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THE TOWN IS QUIET Send This Review to a Friend
The "town" in this French import is Marseilles and it is anything but quiet. Behind the façade of the bustling port city on the Mediterranean there are individuals who are struggling and hurting. There is intrigue. There is courage. Director Robert Guediguian, whose earthy but also somewhat schmaltzy "Marius and Jeannette" earned him a following, has made a stunningly effective film delving into personal stories that reflect problems of society in general and this French locale in particular.
Actress Ariane Ascaride, a modest looking woman but with the sort of face a painter should love, is battling a tough situation as Michele. She is taking care of her granddaughter because her daughter is a heroin addict with no signs of being able shed the habit that is destroying her. Julie-Marie Parmentier makes us feel the young woman's pain as she goes through horrible moments when the drugs run out and she craves a further fix. Michele is reduced to trying to pay for her daughter's habit. She can get heroin from her ex-lover (Gerard Meylan), who owns a bar and is involved in other matters about which we learn later. She feels so sad for her daughter that she'll turn tricks as a prostitute in order to get money.
Jean-Pierre Darroussin, a most sympathetic actor, plays the very shy Paul, who used to work on the docks, but left to drive a cab. When he meets Michele he yearns to help her, which propels him deeper and deeper into debt. Another key character is Christine Brucher as Viviane, who is fed up with her platitude-spouting husband who is brazenly busy with other women, which Viviane realizes. In the course of her work as a music teacher of problem students she has met Abderamane, a charismatic young North African, played by Alexandre Ogou, who surfaces and becomes her lover.
This is the basic setup, but the film really is looking at the framework in which the characters exist. Assassination, tragedy and prejudice that leads to violence figure in their lives, which at times intersect. Most heartrending is Michele's dilemma as to what to do with her daughter whose condition keeps worsening. The film is beautifully shot, capturing aspects of Marseilles, and there are lyrical moments that suggest hope for a brighter life. The characters are always interesting and done justice by the casting.
Mark "The Town Is Quiet" as an exceptionally fine movie that deserves to be remembered at awards time. A New Yorker Films release.
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