Trois huit

A TV drama style film that portrays a guy who is bullied by his fellow worker at the factory. Complex relationships between the two ensue and they are both well acted. Pierre is relentlessly teased by Fred sometimes leading him into a false impression he is his friend and other times physically and mentally torturing him. This is the basis of the film and as such is amazingly well told. I found it very life like and compulsive viewing. Supporting cast play their roles well and I would highly recommend the film.

This is a social film, but especially a bully scheme film, one of the most powerful ever, but not the most famous. Yes, this Philippe Le Guay's film is unfortunately not widely known. Such a shame. I discovered Marc Barbé. And Gerald Laroche too, though I saw it in 1997 for J'IRAI AU PARADIS CAR L'ENFER EST ICI. Here, he is at his right place, I would have never imagined him for the Marc Barbé's role. But, believe me, this topic is not at all exaggerated. Such guys exist, such men who take a sadistic pleasure to bully the others. But I admit it is more often in military camps or schools, than in factories or companies; maybe because this kind of situation can not exist where men and woman are melt. Never. Only when there are only men. However, this film is a fantastic character study. Marc Barbé's best performance, most convincing. Despite he is a pure villain, he remains poignant.

In "Trois huit," wildly implausible set-ups lurch clumsily into individual scenes of significant power and thought, causing much head scratching and hand wringing during its running time, but after you think about it for a while it begins to add up. It's a film that you only really appreciate in retrospect. The plot is a frustration of pure contrivance, but it's worth sifting through for what's in between the lines, a seasoned exploration of the complicated psychological relationship between a bully and his victim.

It isn't often that strong direction and acting can redeem a truly problematic script, but such is the case here. I can't honestly recommend it to casual fans of psychological thrillers, but to people in search of something slightly different and quite a bit more thoughtful than usual American fare, it's a fine little time.

Some of the dedicated viewers have remarked that French films set in North France tend to be full of misery, hopelessness, sorrow etc. On a close observation it might appear to be true. For example-ça commence aujourd'hui by Bertrand Tavernier.But overall this might turn out to be a debatable topic.However, in Philippe Le Guay's "Trois Huit" aka "Night Shift" there are certain acute observations on human behavior. First of all it can be noted that all along the victim of the film has been encouraging his aggressor. This is shown by his proximity with the aggressor. In a way as he had a liking for his aggressor, he was bearing all ill treatment with the hope that by dint of some miracle his aggressor would leave him alone. Another reason which supports this supposition is the fact that why was the victim enduring all the misery heaped on him ? Why did he not report it to the concerned authorities ? The weak point of the film is the uneven emotional bonding of the victim with his wife and his young kid. In normal circumstance people talk to their family members for solution to a problem. However the victim did not bother to take that step. Watch this film for the brutal performance of Marc Barbe as the bully.

This is kind of a new genre as thrillers are usually felt by the audience to be the product of an overconsumption of addictive, non legal products. Here we have a real situation (in a factory), real personalities (the bad guy is not so bad, a.s.o.), and a very good, rising tension.