Sunday afternoon dread when the working week beckons. This is a feeling that A Week’s Vacation (1980; aka A Week Of Holidays aka Une semaine de vacances) is about, yet it also works as a soothing balm for such an emotion. The second film I’ve watched by French director Bertrand Tavernier, A Week’s Vacation is about a school teacher named Laurence (Nathalie Baye). We meet her in the opening watching an old woman alone in an apartment across from her building, her working class boyfriend Pierre (Gerard Lanvin) who sells houses, makes some offensive jokes, and they head off to work together. In a great single take, we watch Laurence bolt out the car and run off, crying in the rain, telling her partner that she’ll see a doctor. We follow Laurence as she takes a break and has a week of holidays; her boyfriend and her mother who lives in the countryside both make references to the privilege of being able to take a break. Yet Laurence is drained from teaching kids, dealing with the grind, and the larger changes from the government on how they teach. While this might sound like a prosaic, plotless movie, Tavernier keeps the pace moving, often pushing the camera in dollies or tracking shots, smash-cutting to flashbacks and occasionally dropping a French rock song when a character puts on a record. In the mix is a parent of a troublesome student, a charming bar owner Mancheron (Michel Galabru), and even an appearance from the main character of other Tavernier movie I’ve seen, Phillipe Noiret from The Clockmaker Of St Paul. Throughout, there are observations, discussions and contemplations on how to be happy, how to help others and how to fundamentally listen – not just to others but yourself. I thought this was wonderful. On one hand, it depicts a malaise I’d assume would be specific to teachers, yet also feels relatable to any late 20s/early 30s life crisis. Streaming until the end of June on Criterion Channel. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 