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Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Here, Sidney Poitier explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure - as a man, as a husband, and father, and as an actor. His body of work is arguable the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Here, Sidney Poitier explores these elements of character and personal values to take h In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. But in getting to that climactic question, Brizé’s film offers a compelling case study in how a good man with tragically bearish fortunes might find himself in bed with the most bullish of capitalists.In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career.
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Will he reclaim his moral compass, or will he do what he must to keep his family afloat? No spoilers here. But in mastering that skill, Thierry is forced to look inward, to take his own measure, and he doesn’t much like what he sees. His downwardly mobile new job depends on his quickness at taking the measure of those around him. The world has taken Thierry’s measure and found him to be lacking. Thus Thierry becomes a bully on behalf of bullies, a thug whose salary is only justified if he can help his bosses squeeze even more profit out of his fellow workers.
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(Is this what my life will look like in 10 years? Thierry must be wondering as he stoically turns the man over to the police.) But his sense of inner conflict only deepens when he becomes aware of his real mandate: to police his own colleagues, to catch the cashiers who undercharge, who pocket discount coupons, or who swipe their own loyalty cards for extra points. The people he catches are hardly felons: In one case, he apprehends an old man attempting to abscond with shrink-wrapped meat, who sadly admits he’s too broke to buy it for himself. (That Brizé keeps the camera’s lens tightly trained on Lindon’s kindly hangdog face for most of the film’s 93 minutes feels only appropriate.)
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He lands a job as a security guard at a supermarket chain, and spends his days watching over the store via a network of Big Brother–like cameras, scanning the aisles for shoplifters as keenly as his fellow dole collectors once scrutinized his interviewing skills. When Thierry does find employment, we hope for the best but anticipate the worst. The Measure of a Man is set in the hinterlands of France, but the movie’s portrayal of a good-hearted but increasingly disillusioned blue-collar man losing his way in the face of underemployment, bureaucratic indifference, a failing social safety net, and corporate greed has plenty to say about the problems faced by a large portion of the American electorate. But what American film critics couldn’t yet know was just how much this country’s discontented working class, faced for decades with declining prospects and fed up with mainstream politicians’ platitudes, would shape the election cycle, and wildly disrupt traditional constituencies on both sides of the political spectrum.Ī year later, it feels like a particularly apt moment for Brizé’s film to make its stateside theatrical premiere, which it will this Friday in New York, followed by a national rollout. When The Measure of a Man premiered last spring at Cannes, reviewers applauded French director Stéphane Brizé’s tale of an aging, laid-off factory worker, played with quiet virtuosity by Vincent Lindon, who took home the festival’s prize for best actor.