La Pluie et le beau temps

The flax-growing know-how of the Pays de Caux produces almost half the world’s flax for a single customer, China. Between Trouville and the Orient, how is a dying agriculture revived thanks to a globalisation that could finish it off for good? Attentive to the passing seasons and the locality’s subtle light, Ariane Doublet captures the attention given to the plant at both ends of the chain: at one end, the science of weather forecasting, the flax stem examined in the field to determine its quality according to the climate. At the other end, the equally meticulous examination of the flax fibre by the Chinese buyers who have come to inspect the harvests. Doublet intersperses her account of the sometimes tense negotiations between producers and buyers with images that the filmmaker Wen Hai sent her showing a large textile factory in China. Here, we change scale. In the beautiful canteen shots, red uniforms and blue chairs create a two-colour effect, harmonious to the eye but with a disturbing uniformity. Yet, La Pluie et le beau temps is careful not to oppose traditional farming (actually very interested in GMOs) and Chinese mass production. Wen Hai’s interviews with the young workers returns us to intimacy: when a dormitory TV set announces floods at the other end of the country, worried faces remind us that all here have travelled thousands of kilometres for a job: globalisation starts at home…

Charlotte Garson