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Coup pour coup (1972)
The film describes a strike in a French textile factory, when the striking workers occupy the factory. The title translates as, "Blow for Blow", as in a fight
A movie about a strike that is not just dramatic, but funny, poignant, and feminist. If you liked Matewan, Harlan Couty, U.S.A, or Bread and Roses, you will enjoy this movie.
The film has a fair balance of talk and action, between the local and universal. It portrays the strikers as intelligent actors in the process of planning and carrying out their plant occupation. When the women on strike leave their domestic obligations to their husbands, there is a lively exchange about this role-flip, years before stay-at-home husbands became a hot topic. The strikers' treatment of the factory director is riotously funny.
Karmitz also conveys a wonderful sense of the times, in France not long after the May 1968 events. I would recommend this movie to anyone who has grown weary of bug-eating reality shows and computer-enhanced shoot-em-up action heroes. If you like watching ordinary people doing extraordinary things, check out this movie.