at ordinary people's grim tortured lives as I Daniel Blake. I came to this film completely cold and was immediately gripped by its grittiness, its cinema verite style and its quite outstanding performances. Particularly memorable, the horrific 'Big-Brother-Is -Watching-You' CCTV security system in the supermarket which pries into every detail of anyone either shopping or working on the premises, especially on the tills. No one is beyond suspicion,it seems. When the film's protagonist,a security guard, arrests a succession of shoplifters and till staff, the tension between his need to do his job correctly and his sympathy for his 'victims' is incredibly gut wrenching. This film says an awful lot about how the world of work and the world of unemployment REALLY work with refreshing and moving honesty.

people seem to be missing the point on this. This is life how it happens. There is no great drama in a lot of our lives, just overcoming difficulties or succumbing to them. The protagonist here shows an incredible amount of grace when faced with many difficult situations. He's tried, over and over again, to do what is asked of him, most of it is reasonable, but it seldom actually helps his situation. It is very, very well acted and well photographed. I think it is like a modern Agnes Varda. You have to educate yourself and/or face a few situations like these shown to appreciate a film like this. I think folks are missing the point. Is the life portrayed common? Yes. Does the man try to rise above the things that have happened to him? Yes. Does he do so with a true sense of what is important and what isn't? Yes. Does he do so with a huge amount of grace? Yes, I think so, and that what impressed me most. It really does show what the measure of a man should be.

On of films presenting, in honest and direct manner, near reality, vulnerability of ordinary people, high cruelty of the system, life as market, measure of cynism, murder in subtle forms and apparences. A father, his family, his loss of job, his new job, the relation with the bank and the fury inside each level of life. A hommage to family and a beautiful demonstration of acting and storytelling.

I walked out of this film after about forty minutes, so take my comments accordingly.

This film is well directed, acted, and shot. It effectively portrays the hell its very sympathetic protagonist is going through. It's a story worth telling. The actors are superb.

It's just way too slow. Every scene that I saw (and after 40 minutes, I believe that I had seen a total of about six of them--at least, that's what it felt like)was about three times as long as it had to be. The scene made its point, and then just kept going. And going. And going.

I get it: The protagonist, a good and decent man, is being abused by. . . well, just about everyone. I got it after the first 30 seconds of the first scene. All he can do is take his next punch and keep on keeping on.

The first thing I did when I got home was check the total running time for this film: 91 minutes. In other words, about the minimum acceptable length for a feature. And that's almost always the case with films that move this slowly: The writer (invariably also the director) doesn't have enough ideas or story to sustain a feature. So he just stretches every scene long past the point it should be stretched.

What you end up with is a painfully slow, paper-thin film.

I love this kind of film. Fly on the wall and powerful. Nothing is spoon fed. It's one of the best ways to develop characters if its done well, and here the character journey is exceptional. Outstanding take on modern times and dealing with it. Thanks film makers. It's nice to have a break from violence and cheap thrills.

It seems that some of the reviewers found this movie bad and boring. Some of them just didn't get it, and one (who calls himself "The Cinema Man")vents his dislike for leftist politics on this movie. Oh well, people see what they see." The Measure of a Man" is one of the best movies I've seen in last few years. In a series of vignettes played in real time we see an unemployed man in his 50's,who is desperately drowning in the modern world of low level sociopath bureaucracy. You don't have to be vengeful leftist to see the deep level of dysfunction on our planet. Vincent Lindon, the only professional actor in this film, played a role of a lifetime. Brave and unflinching actor in a brave movie for frightening times.

French films are the second most I watched apart from the English language films. It's mainly because of the quality of their products. They won't put big sum on some superhero film like the Hollywood, they give preference to storytelling and the characters which I love even in a slow pace narration. Anyway, you would be tired of listening to what I'm going to say that I always love French and Japanese films, mostly the drama films. This is the latest one I saw that I did not think of giving it a try after the average reception, but once I watched I realised how much underrated the film was.

This is like another 'Two Days, One Night', but a bit touch of 'The Pursuit of Happiness' with the limited sentiments. There's no comparison with any other titles, except the similarity in themes. You can call it a docudrama, because it was very realistic that you won't feel like you are watching a film. Especially not for an entertainment purpose. If you are so, then stop there and try other flick. This could resemble your life, at least some way if you ever struggled to get an employment after getting released from the previous job. I am not talking about the freshers or the youngsters, but in between the jobs, mostly the middle-aged and less qualified men's perspective.

