The Workshop

Social-realist film-maker Laurent Cantet reunites with his regular co-writer Robin Campillo for this thoughtful drama, which explores the fissures widening in post-millennial French society. Set in La Ciotat (where the Lumière brothers famously filmed a train arriving at the station), the action centres on the tensions that arise between mystery novelist Marina Foïs and antagonistic hothead Matthieu Lucci when he signs up for her writing workshop. As one expects from Cantet, the performances have an insouciant intelligence that is all the more impressive for the class members being non-professional actors. Pierre Milon's noir-style photography is also highly effective. But the discussion of the recession, religious radicalisation and right-wing extremism often strains for provocative topicality, while the growing focus on Foïs's fixation (as both a writer and a woman) with Lucci's beliefs and behaviour gives proceedings an unpersuasively melodramatic slant.