Politics. Some cannot stand them yet cannot live without them. We live in a world full of politics, whether it is from a society in a city, province/state, or country, or even in personal and professional relationships in families and work. When there is a melting pot of people who just do what they are told to do to comply and get through the day, there lies those above the people that have influence and power over how the society’s culture operates. Those in power comes with great responsibility, as the leader can advocate for the society, or simply abuse their power to get ahead. And that’s where the film ‘Promises’, directed by Thomas Kruithof comes in, focusing on the theme of French politics.
‘Promises’ stars Isabelle Huppert (The Lacemaker, The Piano Teacher), who plays Clémence, the fearless French mayor of a town near Paris called who is completing her final term in her political career. Her confident and chief of staff Yazid (Reda Kateb) plays a crucial role with Clémence to help develop a plan to provide funding for a run-down apartment complex called Les Bernardins. Clémence was mayor for two terms in the last 12 years, known for fighting for inequality, slumlords, and unemployment, even though the society may not see what she has been doing.
The film’s tone is set showing the slumlords the Les Bernardins apartments, with scenes showing significant damage and in need of repairs, with people who appear to barely scrape by with their jobs living in them. Apartments have no doors and slumlords would come by to demand payment for rent, which could happen at anytime as there is virtually no privacy for tenants. The grim feeling of tenants handing over pockets of cash to the slumlords emphasize the powerlessness within the society in those apartments, as the tenants have no choice but to pay up if they wanted a place to stay. Repairmen would identify issues in the building, while slumlords turn the other way and pretend that there are no issues worth fixing.
Clémence, being aware of the ongoing issues in the town and fought so long for the society, it appears that the issues were hardly moving to the point of resolution. Her character is devoid of any emotion and is fearless in speaking up when she feels the need to. At the end, she was ready to ride off to the sunset as her term as mayor and does not look back.
Then an opportunity arises from Jerome. An opportunity for Clémence to become Minister. Just when she was ready to move on from politics, she gets roped in to test her ambitions and continue her fight, but with greater power if she is in position as Minister. Knowing it was a big decision to run for Mayor, Clémence have not once dreamed of this opportunity, but she had her advocates connected with the Prime Minister throw her name into the hat.
Given this newfound ambition, the film sets off to test her will to make the “promises” (as the title suggests) she made to the citizens to bring in more funding into the town and reduce high monthly fees, especially for Les Bernardins. Of course, as much as she plans with her party to pursue and fulfill her promises, the film starts to see the close relationship with her and Yazid shift in ways where one would not expect, even after working for 12 years together.
The characters and dialogue bring out the performance of politics and the games played within it, much akin to the fact that it could very well happen in real life politics. Clémence’s character starts to evolve over time as she is given more influence and power and becomes challenged from within those that initially supported her to realize the intentions may not always turn out to be what they are, which as initially a promise to the people and Les Bernardins. The result, politics just end up being plagued by its own word, politics. And who ends up doing something that was initially promised? No one. And it could be at any point in time that another cabinet shuffle could potentially happen that would mean that all the issues that were promised to be solved, gets kicked to the curb and the citizens in the town continue to suffer.
In some ways, a political drama will often end up being a war of words from within the government, leaving the real societal issues tabled and in limbo. ‘Promises’ delivers that theme, and what makes the film worth watching is because of the reliance of heavy dialogue of back-and-forth debates and arguments, with no real resolution at the end.