In his film “At work! », François Ruffin asks the question “can we reintegrate the rich? “, and responds to it with a practical case: taking Sarah Saldmann, lawyer and media columnist who slayers the “glandus, assisted and lazy”, for a little trip into the “real life” of the working classes.
The honor of workers is the central, almost exclusive, theme of François Ruffin's filmography. The deputy for Somme, who collaborates for the third time with director Gilles Perret for Get to work!strives once again to restore their dignity to “ those who are nothing » in the eyes of the bourgeoisie. The founder of Fakir wants the left to “ heroize the work »: he shows him how to do it.
A master in the art of rhetorical reversal, François Ruffin asks the question “ can we reintegrate the rich? » and responds to it with a practical case: taking on board Sarah Saldmann, lawyer and media columnist who criticizes “ glandus, assisted and lazy », for a little trip away from avenue Montaigne, into the “real life” of the working classes.
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From tasting a croque-monsieur for 54 euros at the Plaza-Athénée to packing fish in a factory in Boulogne-sur-Mer, thermal shock is guaranteed. Sarah Saldmann, usually assisted, spared, pampered, discovers everything. Assembly line work, worker solidarity, waking up at dawn, communal leisure, output, low prices and etic wages, wear and tear on bodies, proletarian courage, moral despondency, pride in work , the mud from the farms, the smells that stick to clothes, the weight of the boxes, the smiles of the little old people, the taste of a cheap pastry.
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Clever, François Ruffin avoids the pitfall of the Marxist epistle by ironizing on the “ rehabilitation » of his subject, who does not miss the opportunity to make fun of the MP when it is his turn to get his hands dirty. It must be recognized that Sarah Saldmann's good will in this matter has a lot to do with the success of the documentary's “comic” sequences.
She is not cheeky, not haughty, rather endearing even: she is interested, laughs, gets moved and doesn't want it to be seen. Alas, under the plastic glove of the one-day caregiver, the shell of the diamond bracelet is intact, or almost. Sarah Saldmann remains stubborn, always escapes by a pirouette: it was never these poor people that she was talking about when she explained that the minimum wage had to be ” are moving ».
Half Ken Loach, half Robin Hood
No epiphany, but who cares. The social redemption of Sarah Saldmann is not the subject of the film. As the footage progresses, the camera leaves the lawyer behind. As we said above, François Ruffin said it himself: the subject, “ it's the people “. They are there, at eye level, filmed without overhanging, interviewed without condescension. Nothing about the safari, everything about the celebration. All of them, throughout France, tell of a popular world, its beauties and its harshness, its nobility and its misery.
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It is this mother who is asked how long she has been going to Secours populaire, and calls out to her daughter: “ How old are you? Twelve years? I've been coming for eleven years. » It is this exchange between the lawyer in immersion and her one-off partner: “ – Are you going to be okay without your cane? – Yes, I have my broom. » It's that round again at the end of a football match at Flixecourt, and the universal joy of having “snapped” the opposing team.
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Get to work! can be seen as a synthesis of Thanks Boss! and of Stand up women : from the first, he borrows the trick, the carnivalesque farce, the pleasure of seeing the little ones win against the big ones. Not revenge, but revenge, a fair return of things, as in Robin Hood. From the second, he inherits tenderness, proximity, true love of “people” and the authentic desire to make them shine, as in Ken Loach. We do not know what will happen next in his political adventure, but one thing will always be to the credit of François Ruffin: he reminds the “people of the left”, if they had forgotten it, what the people are, and that What does it mean to be left-wing?
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