Fiche technique
Titre : It's a Free World!
Réalisation : Ken Loach
Scénario : Paul Laverty
Production : Ken Loach et Rebecca O'Brien
Musique : Rebecca O'Brien
Photographie : Nigel Willoughby
Montage : Jonathan Morris
Pays d'origine : Royaume-Uni
Format : Couleurs
Genre : Drame
Durée : 96 minutes
Date de sortie : 1er septembre 2007 (Mostra de Venise),
24 septembre 2007 (Royaume-Uni),
2 janvier 2008 (France)

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Distinctions
Prix du Scénario à la Mostra de Venise 2007 pour Paul Laverty.

Ken Loach - Kierston Wareing  : Angela & Leslaw Zurek  : Karol

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Culturopoing
Après son escapade vers le film historique et la palme d’or reçue pour The Wind that Shakes the Barley, film pourtant plutôt mineur de sa filmographie, Ken Loach revient avec succès à son genre de prédilection : la chronique sociale dénonçant les pires travers du capitalisme.

Avec le réalisateur britannique inutile de préciser que l’on est depuis longtemps en territoire archi-connu et que ceux qui attendent d’un cinéaste un renouvellement permanent et une remise en question à chaque nouveau film ne doivent pas compter parmi les fans du monsieur.

Avant même que le film ne commence, on sait en effet déjà que l’on aura droit a une approche sociologique, que les personnages seront ancrés dans un milieu social défavorisé, que l’on aura des acteurs (plus ou moins amateurs) formidables de réalisme, que le regard humaniste porté sur les personnages ne sera pas dénué d’une certaine causticité, que l’humour aura toujours sa place malgré la noirceur du propos et qu’au final on aura une dénonciation sans concession du capitalisme parfois empesée par un excès de didactisme et des personnages portant un discours un peu trop évident.

« It’s a free world » ne déroge pas a la règle puisque Loach s’attaque, cette fois ci, à l’exploitation des travailleurs immigrés et en particulier des travailleurs issus d’Europe de l’Est. Tous les ingrédients de la cuisine Loachienne sont donc réunis. Mais voilà, même s’il serait excessif de parler de révolution, une évolution notable apporte un souffle nouveau à la petite musique du cinéaste.

La ou on pouvait s’attendre à suive le parcours semé d’embûches (pour ne pas dire le chemin de croix) d’un immigré courageux (forcément courageux) Loach a eu 2 bonnes idées. La première : s’attarder sur l’exploiteur plutôt que sur l’exploité. La deuxième : faire de cet exploiteur une exploiteuse se présentant sous les traits d’une charmante jeune femme ayant tous les atouts nécessaires pour attirer la sympathie du spectateur.

 Ca n’a l’air de rien mais ce changement de point de vue s’avère évidemment beaucoup plus troublant et donc beaucoup plus intéressant. Il ne s’agit plus de pointer du doigt les agissements d’un tel ou d’un tel ou de chercher à déclencher la compassion en ajoutant une bonne dose de pathos (dont Loach parfois abuse) mais plutôt de questionner le spectateur sur ses propres agissements en faisant jouer l’identification que l’on peut ressentir pour un personnage a priori aussi sympathique.

 En effet, Angie, jeune femme pleine d’allant rêvant d’indépendance a tout pour séduire. Après s’être fait licencier d’une agence d’intérim recrutant des travailleurs polonais pour avoir refuser les avances de son supérieur, elle décide de monter sa propre agence avec l’aide d’une amie, Rose. Cette envie de ne plus être un simple rouage de la machine et d’en devenir un élément moteur sera si forte qu’elle va entraîner notre entrepreneuse sur une pente de plus en plus glissante et finalement révéler un individualisme forcené destructeur pour ceux qui l’entourent.

Le choix que pose le récit est simple : Pour Angie la réussite de son entreprise ne peut se faire que sur les dos des travailleurs immigrés. Apparaît alors la question centrale du film : Est-ce que l’ambition personnelle justifie de passer outre la justice sociale ? Est- ce que la dureté de la société moderne justifie l’individualisme le plus forcené ?

