C’est quoi ce travail ?

At a PSA plant in Saint-Ouen, the resident composer Nicolas Frize samples sounds. The film invites us to discover his work and that of the factory workers. Can a comparison be drawn in all decency between the intuitive, unique and ephemeral music he composes from this collection of sounds and production-line profiling work? The filmmakers’ response relies on the editing, which creates a mutual listening and opens up questions about work in general. The voice-over and the workers’ gestures are harmoniously juxtaposed in a splendid series of portraits. “I try to put myself in the place of the part… as if I were in the material itself ”, comments one worker. Satisfying or painful, gesture engages body and mind in a relationship with both the machine (“I understand all its reactions.”) and time. The sensitive precision of the comments contrasts with the noisy and repetitive environment. Does this mean that the most alienating tasks are idealised? This question, also raised by Denis Côté’s Joy of Man’s Desiring (Cinéma du réel 2014), is dismissed by a tool and die maker with clear ideas: this job is not about making prototypes. Without attributing a creative aspect to production-line work, the film, like Nicolas Frize, aims to give us an intimate experience of the job. What’s more, Intimacy is the title of the concert now being prepared… (Charlotte Garson)