Plot

French director Alain Corneau delves into the painfully irrational world of office politics, which are further complicated by a severe case of culture clash in his 2003 comedy, Stupeur et Tremblements (Fear and Trembling). Based on the similarly titled memoirs of author Amélie Nothomb and her employment experiences with a Japanese mega-corporation, Fear and Trembling begins with Amélie (Sylvie Testud) landing in Tokyo shortly after receiving her college education. The young Belgian chose to return to Japan -- where she spent the first five years of her life before her family relocated back to Europe -- for her first job in an entry-level position with the Yumimoto Corporation. Amélie diligently accomplishes her daily tasks with invention and ambition, but her work ethic proves threatening to her immediate supervisors who single her out as a deviant within the corporation's firmly entrenched power hierarchy. As she is led through a series of humiliations and demotions designed to destroy her individuality, Amélie is forced to submit to an endless stream of unreasonable demands issued by nearly every supervisor with seniority over her. Determined to complete her one-year contract with the company in spite of the vicious power struggles, Amélie wages a kind of culture war from her irreversible position as lowest rung on the power ladder. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Review

Comically absurd, but not quite a comedy, Fear and Trembling is the kind of film you might uneasily laugh at once in a while. But its farcical elements coat serious commentary on huge cultural differences and the vicious human costs of maintaining and saving face within Japanese corporate culture. Sylvie Testud brings the appropriate mix of pixieish waifishness and cunning literary observation to the lead role as the amused yet acutely suffering heroine, though there's a touch of magical realism to her musings (often expressed in narrative voiceover) that some viewers might find a bit too dotty. While there are occasional glimpses of life outside the monolithic high-rise in which she works (sometimes, in more magical realism, via her imagined bird-like flights over the city of Tokyo), almost all of the action takes place in the claustrophobically sterile and regimented office in which she performs her dehumanizingly menial tasks. That's if "action" is the right word for it: most of the leisurely, at times snail-like-paced, action here is psychological, whether it's Testud futilely trying to guess at the motivations behind the increasingly cruel and pointless tasks she's assigned, or the impassive faces of her supervisors that can unpredictably boil over into rage or hysterical laughter. No faces are icier than that of her female colleague Kaori Tsuji (who brings a regal frost to her role), and the gradual deterioration of their tentative camaraderie into backstabbing rage is the film's most arresting element. If there's any slightly unconvincing aspect of the movie, it's how the obviously intelligent if whimsical Testud crumbles a little too easily into self-effacing resignation when it becomes obvious her Japanese employers will not give her the respect and duties she deserves, even if it means shooting themselves in the foot to maintain their hierarchy. Still, Fear and Trembling is a simultaneously amusing and chilling look into a work ethic that many Westerns find incomprehensible. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi

Cast

• Sylvie Testud - Amelie
• Kaori Tsuji - Fubuki Mori
• Taro Suwa - Mr. Saito
• Bison Katayama - Mr. Omochi
• Yasunari Kondo - Mr. Tenshi

Sokyu Fujita - Mr. Haneda; Gen Shimaoka - Mr. Unaji

Credit

Vincent Trintignant - First Assistant Director, Alain Corneau - Director, Thierry Derocles - Editor, Christine Gozlan - Executive Producer, Valerie Leblanc - Production Designer, Philippe Taillefer - Production Designer, Yves Angelo - Cinematographer, Alain Sarde - Producer, Pierre Gamet - Sound/Sound Designer, Gerard Lamps - Sound/Sound Designer, Alain Corneau - Screenwriter, Johann Sebastian Bach - Featured Music, Amélie Nothomb - Book Author, Amelie Northomb - Book Author

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