These scenes of debate (reminiscent of Cantet’s The Class from 2008) thrum with energy, thanks to the spontaneous and full-bodied performances of the nonprofessional cast, whose improvised dialogue feels casual, yet cuttingly profound.
The Workshop(L'Atelier)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 2017
1h 54m
Director Laurent Cantet
Starring Marina Foïs, Matthieu Lucci, Warda Rammach, Florian Beaujean
Genre Drama, Mystery, Thriller
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Olivia, a popular Parisian novelist, agrees to teach a summer writing course in La Ciotat in the south of France. Antoine, a difficult young man, grabs her attention as he keeps to himself and writes shocking proposals. When he starts to take interest in right wing ideology, Olivia and him form a tense relationship.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Though the film occasionally assumes the airs of a slow-burning thriller, the overall product remains a firmly intellectual exercise.
Slant Magazine by Christopher Gray
Matthieu Lucci deftly carries the weight of all the symptoms that The Workshop loads upon Antoine, a resonant character whose inscrutability is at once dangerous, sympathetic, and eerily apt.
Screen International by Dan Fainaru
The Workshop conveys a stunningly authentic portrait of French youth today; their class, racial and occupational concerns.
RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire
For myself, I couldn’t avoid the irony that, in finding it ultimately rather superficial and self-satisfied in that particular Parisian way, I was echoing Antoine’s criticism of Olivia’s writing.
A sly, supple and repeatedly surprising collision of literary, moral and political lines of debate that marks an enthralling return to form for writer-director Laurent Cantet.
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
Featuring sharp performances from Marina Fois (Polisse) and promising newcomer Matthieu Lucci, the film shows Cantet returning to form...with a story that pursues the themes of his best work while underscoring some of the issues currently facing his homeland.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Cantet remains a gifted filmmaker — The Workshop’s semi-improvisational aspects are no less impressive than those in "The Class," and he’s at least superficially engaged with the current state of the world — but this isn’t the return to form that his fans have awaited over the past decade.
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