Notre univers impitoyable (2008)

Victor and Margot are both lawyers in a major consulting firm and form a solid couple in private. Yet one day they find themselves competing for the same job promotion. How will their relationship stand up to the outcome?

Director:

Léa Fazer

Writer:

Léa Fazer

Stars:

Alice Taglioni, Jocelyn Quivrin, Thierry Lhermitte

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alice Taglioni	...	Maître Margot Dittermann
Jocelyn Quivrin	...	Maître Victor Bandini
Thierry Lhermitte	...	Maître Nicolas Bervesier
Pascale Arbillot	...	Juliette
Scali Delpeyrat	...	Maître Bertrand Lavoisier
Julie Ferrier	...	Éléonore
Denise Aron-Schropfer	...	La mère de Margot
Antonio Cauchois	...	Le père de Margot
Eliot Pasqualon	...	Antonin
Flore Labrande	...	Clémentine
Thierry Gimenez	...	Mercier
Joe Sheridan	...	Goudal
Farid Bentoumi	...	Emmanuel
Isabelle Cagnat	...	Femme couple
Olivier Balazuc	...	Homme couple

Storyline

Victor and Margot are both lawyers in a major consulting firm and form a solid couple in private. Yet one day they find themselves competing for the same job promotion. How will their relationship stand up to the outcome?

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Plot Keywords:

lawyer | pregnancy test | car | multiple outcomes | alternative reality | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Haut et Court [France]

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

13 February 2008 (France)

Also Known As:

What If...?

Filming Locations:

Hôtel Meurice - 228 Rue de Rivoli, Paris 1, Paris, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Haut et Court, M6 Films, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Remade as Unforgiving World

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Soundtracks

"Dallas"
(French version)
Written by Jean Renard and Michel Salva (1981)
From original TV series theme "Dallas"
Written by Jerrold Immel (1978)

User Reviews

Univers pitoyable,

Within the same time, space and actors, two different stories are told between quick shifts of the two scripts. Not always very clear,yet very well played by most of them. The struggle of family vs. successful work and wealth is a bit "ingenue", but keeps your attention. A "divertisement".

The cinematography/ images were of the best I've seen of late. And the music matched what the camera shows quite well. At first, its beauty is dazzling. But in the end, it starts to sound menacing, cold and distant. La Défense seems like their apartment, their clothing, and probably their marriage: minimalist, perfect, and yet devoid of life.

Sociology: There is a striking contrast between the small, overcrowded and anonymous popular flat Margot's parents inhabit. Theirs is a life more ordinary, like her sister's. But her parents seem happy in their marriage, or at least content. Whereas all the film shows "how unhappy brash young and very successful cadres can be" unless...

That's why I think the film is written by, well, somebody who obviously doesn't like big companies, and who consequently casts some empathy on "love versus work". Consequently, all the film is a case in point for the director's sensitive view: "a return to basic values". Depicted in modern terms, with cheeky music in the end, but a XIX century morale, romanticism and all that. Alice Taglioni is very beautiful, I'm glad she didn't pursue a career as a pianist :). Her beauty is rather cold, but effective in what the director wants to show. Jocelyn Quivrin is fine specially as the "winner" of the job. Their secretary Éléonore has one of the best lines when she stops Victor in his tracks from leaving her wife for a mirage, a lover whom he idealizes because "she doesn't contradict him and has good sex". Cutting but real!

Obviously Lhermitte is great at whatever he does, and in here, although I'd have liked to see a bit more of his manipulations, he does the despicable but able manipulator swiftly as usual. Maître Bertrand Lavoisier is probably the most likable character, the IMDb reviewer guy-bellinger was right of writing that. I agree to what he says about the director Fazer resorting to clichés too often. The film seems like a work made by a young author, still fighting with personal issues, forcing contrasts to "make the point". Given this Swiss director is very young, I think it's not impossible to wish she'll accomplish cutting portraits of social classes like, say, Claude Chabrol's.