French view of bureaucracy The picture is the owner of the “Golden palm branch” in the nomination “Special look”. This intense drama is really very different from most produced in France. In the center of the plot is Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean (Olivier Gourme), a confident, successful man who faces serious obstacles in his path after a bus crash with children.
The Minister is accompanied by his right-hand man, Monsieur Gilles (Michel Blanc) and spokesman Pauline (Zaboo Bretman).
After going through numerous upheavals, failures, learning about the intrigues of behind-the-scenes politics, having tested his cabinet for strength, the minister by the end of the film feels like a different person internally and begins to “see what he did not notice before.” But will this transformation affect Bertrand as a politician? Pierre Schiller, director and screenwriter of the film, invites viewers to look behind the scenes of the French government and see the principle of the bureaucratic system as it is.
It all starts with a night bell. From the office of the Ministry reported that in the vicinity of a small town overturned bus with schoolchildren. Bertrand urgently goes to the place to take control of the situation, and is drawn into a series of interconnected, one-by-one events that subsequently change him as a politician and as a person.
After the accident, the public raises questions about the cause of the disaster and the state of roads in the country, raises the issue of privatization of railway stations and further reforms. The Minister of Transport is forced to cope at a frantic pace with the flood of problems that flooded him like a waterfall. Therefore, he is constantly on edge, lacks sleep and completely abandoned the family. In contrast to the hot-tempered minister - a seasoned, courteous Gilles and a lively, enterprising Pauline.
Originally conceived as a minor character, Martin Kupers (Sylvan Dable) is gradually coming to the fore.
He is a man with almost no hope, unemployed and on the verge of divorce in his 40s. Martin is among the other unemployed under the government program, hired as a driver at Bertrand. One day the minister asks him to visit and enters into a verbal quarrel with his wife Joseph (Anne Azoulay).
It’s one of the best scenes in the whole film – Josepha, a hospital worker, violently attacks Bertrand, accusing him and all politicians combined of ignoring real problems, and the minister only laughs and good-naturedly asks her not to get hot. Against their background, Kupers attracts attention. With his verbosity, serious and sad face, Kupers casts even more emphasis on the talkative, complacent minister. Olivier Gurma brilliantly managed to convey the self-confidence and endurance of a man who achieved everything himself, not being a hereditary politician, “the crown prince,” as Gilles put it. Michelle Blanc, who played the latter, received "Cesar" for his role. Sylvain Deblais, not being a professional actor, was not ashamed next to his star partners. His Kupers is one of the most real characters I've ever seen in a movie.
The film captures no worse than the most dashing action movie, and this is undoubtedly the great merit of the director. "Public Service" won "Cesar" this year for best screenplay written by Pierre Scholler himself. It takes a lot of experience to organically combine the dramatic component and the dynamics of the plot. At the same time, the picture remains incredibly realistic. The creators showed the inner world of an individual minister with his despair and feelings of loneliness, and the hypocrisy of the bureaucracy, which uses any excuse to improve its image, and often does not care about the management of the state.