Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Brain Dead Studios, Los Angeles
The Comedy of Work (La comédie du travail) directed by Luc Moullet 1987, France, 85m, DCP In this absurdist comedy set in France’s ‘80s period of economic austerity, Moullet stages a series of gags about the culture of work and welfare in France. Among these is the story of a job counselor (Sabine Haudepin) who falls in love with an “unemployed professional”, and decides to seduce him by offering him a managerial position—at the the expense of an overly-qualified and career-obsessed man laid-off that same day. No one is spared in this lucid ,cruel dance of failed expectations and grotesque ideologies. Moullet (who cameos as a character named “Mr. Unemployed”) employs a tone of light-hearted derision rather than somber indignation. Every frame is delightfully crafted and offers some respite, in spite of a subject that teeters on the edge of tragic. -Pauline Kraatz, Mezzanine “A dryly comic investigation into the contradictions and indignities of modern labor, and might be Moullet’s most incisive work.” -Film at Lincoln Center preceded by: Barres 1984, France, 14m In this endlessly inventive short, Moullet portrays all the ways one can get onto the Paris Metro without paying.