“A Man of His Time” Unveils the Banality of Vichy Bureaucracy at Cannes

Emmanuel Marre’s drama “Notre Salut” (English title *A Man of His Time*) opened the competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The 155-minute French film follows Henri Marre, a minor Vichy Ministry of Labour official and the director’s great-grandfather, portrayed by Swann Arlaud. It traces Henri’s rise from a struggling engineer to a middle-manager who helps organise Jewish roundups and later profits as Allied forces approach.

IndieWire

Set after France’s 1940 defeat, the film places Henri within the Vichy regime that renamed the Nazi-directed “ramassage” as “rassemblement” to deport Jews. It shows bureaucratic decisions that enabled the Holocaust, using Henri’s wartime letters in voice-over to reveal personal rationalizations.

The Guardian

Henri is an ambitious, right-leaning engineer who publishes a self-styled manifesto titled *Notre Salut*. He seeks influence by rescuing a senior official’s cat, distributing his pamphlet at elite soirées, and supervising propaganda murals. As German Organisation Todt increasingly controls Vichy policy, Henri is forced to oversee forced-labour transports.

IndieWire

At Cannes, director Emmanuel Marre opened with “Never again! I’ll say it another time: never again.” He said the film asks how “political movements can play on our inner neuroses … by using our failures and resentments.” *Liberation* called the work a “masterpiece.” Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux later stressed that the festival “does not make political statements,” describing the selection as a way to “bring history into the present, of questioning it in the present.”

France 24

IndieWire called the film “one of the more disappointing competition entries,” criticizing its 155-minute runtime as a “historical patchwork” that “restates the basics.” The Guardian praised Arlaud’s performance and the “absorbing intimate, novelistically detailed procedural” depiction of Vichy administration. Micropsiacine noted the “bureaucratic, routine” tone and deliberate “flatness.”

IndieWire

The film’s focus on ordinary bureaucratic complicity resonates amid France’s current political climate, where the far-right National Rally leads polls ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Reviewers note that the depiction of “millions of Henris” who “look the other way” warns against contemporary complacency.

France 24

• “In some sense, the flatness of Marre’s approach opens the film onto the present.” — Micropsiacine review

‘A Man Of His Time’ Cannes Review: Emmanuel Marre’s Chilling And Eerily Contemporary Study Of Everyday Complicity

• “Arlaud gives an excellent performance as an intelligent, talented man who almost, but not quite, realises the terrible swamp into which he has descended.” — Guardian review

The Guardian

*Notre Salut* is slated for U.S. distribution following Cannes. Its release coincides with heightened scrutiny of France’s far-right parties, positioning the film as a cultural touchstone in the run-up to the 2027 national elections.

France 24