THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
In matters of revolutionary thought, the main problem has always consisted in passing from theory to praxis, that is, the transformation of the idea into action. In the 11e of its Theses on Feuerbach, Karl Marx enjoined the intellectuals to lay down their pen, to intervene directly in the social field, at the heart of the relations of production. Throughout the XXe century, this call has been heard several times, and we remember eloquent gestures of rupture, such as that of the philosopher Simone Weil swapping, in the mid-1930s, her teacher’s blouse for that of a press worker at Alsthom or milling machine at Renault.
A generation and a half later, upstream and downstream of May 68, the experience was renewed by a fringe of Maoist militants committing themselves as voluntary workers in the factories, in order to organize the working classes and to multiply the outbreaks of strikes. This movement, known as “the established”, was told by one of its main actors, Robert Linhart, normalien, pupil of Louis Althusser, instigator of Maoism in France, in an autobiographical and memorable book, The Workbenchwho testified in the first person to this approach, without omitting to draw up an aporetic balance sheet.
It is this text of implacable precision, and through it this feat of militant history, that Mathias Gokalp brings to the screen, for a second feature film pursuing the social furrow dug with nothing personal (2009). The story opens at the start of the 1968 academic year, during the medical examination at the end of which Robert, Linhart’s fictional double, played by the excellent Swann Arlaud, is declared, under an assumed identity, fit to hiring in the Citroën assembly plant at Porte de Choisy, in Paris, at the same time as other comrades infiltrate other places. On the spot, things are more difficult than expected. First placed on the 2CV assembly line, Robert proves to be clumsy, damages his hands, fits in badly.
The infernal pace of the factory, the repetitive gestures, the pressure and the bullying exerted by the foremen produce on the intruder a kind of massive crushing, a stupefaction of all will, which postpones his plan to mobilize the employees . It is from the boss in person, Junot (Denis Podalydès), that the opportunity will come, served on a plate: deciding to recover the hours lost during the events of spring, this one abusively stretches the working day without repercussion of salary. With the help of the trade union forces present (CFT, CGT, including a priest-worker played by Olivier Gourmet), a collective soon came together, bringing together workers with various profiles (Czech exiles, North African or sub-Saharan immigrants, rural people brought up to the capital…).
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