The Workshop (film)

The Workshop
Film poster
Directed by Laurent Cantet
Written by Robin Campillo
Laurent Cantet
Starring Marina Foïs
Matthieu Lucci
Release dates
  • 22 May 2017 (Cannes)
  • 11 October 2017 (France)
Running time
114 minutes
Country France
Language French
Budget $4 million
Box office $1 million

The Workshop (French: L'Atelier) is a 2017 French drama film directed by Laurent Cantet. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

Olivia, a well-known Parisian novelist, runs a writing workshop with a group of young people in La Ciotat, in the South of France. She is particularly intrigued by Antoine, a taciturn and not very sociable, young man. Antoine makes writing proposals that others consider shocking, and becomes the "black sheep" of the group. Olivia and Antoine, who seeks escape from his daily life by immersing himself in an extreme right-wing ideology (following Luc Borel, a fascist leader inspired from real-life Alain Soral), develop a relationship that is marked by attraction and repulsion.

Cast

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.4/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".