La sécurité sociale (1969)
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Générique principal
End creditsː une émission de Madeleine Jaussaud.
Contenus
Sujet
The film presents the founding principles of social security and explains how the system works.
Genre dominant
Résumé
By explaining how social security works, the film points out the types of risks covered, the different categories of people protected as well as the resources and funding for this protection. It features its founder Pierre Laroque who recalls the founding principles of social security.
Contexte
Historical context
Pierre Laroque was one of the founding fathers of social security in 1945. He was named general director of social insurance in the exceptional context of the Liberation of France and then became president of the Social Department of the French Council of State from August 1964 up to his retirement in 1980. Several measures were taken with respect to social security in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Mandatory health insurance was first introduced for farmers and then for self-employed workers in business and industry as well as professionals with private practices. Agreement between labour unions and employers' organisations made it possible to establish unemployment insurance as early as 1958. The entry into force of the state health service contract for health professionals (1960) led to a significant increase in healthcare reimbursements. The creation of ARRCO [Association of Complementary Pension Schemes] in 1961 provided for the development of complementary pensions.
The bill on social security reform was unveiled in August 1967 by the Pompidou government. The orders of 1967 increased the role of new national funds. Negotiation therefore took place between la Caisse nationale [the National Fund] and the medical unions in order to set up a national agreement. In 1971, this agreement replaced local agreements, bringing about a substantial improvement in the medical coverage of insured parties since doctors were contracted by social security, provided they did not explicitly pull out of the agreement. The year the film was produced, 1969, corresponds with the end of the Glorious Thirty, a period marked by a rise in unemployment, instability and risk prevention. The question of public action in the fields of healthcare and professional activity particularly aroused public opinion.
In its final minutes, the film mentions "Colbert" postal orders. This method of payment was in effect from the 1960s to the 1990s. They were a specific postal order created by the Postal Administration and issued by the Accounting Service Agency “when a bill for social security benefits from ‘deferred payments’” was to be paid by way of postal order.
Media context
La sécurité sociale belongs to the series "Législation du travail" [Labour Legislation] which includes
La rémunération du travailleur [Employee Remuneration] (1971; author : Madeleine Jaussaud; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320191m);
La durée du travail [Working Hours] (1973; author: René Ballet; OFRATEME; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320060q);
Les femmes et la législation du travail [Women and Labour Legislation] (1969; author: Anne Davot; IPN; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320504t);
Les jeunes et la législation du travail [Children and Labour Legislation] (1973; author: François Michon; OFRATEME; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320187q);
Le licenciement [Redundancy] (1973; author: Catherine Michon - Savarit; OFRATEME; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320150p); and
Main d'oeuvre agricole [Agricultural Labour Force] (1973; author: Roger Charles; OFRATEME).
Éléments structurants du film
- Images de reportage : Oui.
- Images en plateau : Non.
- Images d'archives : Non.
- Séquences d'animation : Non.
- Cartons : Oui.
- Animateur : Non.
- Voix off : Oui.
- Interview : Oui.
- Musique et bruitages : Oui.
- Images communes avec d'autres films : Non.
Comment le film dirige-t-il le regard du spectateur ?
Part of the film has a very strong educational dimension with its title cards, animated diagrams and explanations provided on set by a presenter who does not take her eyes off the camera except to consult her notes. Pierre Laroque's contributions provide contrast by recalling the founding principles of social security and justifying its continued implementation.
In addition to providing rather classroom-like instruction in an effort to educate viewers about social security, the film also takes a hands-on approach to explaining how social security works. La sécurité sociale more or less takes viewers by the hand to various settings ranging from a social security office where administrative documents are submitted and received to a medical screening vehicle where healthcare is provided.
Comment la santé et la médecine sont-elles présentées ?
The film focuses on the issue of access to healthcare. First of all, it illustrates by way of Madam Estival’s personal account that social security made it possible for many sick people to see a doctor by covering the hefty costs that dissuaded them from doing so prior to its implementation. The film therefore presents a democratised approach to healthcare. The part focusing on “Action sanitaire et sociale” [Health and Social Action] describes new equipment intended to better screen the population for potential diseases: portable observation devices and vehicles equipped to provide care throughout the country. Furthermore, La sécurité sociale insists on the importance of prevention as a way of limiting the amount of compensation paid out to cover expenses resulting from accidents.
Diffusion et réception
Où le film est-il projeté ?
Schools
Communications et événements associés au film
Public
School children
Audience
Descriptif libre
Introduction: Pierre Laroque Outlines the Aim of Social Security
The film opens with the faces of various men and women representing different socio-professional categories. Viewers can make out a miner, a general labourer, a person wearing a gas mask, the young and the old.
