Europe 1 3:25 p.m., February 23, 2022

The actress and director Agnès Jaoui presents Wednesday in "Culture Médias" the film "Compagnons", of which Europe 1 is a partner.

She regrets at the microphone of Philippe Vandel that the professional sectors and manual work, at the heart of this film, are still considered in France as a siding.

INTERVIEW

"Hands are smart too."

This sentence is one of Agnès Jaoui's lines in the film 

Companions

, which is released in theaters on Wednesday and of which Europe 1 is a partner.

An affirmation with which the actress is in line, as she explains at the microphone of Philippe Vandel in the program 

Culture Médias

.

This film about the Compagnons du Devoir sheds light on manual labor.

"That's one of the reasons why I like this film too. And the companions, for that matter," says Agnès Jaoui.

>> Find Philippe Vandel and Culture-Médias every day from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

“We have actually been trying to revalue manual work for a few years. But unfortunately, when you are fired from the general baccalaureate, you are made to understand that you are a zero. And we always brandish the professional baccalaureate as a threat”, regrets the actress and director at the microphone of Europe 1. "So after that the teachers try to recover as they can from the students whose self-esteem is already totally damaged. Which is dramatic."

"When you leave the Companions, you have a job for life"

Agnès Jaoui was thus recently marked by a sequence from the show 

The Voice

.

"There was a young man, very moving to whom Amel Bent said that he is very intelligent. And he replied no, that otherwise he would have had his general baccalaureate", she says.

"It says to what extent, we internalize the fact that there would be only intellectual work (and not even intellectual, in reality school work) which would give you the sesame of intelligence. It is obviously totally false ."

"Not to mention that schoolwork doesn't even necessarily give you work," she continues.

"Whereas, when you leave the Companions, you have a job for life."

To build her role as "mother of Companions", Agnès Jaoui spent time within this workers' association.

She notably followed Marguerite, mother of the Compagnons de Nantes, but also an educator and social worker on the integration sites.

"My character is a mixture of these two women, and other sources of inspiration", she reveals.