Time Out is a 2001 French drama directed by Laurent Cantet

Laurent Cantet

Laurent Cantet is a French director, born on June 15, 1961 at Melle . His parents were schoolteachers in Ardilleux.On 25 May 2008, he received the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes 2008, for the movie Entre les murs.- As director :...

, starring Aurélien Recoing and Karin Viard

Karin Viard

Karin Viard is a multi-award-winning French actress. She made her film debut in Tatie Danielle in 1990.Since then she has appeared in such films as Delicatessen, L'Emploi du temps , Adultère, mode d'emploi and La parenthèse enchantée.She was a member of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival...

. Loosely based on the life story of Jean-Claude Romand

Jean-Claude Romand

Jean-Claude Romand is a French impostor and murderer who pretended to be a medical doctor. He killed his family when he was about to be exposed.- Early life :...

 (though without the criminal element), it focuses on one of Cantet's favorite subject matters: a man's relationship with his job. L'Emploi du Temps has received considerable attention internationally and was shown at the Venice Film Festival

Venice Film Festival

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

 and Montreal's New Cinema Festival. It was one of the independent films to be featured at the 2005 Traverse City Film Festival

Traverse City Film Festival

The Traverse City Film Festival is an annual film festival held every late July through early August in Traverse City, Michigan. The festival was created as an annual event in 2005 to help “save one of America's few indigenous art forms—the cinema." The event was co-founded by Michael Moore, the...

.

Plot

The film tells the story of Vincent, a middle-aged man who is laid off after having spent more than 11 years working for a prestigious consulting firm. Unable to admit to his family that he has been fired, the unemployed executive continues to pretend he is going to the office every day. In reality, Vincent spends his time aimlessly driving the highways of France and Switzerland, reading papers, or sleeping in his car.

As the movie progresses, the protagonist invents more and more elaborate lies, throwing himself into a vicious spiral of deceit. To sustain his bourgeois lifestyle, Vincent sets up an investment scam and is eventually enlisted into smuggling by career thief Jean-Michel. The 132-minute long film ends when Murielle (Vincent's wife), discovering her husband's "life of lies," attempts to bring him back into the realm of reality. The final scene, however, suggests that her efforts have failed.

Reception

L'Emploi du temps was placed at 99 on Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

's best films of the 2000s,, No.9 of The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

's Best Films of the Noughties, and number 11 at The AV Club's top 50 films of the '00s.