Interior/Day. A man seated at his desk looks straight at the camera. Temporary on-screen text indicates that he is Pierre Laroque. Behind him, high windows looking onto a railing indicate that the room is situated in a prestigious building, certainly that of the Council of State (le palais Royal) where he carried out his responsibilities at the time of the film. There is no introductory commentary. Pierre Laroque is the first to speak: “For me, the social security system corresponds with one of man’s fundamental needs that has always existed: a need for security. Man does not like the uncertainly of tomorrow". There is a cutaway shot of the inside of a building whose function is indicated by a sign that reads “SECURITE SOCIALE”. The camera zooms out, beginning with a woman in a coat standing in front of a desk where a man is speaking to a woman whose headdress indicates that she works there. The woman in the coat turns with a preoccupied look, as if she wanted to express her impatience with having to wait. Other shots show counters, the general layout of the large room (chairs spread throughout an open space punctuated with low walls) but also the anxiety of the people waiting. While the woman wearing the headdress walks back and forth between the entrance and the different counters to show people where to go when it is their turn, alternate shots isolate those who continue to wait. A woman holding her administrative document up to her lips taps the documents against her chin with anxiety, leans forward and looks around the room, as if she was looking for an emergency exit. Another woman, looking from side to side, expresses her irritation by talking to herself. A third woman decidedly dives into a magazine. Via voice-over, Pierre Laroque recalls that before, in a still largely rural society, it was up to the family to find a way to “cover the unexpected costs” and to ensure “the well-being of the children, the sick and the elderly”. As society became increasingly industrial and urban, it was impossible for the family to cover the “new causes of insecurity”: unemployment, work-related accidents, and prolonged old age without means. “The community therefore had to take the place of the family in order to give individuals — workers — the security that they were lacking”. On that note, photographs taken of children in hovels, in rubble, standing in front of doors with disjointed boards appear one after the other, creating portraits of society reminiscent of those photographed by Walker Evans in the United States during the Great Depression. (02:15)
From Inequality to Solidarity
A pan in a street stops at a façade. Placed between the window and the door and fitted to a rounded 1930s doorbell, a plate indicates that a certain Mrs Estival works here. Its modest appearance, with its rough blackish plaster and cracked windowsill, provides for a smooth transition from the final photograph seen where two children are leaning up against a façade of comparable composition and appearance. The setting of this interview contrasts with what was seen in the past interview. It is no longer a grandiose, sober and bright ministerial office, but a dark and cluttered space that serves as both a place to live and work. The camera focuses on the mantelpiece where the bust of Marianne takes centre stage alongside picture frames and bottles. Based on her age and neat hairdo, viewers suspect that the woman talking is Mrs Estival. She reminds the man interviewing her off-screen that before social security was put in place, people rarely went to see the doctor for lack of financial means: “No aid was paid to cover their expenditures”. She speaks from experience with a dire look on her face. Mrs Estival tells him about the time she was in a pharmacy and saw a bus driver give the pharmacist his cap as a guarantee. “We only went to see the doctor in severe cases”. She mentions “children who had diphtheria” and were treated “too late” before recalling that working-class families struggled to put money aside in anticipation of future healthcare expenses. (03:48)
An animation depicting money entering and exiting a piggy bank appears as a female voice-over begins to explain that despite family savings, successive devaluations made it impossible for families to protect themselves from social risks without additional assistance. After a few seconds, the animation is replaced by a chest shot of the woman speaking. (04ː05)
The camera returns to Pierre Laroque who explains the "simple" idea behind social security: “solidarity”. It involves distributing the unexpected financial burden weighing on a sole individual over the entire population. We need to part with the idea that our reimbursements come from our own contributions. What we receive when we are ill, old or have children to support is covered “by the contributions of others.” A cutaway shot captures an elderly man seated at a counter in the social security office receiving assistance. An employee who remains off-screen hands him various documents and explains that he needs to show the prescription from the hospital with the receipt in order to be reimbursed. “Now, I have something else I’d like to ask you…” says the elderly man. The shot abruptly ends there. It acts as an illustration but also as a scene, capturing the typical atmosphere in which assistance is received and information is naturally provided. (05’17)
Presentation of the Different “Compensations” Based on the Types of Risks
