Careers in cinema (December 27, 2009)

I had a chance to see recently released A Prophet during this year’s Viennale in November. The movie was a true gem of the festival (you should go and see it if you haven’t already), and one of the brightest glowing thoughts about its plot that lasted longest in my head was how rare the career building — enduring, inpredictable, life-consuming process — is reflected in the mainstream cinema.

For those who hasn’t seen the film: Malik, a 19-year old Arab is sentenced for six years in prison. He starts as a dogsbody for the Corsican mafia boss, then becomes his deputy, strengthens his own influence outside of the prison, initiates the clash between Corsican and Arab crime groups, and when Arabs take power becomes a leader of theirs.

Leaving apart the dubious “romance” of the criminal world, this sounds like the story of successful career. It involves significant amount of luck (the episode with the deer), quick wit, gut feeling for what takes priority at any moment, ability to infuence and negotiate, and stamina (when I see Malik following Corsican’s advice to be a “good prisoner” after Malik was taken under his protection, I can’t help but imagine junior lawyers in the firm doing the most boring due diligence tasks in the course of their first three years.) Huge number of people commit themselves to similar but lawful path in the everyday life. Sure, careerists do not risk their lives, but the stakes are high anyway — after talking to some successful New York traders, I guess I do understand what “high” means here. When looking at the story under this angle, I wonder why there are so few movies around covering someone’s career in the making? Sure, we have Pollack’s The Firm and Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich and some other pieces where the door of personal office is opened for the protagonist to his biggest surprise, but unlike A Prophet those are not the stories of steel being tempered.

Someone might say that a story like this would not be captivating? Doubt that. What was in Jérôme Kerviel’s head when he entered his office at Société Générale every morning? Did the Gap’s manager who issued abortion policies for their labor force in Bangladesh get promoted? They all build their career. Unlike Malik, they join an “invisible graveyard”, but please filmmakers tell us about those who has survived.