ON A GRÈVÉ

Twenty minutes from the Champs Élysées, the foreign and mostly illiterate chambermaids in a “Première Classe” hotel go on strike for the first time. For Denis Gheerbrant, who has an unmatched ability to listen, words are particularly important as they relate to acts: “Première Classe” – when the workers are paid illegally at piece rates and not by the hour… The term all but asks for a film to deflate the arrogance of an immense “exploitor” (heard several times, this word’s impropriety rings true). The other linguistic fact that captures his attention, just before the end of the fight, is the invention of a new French verb “grèver” by a worker who is proud to have defended her rights for the first time. Even when responding to the filmmaker’s questions, the workers are in full action, and their communicative energy seems to reinforce the filmmaker’s endurance. When we discover that they are being helped in their struggle by an obviously hardened CGT trade unionist, we feel a passing apprehension that the story will change direction – that the spontaneity of these first-time strikers might be manipulated. In fact, what interests the filmmaker is the story of learning, of initiation to the res politica.

Charlotte Garson