In Seraing, an industrial town near Liège, Belgium, young wife and mother Sandra prepares to return to work at Solwal, a small solar-panel factory, after a medical leave of absence for depression and anxiety. During her absence, Solwal management realises her colleagues are able to cover her shifts by working slightly longer hours and proposes a €1,000 bonus to each if they agree to make Sandra redundant. On Friday evening, after Sandra hears the news and that only two of the 16 voted for her to stay, she breaks down, feeling hopeless and worthless.
Her husband, Manu, tries to lift her spirits. A co-worker friend Juliette, who voted on her behalf, convinces her to talk to M. Dumont, the Solwal manager. Sandra is too petrified to speak, but Juliette argues her case. Juliette tells him some of the workers felt pressured to vote against Sandra by the factory foreman Jean-Marc, who insinuated one job must be eliminated. Though hesitant, Dumont agrees to a second, secret ballot early Monday.
Realising that her fate rests in the hands of her co-workers, Sandra must visit each of the 14 over the course of the weekend to persuade them to reject the monetary bonus, and she faces an uphill battle to keep her job before the crucial vote on Monday. Most of her co-workers are counting on the bonus for their own families. Some of her co-workers are immigrants and some are already working second jobs to get by; most react with sympathy, but a few with anger. Sandra is crushed when a co-worker she considered a friend pretends not to be home, but is heartened by the few who support her and say they will vote for her. Timur, an immigrant from Dagestan, breaks down in tears and says he is ashamed of himself, as Sandra covered for him when he broke a panel on his first day. He says he will change his mind and talk to another worker on her behalf.
On Sunday afternoon, Sandra discovers that Jean-Marc has been calling their co-workers to convince them not to change their votes, and that in reality he is against Sandra coming back because of her depression. She visits her co-worker Anne, whose husband rudely throws her out and screams at both women. Dejected, Sandra attempts suicide at home by overdosing on Xanax, but when Anne arrives to tell her she will vote for her, Sandra confesses to Manu, who forces her to vomit the pills up. Sandra recovers at the hospital and is touched when she finds out Anne came to the hospital too. Sandra tells Manu they will visit the remaining three that evening. When Anne tells her she has decided to leave her husband, Sandra invites her to their house to spend the night.
Sandra speaks to Alphonse, a young African immigrant who is working as a welder on contract. He will only get €150 because he is new, but he is afraid of Jean-Marc, who told him to vote against Sandra if he wants to get along with his co-workers. Alphonse tells her he wants to vote for her, but he's afraid Jean-Marc will find out and write him up for his mistakes, which could damage his chance of renewing his contract when it expires in September.
On Monday morning, as the Solwal workers vote again, Jean-Marc reacts angrily to Sandra. She stands up for herself and reminds him that he acted unfairly. In the second ballot, eight vote for her to keep the job, and eight vote to keep the bonus – not enough to overturn Friday's vote. She tearfully thanks those who voted for her, including Alphonse. She tells Anne she can stay at their house again that night and stoically clears out her locker.
However, Dumont calls her into his office and congratulates her on convincing so many to support her. He tells her he has decided to give everyone the bonus but still keep her on. Sandra's joy is short lived as he explains he will simply not renew a worker whose contract expires in September – Alphonse. Sandra politely declines his offer – she now has the confidence to start anew, and pursue a new life for herself. "We put up a good fight," she tells Manu proudly.