The modern world belongs to the young blood. Being somewhat old and not skilled with today's technologies is a big excuse to exclude from the employment world. That leaves to get one from the smaller wages. Such film is this one which focused on the man called Thierry who was looking for any job for the last two years. His family is small with a wife and a handicapped son. Financially struggling Thierry decides to get a loan from the bank and try to sell his mobile home to meet the expenses. Finally, he ends up in a supermarket as a security guard and follows his new way of struggle against the reality of the world where crime and compassion overlap.

"A shoplifter has no age or colour. Everybody is a potential shoplifter."

I was desperately looking for some entertainment to relax after the tired day. I jumped on this, and initially it took time to launch into the main storyline. It begins with Thierry having conversation with his old colleagues about the options and if there is any legal solution for his old job. This is the film where pictures, as well as lines carefully watched and listened respectively to understand the intention of such film to be exist. The every word spoken in the film were not like any other films, but it was like real life dialogues between two or more people that we the audience listening them from somewhere around the corner. That's why I compared it with documentary.

This is the third film for Vincent Lindon with the director and the best one. The last time I saw him was in the 'Bastards' that I did not like. Surely the best of him after 'Welcome'. He won a few best actor awards for his role in this film, including one at the 2015 Cannes. The film was all about him. He as Theirry was the soul of the film. People start to recognise the actors since they saw them in one of their best performances and now I for Vincent Lindon through this film.

Obviously very slow at the beginning, but once you start to feel you know enough about Thierry, it gets more interesting. Particularly the final act was impressive. It points out how narrowly our society was built where you can't escape the disappointment if you are a sensitive person about the actions that entirely depends on the situation whether its good (empathy) or bad (crime). This film is everything. You can call it a self-discovery or truth finder, but well detailed about the modern day job hunt by an average person. Even if he gets one, does it stand up to his moral dimensions? Because some people mind what they are doing, even though getting it after a desperate attempt.

Like I said I saw it in a wrong circumstance, but I did not fail to recognise fineness of it. This is one of the best drama films I have seen, especially in the recent times. If you are looking for a realistic portrayal film, this is the one. It might be an under- noticed film today, but the time will come when people look back on this decade for how the lives and society evolved, then this little precious film will impact greater which depicted exactly what's happening right now. What I meant was some films are not meant for the present, despite all the films are made for the present!!!

8/10

Is it art to simply show ordinary life as it really is, without any metaphors, generalizations, attempts of explanation, or dramatizations? I argue: no. To see the so-called real life one does not need the cinema or the literature; it is enough just to live it, or read about other real lives in the newspaper. Or at most, see a documentary, on less accessible aspects of it. In any case one does not need an artist on the other side of the medium to depict it, a mere "reporter" is enough. From "art" one, I believe rightfully, expects more.

That is why "The measure of a man", the last product from mostly French speaking film world that shows the raw and often banal reality, is simply boring, with its long, and at best, trivial, and at worst, painful scenes, of a decent person down on his luck. In fact we never even learn much about the main protagonist, except that he has been laid off some time ago from his job, that he has an invalid child at home, and that he pretty stoically deals with everything unpleasant that happens to him. Naturally we feel sympathy, and blame the impersonal forces of society for his troubles. The film makes some valid points about the absurd sides of search for work today, with all of its time-wasting unemployment services, "insightful" CV writing instructions, distressing Skype interviews, etc. These are all true and worth knowing about, but unfortunately the film does not add anything beyond what is quite generally known to almost any adult in western society. There is simply not enough dramatic material in these for a feature film. The result: boredom and detachment. Every single scene is stretched beyond its conceivable dramatic function, so that the whole film soon becomes as engaging as waiting in the doctor's office for a check up.

There was a hope of a dramatic upturn when the main character finally found a job as a security guard in a supermarket. It does not quite happen, but the film does become slightly more interesting with its depiction of the depressing distribution of wealth in today's France (or almost any other modern country): too many people are ready to risk major humiliation for ridiculously petty sums. This itself offers a plenty of material for some other filmmaker to work with. The present one, unfortunately again does not feel he needs to move beyond several long scenes, which all seem to say the same depressing thing, without offering any salvation. I understand that this may exactly be the point, but I doubt that anybody needs such a long exposure to get it.

Vincent Lindon, the single professional actor in the film indeed feels real and believable, but not obviously any more so than all other non-professional supporting actors. Nevertheless, for the present reviewer Lindon's acting was the strongest side of this otherwise rather thin film. Which just goes to say that films should, in spite of recent trends, be left to professionals.

