Stupeur et tremblements
Fear and Trembling
Résumés(1)
''As a child, I wanted to be God, then Jesus, then, conscious of my excessive ambition, I agreed to become a martyr... As an adult I resolved to be less of a megalomaniac and to work as a translator in a Japanese company. Sadly, I became an accountant... now there was no stopping the lightning speed of my downfall...'' A blackly humorous adaptation of Amélie Nothomb's best-selling novel, and featuring extraordinary performances from Sylvie Testud and Kaori Tsuji, Alain Corneau's sophisticated comedy tells the story of Amélie, a dreamy and romantic young French woman who returns to Japan - country of her birth - only to find herself overwhelmed by the mysterious and absurd machinations of the Japanese business world. Confounded by layer upon impenetrable layer of protocol, bewildered and frustrated by a closed and contemptuous system which ensures her steady and humiliating decline from translator to toilet attendant, caught up in a dangerous, seemingly unwinnable battle of wills with her beautiful and inscrutable superior Miss Mori, Amélie is tested to the limits of sanity before stumbling upon her own extraordinary means of liberation. (Wild Bunch Distribution)
(plus)Critiques (1)
I admit that I was expecting something a little different based on the information about the movie from the time of its premiere. I remember that in Japan, after its release, audiences were roaring with laughter and considered the film to be a great comedy. Fear and Trembling is also classified on FilmBooster in this genre. Not that there aren't absurdly comedic moments in the film, but the humor is more concentrated in the form of caustic sarcasm and truly stems from the absurdity portrayed. In reality, it's more of a somewhat unpleasant absurd drama about the confrontation of two cultures when a young European woman with fluent knowledge of Japanese leaves for Japan and starts working as a translator and interpreter at a large Japanese corporation. Japanese society is traditional and bound by many rituals, making it practically impossible for foreigners to adapt. Although I do suspect Amélie Nothomb of trying to exaggerate conflicts to make her novel more interesting, her storytelling is certainly truthful in a fundamental sense. Rather than being a truly high-quality film, it is interesting, provocative, and well-cast. Sylvie Testud looks like a combination of a frightened chick and a resigned lamb going to slaughter, and although I can't recall her from any other film, here she handles her role with more than enough dignity. However, the problem in my case lies in the inability to identify with her character and her motivation because a reasonable person would turn around on the very first day when faced with concentrated animosity, stupidity, and aggressive mobbing from the employer. A normal person would have had enough in a few days and wouldn't waste a whole year of their life in an environment full of hostility and misunderstanding. Especially when they have the education and knowledge that would allow them to immediately obtain prestigious employment at any global company. Overall impression: 65%. In this context, it is worth noting that Japanese society suffers from extremely low birth rates and is economically at a level where many less prestigious jobs cannot be filled by ethnic Japanese. As a result, a decent number of Latin Americans also come to the country alongside the Chinese and Koreans, but Japanese society in no way wants or knows how to integrate them.
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