Film Reviews

Fear and Trembling

• Rating:
• Director: Alain Corneau.
• Starring: Sylvie Testud, Kaori Tsuji, Taro Suwa, Bison Katayama, Yasunari Kondon.
• Details: Fra and Jap / 107 mins / (No Cert).

While it sounds disarmingly like the moniker of an American military campaign, Fear and Trembling is an odd take on culture clash drama by way of a cautionary tale of office politics. Amelie (Sylvie Testud) is a meek Belgian translator who takes a job in a Tokyo office. What she hadn't reckoned upon, however, is an unusually nasty boss (Kaori Tsuji). Couple that with her ignorance of the hierarchies of Japanese office politics and Amelie finds herself on a very rapid downward spiral. Adapted from a semi-autobiographical Belgian novel, Fear and Suffering is an interesting, though extreme, character study and glimpse into the vicious hyper-real environment of office politics. A world where reputations can be crushed in moments, Fear and Trembling resolutely charts the degradation of Amelie as she finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. Inevitably, some will find the pace a little slow and the concept - Amelie seems pathologically incapable of standing up for herself - but this study into the nature of quiet desperation feels authentic. See it if you've ever had a really crap job.

Review by Garreth Murphy