The Measure of a Man

La loi du marché

France, 2015

Drama

Synopsis

After being out of work for twenty years, fifty-one-year-old Thierry starts a new job as a security guard in a supermarket. He is soon confronted by a moral dilemma when he is asked to spy on his colleagues.

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The Measure of a Man Directed by Stéphane Brizé

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Awards & Festivals

Cannes Film Festival

2015 | Winner: Best Actor

2015 | Special Mention: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

Village Voice Film Poll

2016 | Nominee: Best Actor

Indiewire Critics' Poll

2016 | Nominee: Best Lead Actor

Mar del Plata International Film Festival

2015

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Cast & Crew

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Critics reviews

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Brizé has cleverly cast people with an extraordinary confidence in front of the camera, which means that Lindon’s customary minimalist yet charismatic performance style blends wonderfully with the rest of the cast… More problematic is the fact that Karine is virtually silent throughout the film. She barely has a name and we have no sense of her life – we don’t know, for instance, whether she has a job or not: the film treat employment as a male issue.

Ginette Vincendeau

June 02, 2016

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Brizé transposes to narrative cinema multiple formal and thematic concerns of two great nonfiction filmmakers, Farocki and Wiseman. From Wiseman, Brizé borrows a visual style rooted in long takes and weirdly compelling shots of functionaries sitting at their desks. He also adopts Wiseman’s social perspective, presenting scenes from the life of an underemployed, formerly middle-class father in such a way that they register as symbolic of the experience of an entire profession or social class.

Ben Sachs

April 22, 2016

The tight-lipped protagonist wears an expression that’s gloomier than he actually is, and the watchful Lindon, who won best actor at Cannes last May for this third collaboration with Brizé, positively sinks into the role—thanks largely to the actor’s close-to-life work, the film often feels almost more aligned with the observational rigor of a Wiseman doc than the close-in naturalism of a Dardenne Bros. fiction.

Benjamin Mercer

April 15, 2016

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What are people saying?

Diego Carrera's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
Diego Carrera

Devastating. I'm ashamed of being human.
February 22, 2017 22:20
- 2
- 0
dave gunn's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
dave gunn

A very real portrait of what it means to be a working class man as you and everyone around you is strangled by the oppressive nature of capitalism.
January 24, 2019 18:37
- 4
- 0
Annie Gentil-Kraatz's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
Annie Gentil-Kraatz

Heart wrenching at times, following the main character looking for a new job and getting in some ways undermined and humiliated by the system. When he finally gets a job, prospects are not any better... Vincent Lindon is excellent, very humble and still full of dignity. Stéphane Brizé has a very distinctive voice and a soft way to deliver a very harsh message about France's job market.
January 24, 2019 18:25
- 2
- 0
msmichel's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
msmichel

Vincent Lindon won best actor at Cannes for this affecting portrait of a man who refuses to be beaten by the modern economic system and struggles to keep his family afloat even in being under employed. Brize adopts the Dardenne method here with little music and close handheld camera work and though some may find the film dry it's scathing view of its characters morality and breaking points is fascinating.
January 24, 2019 18:24
- 2
- 0
Jugu Abraham's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
Jugu Abraham

Beyond the amazing acting, the lovely film could serve as a discussion subject for management students studying human resource management. The film entertains sensitive thinking viewers by providing options on personal ethics one has to adopt to bring home the bacon on the table under trying circumstances. My full review is at http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.in/2016/03/190-french-director-stephane-brizes-la.html
March 17, 2016 09:48
- 1
- 0
josé neves's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
josé neves

Christian Petzold or Farocki's cinematographic essays, for example, have already given a good account of what is happening in the corporatism of today's world of work, its technocratic dehumanization. This film does an activist figure when, in fact, it doesn't think anything else beyond the exposure of its protagonist and his confinement in an inability to think about/with the images, to "watch" the work.
January 24, 2019 18:24
- 3
- 0
MATTEO BITTANTI's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
MATTEO BITTANTI

A realistic depiction of life in a Neoliberal society, a society of control (Deleuze), pervasive surveillance, maximization, benchmarks, best-practices, metrics, flexibility, and "Free Market" ideology. It's France, but could be almost anywhere. The supermarket as the ultimate Foucauldian panopticon: we're all prisoners. And so are the guards.
January 24, 2019 18:12
- 6
- 0
Lynch/Fellini's rating of the film The Measure of a Man
Lynch/Fellini

While the film is pastiche, the extremely strong performance by Vincent Lindon and the development of his character is what makes the film work and worth watching.
January 20, 2016 05:00
- 0
- 0