Le film n’est pas totalement sans faiblesse surtout en ce qui concerne certains personnages secondaires qui paraissent bien fades par rapport à Angie. C’est en particulier le cas du boyfriend polonais bien trop prévenant pour être tout à fait crédible. Et c’est d’autant plus dommage que la façon dont Angie et Rose utilisent les travailleurs immigrés aussi pour assurer leur confort sexuel est l’une des bonnes idées du film.

Loach traite en effet cela d’une façon plutôt perverse en insufflant de la comédie lorsque les deux amies recrutent leur partenaire d’un soir parmi leurs intérimaires. Par ailleurs, on peut aussi regretter un petit coup de pathos pas forcément nécessaire lorsque le récit s’attarde sur une famille d’iraniens vivant dans un taudis.

 Malgré ça, le film est une réussite qui parvient à porter un regard sans concession sur les actes d’Angie tout en ne la dépeignant jamais comme un personnage réellement négatif. La mécanique du récit l’enferme en effet dans un engrenage dont elle ne peut réellement s’échapper et sur lequel se brise son désir d’émancipation. Ironiquement, en voulant acquérir sa liberté Angie se retrouvera encore plus aliénée qu’auparavant.

Loach se rapproche un peu des Dardennes en suivant un personnage que le système pousse à commettre les pires vilenies. A la différence que, chez les réalisateurs belges, l’espoir est toujours présent, la rédemption et le pardon toujours en ligne de mire quand, chez Loach, bien plus pessimiste, la fin du film très noire nous décrit un système qui écrase même ses serviteurs les plus zélés.

à gauche :Juliet Ellis : Rose -associée et colocataire d'Angela

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You lovely Brits...Good film, though
8/10
Author: schwarty from Germany
15 November 2007

As a non-Brit it is amazing and certainly amusing to see all the British behave in such a distinct way, only common to the islanders and I do not mean any of that slur which this politicised film tries to mobilise against. For example, scenes in which family is involved, are beautiful characterisations of more or less typical working class households, or rather any British folks.

However, this film as well portrays fair business, the downside of capitalistic societies, in which free market only stops at borders, where nationality defines status and not your labour. Refreshingly, no easy answers are offer, no left-leaning ideologies or right-wing polemics penetrate the film. Thus, it is able to scratch a picture of phenomena without solutions; hence, not very entertaining.

Anyway, it is worthwhile to watch It's a Free World,only if it were for the insightful studies into human behaviour.Enjoy it.

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13 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
 
terribly realistic
7/10
Author: antoniotierno from Italy
10 October 2007

This movie is given an extra boost by its considerable realism. Acting, situations and people are so real that every character seems to be played by men and women in their lives, rather than by professional actors.

Ken Loach limits himself to set out the problem and doesn't offer any solutions (that probably don't even exist); the huge problem is poor folks entering the UK, being exploited and given a starvation pay whereas many Britons think the problem of their country is them seeking a better life.

The lead actress is shown as a very negative but memorable character, and every situation is seen from her angle, the one of a girl trying to redeem herself in such a negative way. Overall the film is excellent for its fullness and for its realistic roles (Angie's father as well).

Colin Coughlin : Geoff, le père d'Angie

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Loach's Latest Film is Characteristically Engaging And Enlightening, Even If It Feels Contrived
Author: Afzal Shaikh from London, England
26 September 2007

In It's a Free World…. Ken Loach demonstrates his continuing commitment to casting his critical, earthy, though engaging eye on present day issues affecting British society, issues that are usually neglected by mainstream British cinema.

These issues arise from the grey area that is the cheap foreign labour market in the UK. Loach explores the exploitation of cheap immigrant labour in East London with the insight, fluidity, humour and sensitivity that I have come to expect of him. He encourages the viewer to reflect on the lives of thousands upon thousands of immigrants from diverse countries and societies who are crassly lumped together, dehumanized and simplified, lives that most native Londoners take for granted.