Like Ken Loach or the Dardennes brothers, Stephane Brizé belongs to that category of filmmakers who use the camera like a political tool or at the very least a window to our post-modern society where the majority is theoretically free but economically tied. His "Measure of Man", starring Vincent Lindon, is sandwiched between the Dardennes' "Two Days, One Night" and Loach's Golden Palm Winner "I, Daniel Blake" and can almost be regarded as a composite of the two stories.

Thierry is a man in his mid-fifties (or younger after the difficulties of life have struck a blow on his youth), he lost the job he's been doing for several years and became unemployed at the very time he should have been a stable middle-aged man whose house land has finally been repaid. And yet he finds himself stuck in that spiral of job applications, resumes and cover letters and impersonal interviews where you've got to exude enthusiasm for jobs you know you don't have the makings for. If honesty was part of the game, you'd say "I need the job, period", but the it is a rigged game whose viability depends on the tacit hypocrisy driven by basic needs. Better the other schmuck than me.

The film opens with scenes that are close to "Daniel Blake" as they highlight the obstacle course between the jobless and the job. It's not much the bureaucratic aspect that bothers Brizé but the lack of logic. In the first scene, Thierry complains to a employment agent about the uselessness of an offer that takes weeks of preparation while it should have been more explicit about the qualifications. The scene rang true as I used to be unemployed and I forced myself to apply for jobs I had nothing to do with them, to swallow my pride and answer such questions as "are you aware you'll learn less than your old salary" to which I wanted to reply "would I be here if I wasn't?".

Lindon delivers a perfect performance, all in sobriety without any emotional breakdown, you can sense the exhaustion in the man's eyes, in the way he stutters , in a few tics to hide his embarrassments, and even in the casual ways he avoids eye contact as if it was the first step to conflict. The realism of the film depended on him and any pitch lower or higher could have ruined everything. He would win the Best Actor prize at Cannes and I do believe this was an oscar worthy performance. Alas the man didn't have these showy breakdown moments like Marion Cotillard in "Two Days, One Night" but that Brizé didn't want to delve in spectacularity is all to his credit.

That's the paradox and yet the whole genius of his directing. You have a long sequence showing Thierry trying to overcome his stiffness and learn a few rock n' roll steps with his wife and a tragic incident, a potentially memorable "scene" treated through an ellipse. Brizé's instinct for realism is nuanced and clever, he cares for the effects on his character, not viewers, trusting our patience. And so he gratifies us with many painful scenes that drags on but it's never gratuitous. Whether a long negotiation for the price of a mobile home, his handicapped son struggling to express something or shoplifters being interrogated (Thierry eventually finds a job as a store security guard), Brizé stretches it for so long that our own perspective changes.

First, we see a client (sometimes employee) who's been caught red-handed but as it lingers and silence gets heavier, we feel the tension, the uselessness, the whole absurdity of the thing and we have time to fill the silence with our thoughts: they must have a reason, there's got to be a history or simply: how about arresting the real criminals? It's indeed a petty world where there's so much effort pulled for shoplifters and so many politicians can get away with stolen millions. Brizé doesn't denounce them, he just confronts us to these realities, doesn't take any side, even Thierry is never seen helping anyone, he just does his job, looking for eventual thieves, he's not here to ask questions.

Ironically, he's put in a safe situation: after all, if social workers seem to be immune against unemployment, someone charged of spotting liable employees is certainly the least likely to ever be fired. But for a man as principled as Thierry, it's a meager consolation. Thierry is confronted to a situation where he realize the corners where normal people are put, and as he recovers from his financial troubles. The ending leaves a big interrogation mark on his future but speaks deeply about the gap between the man and the capitalism era he's living in, where people are all part of the merchandising product and as the prize won by the film at Cannes says: "For its prophetical stance on the world of work and its sharp reflection on our tacit complicity in the inhumane logics of merchandising."

Not that Cannes can be regarded as the anti-liberalism sanctuary but it has allowed many directors to raise their voice and shed their lights on the struggle of little people.

The screenplay (written by Brizé and Olivier Gorce) is hard-hitting and contains so many familiar situation that I kept nodding, sometimes even in anticipation, I even cringed at the moment his interview performance was being judged and it turned into a real roasting session (as if "normal" people had their body language scanned continuously). Lindon's acting is sublime and if the directing doesn't reinvent the rules of docudrama (handheld camera is almost a cliché), I must say I was struck by these long moments of hesitations where you could realize measure the gap between the people who pulls the string, those who play the farce and the passive spectators.

That's the law of the market and in his situation, Thierry couldn't just afford to be an outlaw...