Cast
Marion Cotillard as Sandra Bya, working-class wife and mother of two children
Pili Groyne as Estelle, daughter of Sandra and Manu
Simon Caudry as Maxime, son of Sandra and Manu
Batiste Sornin as M. Dumont, manager at Solwal
Serge Koto as Alphonse, welder at Solwal
Production
Development
On 25 February 2013, The Film Stage announced that Marion Cotillard would star in the Dardenne brothers' next film, Two Days, One Night, and that Fabrizio Rongione, who had previously worked with the Dardenne brothers in Rosetta (1999), L'Enfant (2005), Lorna's Silence (2008), and The Kid with a Bike (2011), would have a supporting role as the husband of Cotillard's character in the film.[11] Cotillard is the most famous actor the Dardenne brothers have worked with,[12] and the first French actor they cast as the lead in one of their films, which usually have relatively unknown Belgian actors in the cast.[13] Jean-Pierre Dardenne said about that choice; "hiring such a famous actress was an additional challenge for us. Marion was able to find a new body and a new face for this film."[14] One of the Dardenne brothers' first requests for Cotillard was for her to lose her French Parisian accent, in order for her character to sound as an authentic Belgian.[15] Cotillard said she was very happy when the Dardennes praised her Liège accent.[15]
The Dardenne brothers were co-producers on Jacques Audiard's 2012 romantic drama film Rust and Bone, which Cotillard had starred in, and they met the actress by chance on that film's set in Belgium when she was coming out of an elevator holding her baby.[14] They said they were won over immediately.[14] "Driving back to Liège, we didn't stop talking about her: her face, her look…", said Luc Dardenne,[14] who also called their first encounter with Cotillard a "cinematic love at first sight".[16] The brothers then told Cotillard about a project they were writing about a young doctor and that they would love to work with her, and she said the same to them.[16]
Initially, the Dardenne brothers had a different project in mind in which Cotilard would play a doctor,[17] but that script did not come together because they had writer's block,[16] so they decided to write a different film for her,[16] which was originally a project they had begun about ten years before but left behind.[11][16] They started writing the script for Two Days, One Night in October 2012 and finished in March 2013.[14]
The script was based on a story the Dardenne brothers read in a sociology book about a worker at Peugeot in France in 1998, who was fired after his boss incited his team to vote for his dismissal because he was preventing them from getting bigger bonuses.[16][18] Luc Dardenne said he and his brother were also thinking of Sidney Lumet's 1957 courtroom drama film 12 Angry Men, "because it's a process of going to see people to try and change their minds", he said.[19]
The film was a Belgian production with French and Italian co-producers.[5][1] It was produced by Dardenne's Les Films du Fleuve with co-production support from France's Archipel 35, Italy's BIM Distribuzione and Belgium's Eyeworks Film & TV Drama. It received funding from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund, RTBF and Centre du cinéma et de l'audiovisuel.[2] It received 500,000 euros from Eurimages.[2] The total budget was seven million euros.[2]
Filming
The rehearsal process lasted six weeks.[19] Filming began in late June 2013 in Seraing, Belgium and was wrapped in September 2013.[2][20]
The film was shot in chronological order.[21] The Dardenne brothers required several takes for the long sequence shots.[21] They did 56 takes for a single sequence on the second day of filming, and on the fourth day they did 82 takes.[21] Cotillard said that she even asked for more takes herself,[22] and that sometimes it went up to 95 or 100 takes.[21]
The film was released in the United Kingdom via Artificial Eye on 22 August 2014.[1]Sundance Selects distributed the film in the United States on 24 December 2014.[1]
Reception
Critical response
Two Days, One Night received critical acclaim after its premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where Marion Cotillard's performance was highly praised and earned a 15-minute standing ovation.[33] The film has an approval of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 185 reviews with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Another profoundly affecting work from the Dardenne brothers, Two Days, One Night delivers its timely message with honesty and clear-eyed compassion."[34] The film also has a score of 89 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[35]
Empire gave the film five out of five stars and described it as "a rare film of unforced simplicity, with an outstanding lead performance".[36]Empire also chose Two Days, One Night as one of the 50 best films of 2014, ranked at number 44.[37]The Hollywood Reporter praised the film and stated that it stands alongside Marion Cotillard's best work.[38]
The film won the Sydney Film Prize at Sydney Film Festival "For its masterfully elegant storytelling, its dedication to a fiercely humanistic, super-realist worldview, its brave, essential commitment to community solidarity, and its celebration of a woman's power and vitality," said Jury President Rachel Perkins.[39] Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film 5 stars, praising in particular Cotillard's "supremely intelligent performance."[40]
Nicholas Barber of BBC gave the film four stars, praising Cotillard's performance saying that "she conveys a tremendous amount with the smallest, quietest gestures. When you see the fierce, tearful grin on her face after one successful encounter, and the sleepwalking shuffle she adopts when her depression threatens to engulf her, it’s plain that she is one of the finest cinema actors we have."[12] Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy gave the film four stars, calling Cotillard "fascinating to watch" and said that "The physical sluggishness and emotional numbing of depression have seldom been better portrayed on screen, and yet Two Days One Night still emerges as a psychologically delving and quietly uplifting modern-day morality play."[41]
The National Board of Review chose the film as one of the Top 5 Foreign Films of 2014.[42]Time magazine ranked Cotillard's performance in the film as the fourth best performance of 2014, shared with her performance in The Immigrant.[43]
In Spain, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar made a list of the best films and performances of 2014, and included Cotillard's performance on his list of best foreign actresses.[44]
Box office
Two Days, One Night sold over 520,000 tickets in France and grossed US$3,5 million at the French box office.[45][6] It made US$1,4 million in the United States and US$7,5 million in other territories,[6] with over 1 million tickets sold in Europe.[45] The film grossed a total of US$9 million worldwide,[6] becoming the Dardenne brothers' highest-grossing film.[46]
Guillaume Canet is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, and show jumper.
