Film Review: Between Two Worlds

Director: Emmanuel Carrère
Starring: Hélène Lambert, Louise Pociecka, Steve Papagiannis
Running time: 106 minutes

Based on Florence Aubenas’ autobiographical bestseller The Night Cleaner, which first hit shelves in 2010, Between Two Worlds is a distressing window into life below the poverty line, released to UK audiences this May. Centred around protagonist Marianne Winckler (played by the wonderful Juliette Binoche), this feature documents her ‘undercover’ odyssey into the realms of poverty, in her quest to produce a book of her experiences. Applying for a multitude of cleaning jobs in the north of France, the Parisian Marianne chronicles her observations of existence on the margins, and soon draws her attention to the fascinating inner lives of its inhabitants.

First thing’s first: Binoche is fantastic. The sheer bizarreness of her appearance in this role, scrubbing toilets amongst a cast of unknowns, perfectly encapsulates her character’s presence as alien in this unfamiliar world. Her on-screen comrade, Christèle, a single mother of three sons played by complete newcomer Hélène Lambert, is a brilliant point of contrast to this, offering an emotional, nuanced performance to rival the most experienced of actors. The on-screen and off-screen meeting of two worlds is perfectly summed up in this alliance, and the richness of these female friendships is truly the soaring success of the film, forever underpinned by Marianne’s deep betrayal of her colleagues’ trust.

Along the way, the group share their sufferings and their hopes; their dreams of a distant, lottery-winning future, in which they’re able to afford more than a pack of cigs for celebration. We watch on in discomfort at the sheer brutality and negligence of the workplace, as the economic divide between Marianne and her colleagues grows. As the film advances and her relationships with these women thicken, her moral dilemma becomes clear. To her, these workers act as curious insights into another world. She is fascinated by their mannerisms, their likes and dislikes, their colourful stories, their daily resilience. These real lives become a playground for Marianne. She befriends them, conceals herself as one of them, with the ultimate plan to exploit and expose.

Amidst scenes of authentic suffrage and heart-wrenching emotion, it’s hard not to notice how beautifully this film is directed. Rich with a sense of contrast, intrusively close scenes are opposed by gorgeous wide shots of the urban landscape. Long, brutal sequences of Marianne and comrades committing themselves to arduous labour are met with moments of laughter and tears. In parts, the pain and physical toil is so palpable you can feel the theatre tense up around you. Heart-warming in its concept but brutal and agonising in its reality, Between Two Worlds treads the thin line between insightful and exploitative.

This is where the film becomes complicated. Striking scenes of resilience are undercut by a nebulous commentary on undercover journalism. In a dramatic, emotional climax, the focus lies on the morality of Marianne’s journalistic practices, clouding the horrific realities of the workers' lives. The protagonist’s shining moments are marred by her self-important superiority, and a once enlightening, inflammatory exposé twists quickly into condescension. Her ‘gracious’ and ‘generous’ investigation ultimately comes across as patronising.

Although the feature attempts to grapple with this crisis, this is a dilemma which goes largely unresolved throughout, and the ending is weakened because of this. Situated in a strange place between self-awareness and pomposity, the film feels enlightening in parts but tone-deaf in others. The sheer monotony of its scenes ultimately places the audience in a position of either intrigue or boredom. While the rich audience of the Cannes film festival may very well find these working-class lives striking and exotic, those who have lived below the poverty line watch on fatigued. The agonising austerity and deprivation are thrown aside for a commentary on personal, dramatic divides, and the feature ends with no resolution between these characters. Is this a tone-deaf exploration of a world that is fundamentally inaccessible to the rich? Or is it an insightful window into the invisible corners of society, underpinned by a caustic nod to its own source material? Honestly, I’m conflicted.

Did you know? The mayor of Ouistreham and Brittany Ferries vetoed the filming in the Ouistreham ferry terminal.

Between Two Worlds is now showing in cinemas