The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge (2000)
"La moitié gauche du frigo" (original title)

Christophe agrees to be filmed by his roommate Stéphane, while he is searching for a meaningful engineering job. Since he voluntarily resigned his job when he was to be moved to quality ... See full summary »

Director:

Philippe Falardeau

Writer:

Philippe Falardeau

Stars:

Paul Ahmarani, Stéphane Demers, Geneviève Néron

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Paul Ahmarani	...	Christophe
Stéphane Demers	...	Stéphane
Geneviève Néron	...	Odile
Jules Philip	...	Philippe
Alexandrine Agostini	...	Christina
Michel Laperrière	...	President of DNR Systems
Marie-Andrée Corneille	...	Marie-Hélène, soeur de Christophe
Stéphane Crête
Khanh Hua	...	Bu
Sylvain Bellemare	...	Sound man
Elyzabeth Walling	...	Girl in bar
Robert Morin	...	Headhunter
Daniel Brière	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ginette Boivin
Noel Burton	...	Anglo CEO

Storyline

Christophe agrees to be filmed by his roommate Stéphane, while he is searching for a meaningful engineering job. Since he voluntarily resigned his job when he was to be moved to quality control, he does not get unemployment benefits, and goes to classes on how to contest the decision. Christophe sells his car, while Stéphane receives more funding for the film, and can hire a sound man. However, the crew following Christophe with a camera is a hinderance in his job-hunting. After spending the night with Christophe, his girlfriend Odile, an artist working as a supermarket cashier, takes over the camera and films the roommates as they get up. Finally Christophe finds a few days work dismantling machines for a company that is moving to Mexico, but his cameraman causes problems after interviewing the president of the company in the washroom.

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Plot Keywords:

roommate | thirty something | documentary filmmaker | filmmaker | job seeking | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

French

Release Date:

16 October 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Quatre par Quatre Films, Téléfilm Canada

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Decline of the American Empire (1986)

User Reviews

Mockumentary about both unemployment and destructive corporate greed.

Film maker Philippe Falardeau mixes mockumentary about unemployment with a political statement about the destructive corporate greed of capitalistic politics. He filmed this in 1999, but it does not represent a specific year. The audience enjoyed this tale of foibles encountered in his roommates quest to end unemployment with the 'right' job. The absurd pickiness of Engineering job ads was good for laughs, but it's truth was rather revolting. This story was inspired by the director's real former roommate, and was his statement of complaint of about how "when you loose your job, you loose your social identity," and the systemic destruction that goes with that loss in modern globalized society. This French language film was made in Quebec and will be released in France... with French subtitles. The acting is very natural, and the locations fit the story well. This is well filmed, a good story, and worth seeing.

Falardeau said that the story was obviously made up by the end because nobody's life could be that bad. Of course until then, he hadn't met me.