Marion Cotillard is a French actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, a European Film Award, a Lumières Award and two César Awards. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010, and was promoted to Officer in 2016, the same year she was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour. She has served as a spokeswoman for Greenpeace since 2001. She was the face of the Lady Dior handbag for nine years, and since 2020 she is the face of the fragrance Chanel No. 5.
L'Enfant is a 2005 Belgian film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, starring Jérémie Renier and Déborah François. The film was released under its French title in the US, and as The Child in the UK.
La Promesse is a 1996 drama film written and directed by the Belgian brothers Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, starring Jérémie Renier and Olivier Gourmet. The film had its world premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section parallel to the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. The film was shot in chronological order.
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. They also own the production company Les Films du Fleuve.
Cinema of Belgium refers to the film industry based in Belgium. Belgium is essentially a bi-lingual country divided into the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) north and the French-speaking south. There is also a small community of German speakers in the border region with Germany. Belgium is further a federal country made up of three regions and three language communities . Due to these linguistic and political divisions it is difficult to speak of a national, unified Cinema of Belgium. It would be more appropriate to talk about Flemish or Dutch-language cinema of Belgium and Walloon or French-language cinema of Belgium.
Arnaud Desplechin is a French film director and screenwriter. In 2016, he won the César Award for Best Director for My Golden Days (2015).
La Vie en Rose is a 2007 biographical musical film about the life of French singer Édith Piaf, co-written and directed by Olivier Dahan, and starring Marion Cotillard as Piaf. The UK and US title La Vie en Rose comes from Piaf's signature song. The film is an international co-production between France, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. It made its world premiere at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival in the main competition.
Lorna's Silence is a 2008 drama film by the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. It was the winner of the 2008 LUX Prize, as well as the Best Screenplay Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Rust and Bone is a 2012 romantic drama film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, based on Craig Davidson's short story collection Rust and Bone. It tells the story of an unemployed man who falls in love with a woman who trains killer whales. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium.
The Immigrant is a 2013 American drama film directed by James Gray, starring Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner. It had its world premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d'Or.
Macbeth is a 2015 epic historical drama film directed by Justin Kurzel and written for the screen by Todd Louiso, Jacob Koskoff, and Michael Lesslie, based on William Shakespeare's eponymous play. The film stars Michael Fassbender in the title role and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, with Paddy Considine, Sean Harris, Jack Reynor, Elizabeth Debicki and David Thewlis in supporting roles. The story follows a Scottish lord's rise to power after receiving a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Like the play it was adapted from, the film dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.
It's Only the End of the World is a 2016 drama film written, edited and directed by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the 1990 play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and stars Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, and Vincent Cassel. It is about a young playwright who reunites with his family after a 12-year absence to inform them he is going to die.
The Unknown Girl is a 2016 mystery drama film directed by the Dardenne brothers, and starring Adèle Haenel, Jérémie Renier, and Louka Minnella.
Annette is a 2021 musical romantic drama film directed by Leos Carax in his English-language directorial debut. The film's story and music were written by Ron Mael, Russell Mael, and Leos Carax, with lyrics co-written by Leos Carax. The film, which has been described as a rock opera, follows a stand-up comedian and his opera singer wife, and how their lives are changed when they have their first child. Simon Helberg and Devyn McDowell also appear.
Little Girl Blue is a 2023 biographical docudrama film written and directed by Mona Achache based on the life of her mother, the writer and set photographer Carole Achache, starring Marion Cotillard as Carole Achache and Mona Achache as herself. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium and had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section on 21 May 2023, where it competed for the Golden Eye and was well received by critics.
↑ Svenska Filminstitutet (8 January 2015). "Nominerade". guldbaggen.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
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