Marius and Jeannette (Guédiguian, 1997): Cinema Museum, 2pm
This is a 35mm screening.
Time Out review:
Set in l'Estaque, an impoverished, industrialised area of Marseilles,
this funny, tender, enchanting film starts as if it's going to be a
familiar misfits-meeting-cute romance. Soon after her feisty temper
costs her her supermarket job, single mother Jeannette (Ariane Ascaride, the
writer/director's wife) embarks on a relationship with the equally wacky
Marius (Gerard Meylan), a taciturn security guard at a disused cement works.
He's accepted by her kids and friends, but when he disappears for a few
days, Jeannette suspects his no-show is simply another example of male
unreliability, and it's left to her neighbours to investigate. In fact,
while the faltering central romance gives the film a semblance of
narrative structure, Robert Guédiguian's prime concern is how community and
friendship make economic and emotional hardship bearable. That Marius is
called 'Marius' is probably no accident, since the celebratory account
of working class life in all its variety recalls Pagnol's classic
Marseilles trilogy, albeit without the overheated theatricality and
pathos. Less love story than love letter to a particular, Mediterranean
way of life, this is peopled with credible individuals as proud,
perverse and needy as they are brave, tolerant and likeable.
Geoff Andrew
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment