A Week's Vacation

The French film Une semaine de vacances (1980) was shown in the U. S. with the title A Week's Vacation. It was co-written and directed by Bernard Tavernier.

The movie stars Nathalie Baye as Laurence, a high school teacher in Lyon. She's a good teacher, but she isn't happy at school. She's not happy about her boy friend. In fact, she's not happy about much in her life, although people think she should be happy.

My problem with the movie is that it's hard to like the protagonist. People ask her if she's going to keep teaching. People ask her what she would do if she stopped teaching. People ask her if she will marry her boy friend. People ask her if she wants to have children. Her answer to each of these questions is, "I don't know."

Bernard Tavernier was a great director. Nathalie Baye is a great actor. It's no surprise that the direction and acting were fine. However, I didn't appreciate the plot or identify with the protagonist.

Bernard Tavernier died on March 25th, 2021, just a few days before I wrote this review. He directed many great films, which I recommend. However, I consider this one of his lesser films.

I think that this movie is worth watching, but it's not a must-see. It has a weak IMDb rating of 6.7. I agreed, and rated it 7.

I am teacher. And I saw this film from the perspective of my professional status, admiring Nathalie Baye performance, inspired in nuance by nuance exploration of her character, by touching work of admirable Michel Galabru and the fair portrait of his character offered by Philip Noiret.

Al the aspects of contemporary educational system are present in this film and the portraits of love, friendship, relation with parents, olderniss and fatigue , doubts and attitudes of students are presented in admirable - precise manner.

A film about options and answers to them.

And , sure, the splendid mark of great Bertand tavernier.

I have my own take on this masterpiece by the great Bertrand Tavernier and that is to listen; to listen to others and to oneself. Talk to others, but listen to others. Laurence played by Nathalie Baye ( who is one of France's finest actors ) is a schoolteacher and she is having a breakdown. She either has to stay in her profession, stay with her lover who adores her or move on. Is moving on the answer or staying still ? By talking to others she spends her time out from school and tries to make a decision. She listens to the problems of those around her and she is a child again in the classroom of life, and painfully and slowly she learns what a sublime horror it is to be human. This film is a masterpiece because it explores both on a personal level and on a societal level. We all have problems of ageing, loving and eventually dying in a world that seems to make of us just a number. A song of the day, about being just a number plays more than once and Tavernier shows with intelligent persuasion that a pop song and a bad television programme can also help us understand life and to live. There is a wonderful kick at Opera in the film that had me cheering. Most need the smallest and most popular things to survive. That includes dialogue, which the film is full of and through dialogue with others we just may be strong enough to continue, to cohabit with an unjust world and to grow into just being ourselves. The scenario is full of working people, and not the luxury class of those who can afford not to care or who just feed off others without giving. A lot of cinema depicts these people but in this film they are not there. True life is richer than the laziness and opportunism of the rich. I am astonished this film has only 4 reviews. People not wanting to listen perhaps ? Forty years on and in desperate times this film has perhaps greater relevance than in 1980 and a big thank you for Tavernier, Baye and all of the other actors for making this essential film what it is. It maybe ' old ' to some, but looks as fresh to me as its first outing in the cinema.

Laurence (Nathalie Baye), thirty one years old, is a high school French teacher in Lyon. She has a good relation with her students, genuinely cares for them and they appreciate her efforts. She is reasonably attractive, charismatic and socially adept with neighbors and colleagues (one of them, a woman endowed with a oversized sense of humor is her best friend). She gets along well with her parents, which are aging in apparent harmony in a small village nearby and even with her ne'er-do-well brother Jacques. Her boyfriend Pierre is at times overbearing and unsubtle, but sincerely loves her and dreams of having a child with her. At times, he seems to know her better than she herself does. Her friend urges her to formalize her relationship with Pierre and start a family before her biological clock winds down.

All of this changes one morning, when Laurence has a near panic attack, is unable to face her class and misses school. She is given a week's vacation to sort out her (unexplained) problems. She reexamines her life in a new and rather negative light; in spite of her efforts her student's writing is full of cliches and platitudes, a neighbor responds improperly to her kindness and she tries clumsily to find a pretext to break up with Pierre. At this point, order and purpose disappear and we are faced with the chaos of real life; motivations are unclear or missing, actions have unexpected reactions and plans seem not to work any longer. Whether Laurence will strike a new path or go back to her previous life after the week's vacation is left open.

The movie rests squarely on Baye's shoulders; she is in almost every scene. She does an excellent job. The other actors are at the same level, among them Tavernier regular Philippe Noiret in a short role. The script is spare and (as the movie requires) does not attempt to weave a conventional plot. A successful movie.

Today, I'm not an "expert" of the work of Mr. Bertrand Tavernier. But this movie gave me a great desire to be more interested in his work.

It's a very good film about the questions, doubts, fears, anxieties that adults can feel socially and in particular through the role of Miss Laurence Cuers (Nathalie Baye), young teachers. Besides this social and depressive anxiety feeling that emerges, the film criticizes the French National Education, which thirty years later, has the same fundamental flaws by the national education process itself and even the general contemporary cultural environment, which on this point, if I allow myself, get worse.

A beautiful story and a great accomplishment captivate us throughout the film, helped by a distribution well served by Nathalie Baye and Gerard Lanvin and energized by Michel Galabru and Philippe Noiret. And the action take place in Lyon (France) is often nice to see another town than Paris in the French cinema.

A good film very interesting and rewarding.

jelios

jelios@hotmail.fr