LES CONGÉS PAYÉS (1936)

The 1936 law that gave french workers their vacation with pay represented a veritable revolution, not only polically but socially and morally as well. The political powers in France had officially granted to the poor what had heretofore been the exclusive privilege of the rich. For many people, it was hard to get used to the idea that one could be paid for doing nothing. Over 40 years before, the french socialist Paul Lafargue had published his innovative pamphlet ” Le Droit à la Paresse”, expressing the revolutionnary notion that leisure was a basic human right. The film shows the deeply moving shots of workers heading off on their bicycles … or seeing the sea for the first time.