Rebecca Zlotowski (2013)

The characters in Grand Central are workers in a nuclear power plant in the Rhône Valley.  The protagonist is Gary, an unqualified, formally unskilled young man from a small town near Lyon, who, at the start of the film, gets a job at the plant and, with other newcomers, is trained in decontamination work by two experienced colleagues, Gilles and Toni.   Rebecca Zlotowski, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Gaëlle Macé, brings to life very convincingly the working and social life of the group.   As they relax and drink in a bar together, Gary asks about the symptoms of radiation poisoning; Toni’s girlfriend Karole walks over to Gary and kisses him hard on the mouth.  She tells him the way that he now feels – increased heartbeat, dizzy, weak at the knees, etc – is how he would feel with radiation sickness.  This is a pivotal, almost an encapsulating moment in the film; the development of the sexual relationship between Gary and Karole that follows suggests that love is stronger than radioactivity.  After vicissitudes and separation, the couple are, at the end of Grand Central, together again – in spite of Karole’s having married Toni (while she’s carrying Gary’s baby) and although Gary by now does have significant levels of radiation in his system.  He falsified in his record book the levels that his ‘dosimeter’ was actually recording; he did so for fear of being sent away from the plant and, as a result, losing Karole.  The central theme and symbolism are worked out thoroughly in Macé and Zlotowski’s screenplay – in fact they’re overworked.  But the film is absorbing, thanks to Zlotowski’s realisation of the lives she’s describing, and to the actors.

In spite of the schematic story, there are scenes of real subtlety, such as Gary’s visit to Toni and Karole’s quarters to repay the first instalment of the money that Toni lent him when Gary first arrived at the plant.  By this point, Karole and Gary have had sex but their relationship is still at a relatively early stage.  Karole, who answers the door, explains that Toni is in the shower; she asks Gary if he’ll come in and he says no.  He offers her a cigarette.  She too says no but then changes her mind:  in the circumstances, the cigarette is the only way of sustaining contact with Gary.   The work and play of the workers – the rules of decontamination procedure, the social rituals – are very well observed throughout.  The sinister atmosphere of the plant and the work done on it verge on sci-fi horror.  While Robin Coudert’s score sometimes tends to reinforce this effect, Rebecca Zlotowski largely overcomes the problem by humanising it:  the ever-present risks and occasional accidents at the plant are always filtered through the personalities of individuals and the relationships between them.  The cast is hard to fault – their acting is highly naturalistic but they create individual characters.  Tahar Rahim as Gary is outstanding – he’s ideally cast (again) as a novice who catches on quickly and engages, both at work and in his personal life, with a world quite different from what he’s known before.  Rahim communicates Gary’s thoughts and changes of mood with wonderful precision and ease – he has an intuitive sense of what the camera will pick up.  Léa Seydoux is very good in the more difficult role of Karole (more difficult because Karole is relatively closed off).  Among the supporting cast, Olivier Gourmet is outstanding as Gilles and Denis Minochet does fine work as the quietly despairing Toni (who’s sterile as a result of years working at the plant).  Johan Libéreau is very effective as Gary’s mate Tcherno.  I don’t understand why the film is called Grand Central.

24 July 2014