1998

1998 marks a moment when commercial expansion and national football euphoria briefly make the future seem open in Heillange, while Anthony’s everyday life remains unsettled. The year’s central contrast is between a country imagining itself as one cheering public and a young man whose prospects are still reduced to other people’s assurances that he has his whole life ahead of him.

A Changing Valley

By 1998, the E.Leclerc store had expanded to roughly 110,000 square feet, with a fabric section, a renovated fish market, and a substantial hi-fi and electronics department. Its renovation had taken place behind plywood partitions while the store stayed open; afterward, discount flyers drew crowds from across the valley. Traffic became so heavy that police were sent to direct it, and two roundabouts were later built. On Saturdays, queues stretched through the parking lot, checkout lines, and the new McDonald’s. The scene presents consumer growth as a visible counter-image to warnings about economic crisis and globalization, without suggesting that the valley’s deeper uncertainties have disappeared.

Anthony’s Everyday Prospects

At twenty, Anthony runs errands at the crowded store, where even choosing a discounted tube of Colgate leaves him wondering whether a better bargain is being missed. He tries to shop quickly because encounters with people he knows bring the same questions about his mother, his life, and what he is doing. Their familiar reassurance—that he is young and has his whole life ahead of him—sits uneasily beside the unanswered question of work. The year’s promise is therefore not simply prosperity: it is also the pressure of being expected to turn youth into a future.

The World Cup and a Purchase

As France reaches the semifinals, the national tricolor fills the country and the store’s loudspeakers repeat the news alongside advertisements for discounted televisions. Anthony returns to the electronics department and buys a forty-inch Sony rear-projection set for 12,000 francs. He is already overdrawn, so he pays a deposit by check and relies on six interest-free installments, with his mother as a possible fallback. The purchase joins private financial strain to the public excitement: watching the match is presented as nearly patriotic, and Anthony’s personal longing momentarily merges with the country’s shared aspiration.

The screens show highlights of France’s game against Italy, with Liza, Desailly, Zidane, and Petit recognizable even from a distance. Children sit on the floor watching; Anthony, like millions of others, is caught up in the spectacle, his misfortune temporarily at bay. The narration imagines people across class and geography cheering together, from Heillange to Paris. At home, Anthony connects the new television, pours himself a small whiskey, and hears discussion of Croatia on La Une. The scene closes on anticipation rather than resolution: France may win, but Anthony’s own future remains as open—and as uncertain—as the life others say lies ahead of him.