Before a neutral background, a woman whose name and function remain unknown to viewers explains how employed individuals are covered. She first explains the concept of risks, which are grouped into three categories: physiological, professional and family. Physiological risks include illness, maternity, disability, old age and death. (It is peculiar that maternity, old age and death be designated as risks, but the presenter carefully reminds viewers that, in this context, risks refer to “an unforeseeable event that results in additional expenses for a family, or reduces or eliminates household wages”). She then explains in detail the means of protection by first insisting on the importance of prevention and then on rehabilitation and reclassification. (Footage of what appears to be classrooms where young adults are learning to build circuits, to draft and to type is notably shown at this point in time). These three activities make up the “health and social action” that social security carries out alongside the “compensation” it provides to accident victims. This compensation includes money transfers in the form of benefits or allowances. Benefits in kind allow families to cope with expenses incurred by risk, whereas cash benefits replace the salary of employees who are on leave. The benefits are then broken down according to the different types of policyholders. This never-ending sequence combines shots of the presenter, speaking with little enthusiasm, with chapter divisions and illustrations using basic animated diagrams and abysmal display cards that consist of information written in chalk on a blackboard or in marker on sheets of paperboard. The step-by-step display of information and sound effects try in vain to animate this tiresome sequence which, in any case, is plagued by a text that is hard to follow (and of dubious precision). How can one hope that students, already disappointed to be watching a film on social security, show any interest in this presentation which is not only poorly structured but also off-putting from the get-go? The fact that this sequence was not reworked in the editing process is all the more surprising given the lively and substantial interviews, accounts and footage shown at the beginning and end of the film. (17:42)
Health and Social Action
Mr Pierre Laroque returns and insists on the priority given to preventing risks in the assistance policy: “The security of workers and their families is not a simple question of money. Not becoming ill or an accident victim is far more important to them”. His subsequent comments are illustrated by shots of posters on risk prevention in work spaces. Some of their messages aim to make workers aware of the dangers posed by tools and machinery on account of their misuse. The problems that prevention tries to limit are “technical”. In this respect, prevention measures should be distinguished from health and social measures which aim to improve and develop healthcare equipment, build institutions as well as manage maternal and child care. Photographs accompany this list and illustrate new ambulances, electronic machines and nurses caring for babies. (19’40)
A sequence is dedicated to the Institut de prophylaxie dentaire infantile [Children’s Institute for Dental Prophylaxis] in Paris. A shot of a municipal street sign for “la rue du Faubourg du temple” indicates its location. A pan inside a large open-concept building shows rows of dental chairs occupied by children and dentists working. The camera stops at a desk in the middle of the open space where children check-in and receive further direction. There is a shot of one of the dental cubicles where a dentist is speaking to a child having dental work done: “You’re cute, you’re just adorable! Does that hurt?” The child shakes his head as she continues to work. She eventually answers for him: “No, you didn’t feel a thing!” The sequence ends in another room where children receive hands-on instruction from a nurse on how to properly brush their teeth. Another sequence is filmed in a “social security medical screening vehicle”. Inside, a nurse fills in an administrative form for a man standing next to her. He states that he is a mason. She leads him to an X-ray booth and explains what to do throughout the procedure. The long shots serve to illustrate typical situations. (23:01)
Expenditure
The presenter returns to her notes. “Social security expenditure is covered by the contributions paid by employees, employers, self-employed workers and ‘motorists’”. Pierre Laroque points out that in France, funding only relies on taxation for special schemes (régime agricole [agricultural scheme] and régime des mines [mining scheme]). He opposes critics who complain that social security is excessively funded. “Ultimately, the money paid and redistributed remains within the country’s economy”. It is a redistribution which is “advantageous for the country’s economy. The money is given to men or families who spend it, making it possible for the sick to receive care. Human capital is maintained thanks to social security”. Laroque concludes: “Essentially, social security is a redistribution of a fraction of national revenue that forges solidary between the active and involuntarily inactive population. I believe that this is the philosophy of the entire institution”. This philosophy presupposes a principle of solidarity that is embraced by the entire population and supports the cause of employees. In the film Question de solidarité, produced in 1982, we see that this principle is, from the — especially small — employer’s standpoint, weighted against the need to remain competitive, via a stable workforce and limited contributions, in order to better guarantee continued business. (27:24)
Without any transition, the film ends with an animated sequence explaining how the “mandat Colbert” works as a means of payment specific to the social security system (see the section “Context”).
Notes complémentaires
Madeleine Jaussaud, the author of the film La sécurité sociale [Social Security], also wrote the film Vers la sécurité sociale [Towards Social Security] in the same series "Législation du travail" [Labour Legislation] (1971, OFRATEM, dir. Albert Gokelaere) viewable on gallica.bnf.fr: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320556j
Références et documents externes
Contributeurs
- Auteurs de la fiche : Joël Danet, Thomas Berthol
- 2 Traducteurs_vers_anglais : Sherry Stanbury
- Sous-titres Anglais : Élisabeth Fuchs, Julie Manuel
