La Ville est tranquille (2000)
Directed by Robert Guédiguian

Film Review

In the ambitious living fresco that is La Ville est tranquille, acclaimed director Robert Guédiguian paints what is probably his grimmest picture of the town of Marseilles.  Gone is the sunny optimism of his previous films - Marius et Jeannette (1997), À la place du Coeur (1998) - and in its place is a mordant sense of dark irony.  There is also somewhat less of his trademark poetry in his realistic portrayal of ordinary men and women facing up to hardship and adversity.

The uncharacteristic bleakness of the film makes it somewhat harder to engage with than his earlier films, although this may also be because of Guédiguian's attempt to embrace too many disparate themes within the same film.  There's enough subject matter here for at least three films, and as a result you can't help feeling that none of the themes is dealt with in sufficient depth to have much of an impact.  More than ever, Guédiguian relies on his faithful lead actors - in particular his muse, the extraordinary Ariane Ascaride - to hold the bulging compendium together and convey some sense of intimacy in what is a pretty overwhelming patchwork quilt of a film.

Film Synopsis

On the surface, Marseilles appears to be a town at ease with itself, yet social problems run ever deeper and, for its inhabitants, life is anything but tranquil.  Michèle works in the fish market and barely earns enough to support her long-term unemployed husband and her teenage daughter.  The latter funds her craze for drugs through prostitution, the result being an unwanted pregnancy.  Viviane, a music teacher, has grown to despise her womanising husband Yves, who talks a lot about supporting socialist causes without doing anything; she starts an affair with a young black man, Abderramane, whom she met in a prison workshop.  Paul, a former dockworker, has used his redundancy pay-off to buy a car to start his own taxi business.  Middle-aged, he lives alone and struggles in vain to find a partner.  Michèle is all too willing to take his money, in return for favours.  Gérard is a sombre bartender who deals in drugs and plans to assassinate an extreme rightwing sympathiser.  With growing unemployment, a greater proportion of the white population is drawn towards fascist politics, whilst the non-whites are the targets of abuse and discrimination.   So many problems, so much grief... Yet, on the surface, Marseilles appears to be so at ease with itself...