Corporate, written and directed by Nicolas Silhol - Eight out of 10

Corporate, written and directed by Nicolas Silhol

Eight out of 10

Corporate seems to be a very relevant story, given that multinationals have so many employees around the world, many of them experiencing some of the problems depicted in this motion picture.

The under signed is biased on the issue at the core of this motion picture, considering a rather nasty experience related to AT&T –crème de la crème of multinationals – and the tendency to see the potential evil in such a heartless, often evil institution

Having lived under communism, one is definitely for capitalism and against even whiffs of leftism, but going on to work for AT&T, which paid only a meagre $ 250 per month and expected for that a lot of representation – their representative for this country got that, no less- clothes, work, appearance, shoes and much more, was often humiliating.

Granted, there was more to it than the exploitative $ 250 – later increased to the exorbitant, astronomical $ 400 per month – and one could benefit from the connection, given other factors at play, but the conclusion is that people working in that environment can become unsympathetic, to say the least, or just mean and monstrous, to come closer to their real selves.

Emilie Tesson-Hansen is the heroine of Corporate, portrayed by the excellent Celine Sallette, and she is the head of the Human Resources Department of the Essen big company.

Her boss is Stephane Froncart aka an outstanding actor, Lambert Wilson, who can portray a heartless, monstrous villain, but he can also be a gentle, generous, self-sacrificing, role model –as the monk Christian in Of Gods and Men.

In the beginning, we see that Emilie has some issues with Didier Dalmat, even if is better said the other way around.

The man is disappointed with the offer made by the company, through the head of the Human Resources Department.

The HR person is cornered and then she says something like:

Look, it is up to you, but the company does not want your services anymore…you should resign

Minutes after this encounter, the man jumps from the window of his office, killing himself.

It reminds one of Up in the Air, where George Clooney is the hero, a man who has the task of firing people.

Essen, Stephane Froncart and other leaders of the company seem to favor a strategy of dispensing of the employees that they consider irrelevant by using cunning.

The undesirables are offered a choice, they can move to a new job, which would mean a change that most they cannot accept or just abandon the game of their own accord.

The heroine explains how this works to another executive that finds the tactic repellant, abhorrent and says he cannot do it in a video.

He is training on a man who is told that the new position involves a move, but the man retorts that he has to take care of his sick mother and the strategy would state that he needs to take her with him…and anyway, the HR cannot take decisions as vital for him.

After the suicide of Didier Dalmat an inquiry is opened, in fact at one point there are three investigations and they focus on Emilie, although she is merely an executioner – that granted has her share of the blame, her own conscience to answer for.

The more the investigators progress, the more it seems that the heroine would be the sacrificial lamb, or the single escape goat that would pay for the mistakes made at the higher echelons of power, the people – men, all of them – that have decided that efficiency, profit are all more important that human suffering, individual torment and ultimately, lives lost.

France and other countries have experienced a wave of suicides, in environments where workers have been pressed to perform, - indeed, in the infamous case of Foxconn, nets are hanged under the windows of the huge enterprise, to prevent the numerous employees who decide to jump from dying.

Corporate is an intriguing, gripping at times, meditative, thoughtful drama that looks at an important challenge in the world of the huge behemoths that sometimes devour the people who are trapped by them.