Though impartiality has never been one of Loach's strong points, It's A Free World…. is refreshing in that it does not demonize the Brits who exploit foreign labour. Nor does it look for easy answers to the problems of immigration. Rather it has an understanding of the lure of easy money for British people with few options in life themselves. The film suggests that the larger culpability might lie with governing institutions that have lost control of the situation, and so have freed up the conditions for exploitation.

Also, the message of the film seems to extend to most of us, being British citizens, as we daily and casually project our own sense of individual freedom onto the wider world around us. But for newer people, living precariously in our midst, the same world is far from a free one. It may be argued that Loach's main aim with the film has therefore been achieved. However, on the negative side, It's A Free World's characterization and plot feels contrived.

This is particularly true of the main character, Angie. It may not be a free world for many, but it certainly can be a strange world,and I am sure a single mum and biker babe who happens to be a redundant recruitment consultant could start up her own illegal recruitment agency. However,such a quirky character sits oddly with Loach's down-to-earth, everyday approach, which would make Angie look contrived and unbelievable if the non-professional actor in her first role, Kierston Wareing, did not play her so brilliantly, finding the humanity in her character so well.

Certain clichéd characters add to the film feeling contrived. This includes not only the censorious old boy who is Angies' father, which must now surely be a cliché of left- wing films, and Angie's casual boyfriend, a handsome, almost-angelic, two-dimensional Pole (written this way presumably to counter the gutter press' jaundiced cliché of a male immigrant, but such a two-dimensional character does not serve the film). This relationship feels laboured because it only exists to conveniently, and all-too- obviously, personalize the main character's external dilemma. Still, It's A Free World is an engaging and enlightening film, even if it feels contrived.

Not perfect but relevant, topical and convincing
Author: bob the moo from United Kingdom
11 December 2007

Fired from her job in a recruitment agency due to a public outburst while recruiting in Poland, Angie decides to set up an agency with flatmate Rose. Undercutting other agencies and working out the back garden of their local pub, Angie builds up business, mainly off the back of a large construction job that she supplies immigrant workers to.

Paying cash, below minimum wage and irregularly, Angie and Rose start to build up a little nest egg at the expense of their "workforce" but how sustainable is a business built on exploitation? It is no surprise that as I watched this film the UK was in the midst of an immigration "debate" (and by "debate" I mean "tabloid-led fuss") because we always seem to be in the middle of a fuss on the subject. So no prizes to Loach for being topical but prizes should go to the film because it is a worthy subject and a solid film.

The story is mostly very convincing as it focuses on the daily business of making money with cheap temporary labour and the reality of life in that world.As such it is effortlessly engaging and benefits from us being more or less on the side of the main character Angie, who is only doing what everyone else is doing – screwing down labour costs to maximise profit. From this point we start to get more and more into this world and find it to be just as terrible and exploitative as one would imagine, with blowback on everyone.

The need for a narrative flow to the film ultimately means that it does exaggerate at some points to increase drama but mostly it works even if it far from uplifting stuff. Of course those coming to a Ken Loach film cannot really claim to be surprised by this approach and nor should they be. His direction is excellent and he uses the streets, alleys and dingy flats of this world really well to keep true to the convincing dialogue from Laverty and the cast. I say the cast because I cannot imagine that it was this real on paper without the delivery.

Wareing is wonderfully cast and she is instantly recognisable to anyone who knows the "cheeky sexy woman" who work as reps etc in the "real world". She works well alongside an equally good Ellis, who is less showy but no less real. Below them the cast are very convincing and I didn't see anyone "acting" at any point. This makes it easier to take all round because it mostly feels like we are just watching and not having Loach push our face into it.

As depressing and hopeless as this approach makes the subject, I did not feel it was anything other than fair. We all know that the world is built on money and that if it can be done cheaper, someone will try and do so regardless of the non-financial costs. This film paints a convincing picture that mostly avoids preaching and, aside from the dramatics towards the back end, it uses Angie as our eyes into a world that is exploiting, heartless and desperate. Not perfect but it is relevant and an important part of the debate on the real costs of immigration and capitalism.