Marie-Jo E Seus Dois Amores

More Marseilles melodrama in the usual ultra-realistic style, and with Marseilles itself as co-star. Trim, 40ish Marie-Jo (Ariane Ascaride) is happily married to doting builder husband Daniel (John-Pierre Daurossin) but she has also fallen in love with craggily handsome bachelor Marco (Gerard Meylan), a harbour pilot. She has a job transporting the sick which gives her plenty of opportunity for dalliance with the frequently idle Marco, until one day her daughter Julie (Julie-Marie Parmentier) spots her at his flat and realises what Mum's up to.

Despite the sunny locale we know things are not going to end well, but what happens is a bit of a surprise. Ariane Ascaride gives her character plenty of the required sexiness, middle aged though she may be, and John-Pierre Daurossin does a great line in dog-like devotion (even when he finds out). I thought the Marco character a little unsatisfactory – what is he in this relationship for? Also I'm still trying to work out why the Marseilles-Corsica ferry, in and out of the harbour every day, still needs a pilot. (Maybe the pilots, though redundant, have a strong union. They certainly have a flash shore office). Anyhow Marie-Jo needs some emotional fulfilment outside her marriage, and he's it.

Robert Guediguian has a talent for bringing interest out of the ordinary and getting us to like his characters despite their flaws. He also mixes in the Marseilles atmosphere and manages to produce a cheerful tragedy, if that's possible. His use of the same actors in film after film gives a curious continuity to his work, despite the different roles – a repertory of the cinema, in fact. Ordinary their subjects may be I still find his films absorbing and on occasion moving.

The 2002 film 'Marie-Jo et ses 2 amours' explores the common theme of a love triangle between a woman is in love with two men. Marie-Jo played by Ariane Ascaride is married to Daniel played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and she loves him, but is also in love with Marco, played by Gérard Meylan. Throughout the entire movie she oscillates between these two men, and can't choose.

The story is weaved in Marseille with many nude scenes as well as maritime sea pictures. Mary-Jo is torn apart by her love, feels utterly guilty towards her husband and daughter, and eventually discloses the affair to her husband. Shortly after she leaves her husband and goes to live with Marco. However guilt and remorse bring her back to her husband who tells her that he would not be able to share her with Marco.

The movie builds up slowly towards the unknown question of how the love triangle will end. The secret of who is Mary-Jo's true love is revealed in the end, when Mary-Jo and Daniel take their boat to the water. Daniel has an accident bangs his head and falls into the water. Mary-Jo jumps to the rescue but they both sink down.

And Mary-Jo does not let go of Daniel's hand. Perhaps a declaration of her true love, and final choice.

How many films haven't you seen (especially French ones) about the married woman having an "affair"? There aren't many surprises here either, but the acting makes it believeable anyway. It's too much to say that this is like a documentary, it's far from it, but the realistic performances by Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin give real life to everything.

Marseilles plays a big part here. That city is almost like an actor. The emotional conditions for these people might have been different somewhere else. The tempo is slow however and so is the temper. You have time to breath, watching this.

If Marie-Jo doesn't quite have it all she has a reasonable facsimile; happily married in her mid forties, still having great and regular six with her self-employed builder husband, for whom she does the accounts and who is as devoted to her as she is to him. A non-demanding job on the side ferrying patients to and from hospital appointments, a nice, well-appointed house, a gifted and bright daughter studying Law and herself in a stable and loving relationship. What more could she want? Well, nothing ... on paper. So why, given all these assets, can't she stop, after a 12 month clandestine affair, seeing Marco, a harbor pilot, who she loves as deeply as she does Daniel, her husband, and with whom she has equally great and equally regular sex. Welcome to the Marseilles of Marseilles-born Robert Guediguian, where nothing happens ... all at once. This guy has created and developed his own repertory company and, like that other great regional specialist Marcel Pagnol, returns again and again to his roots but not to flaunt the tourist side of Marseilles (as filmmakers are wont to do with Paris), merely to show the soft underbelly. His real-life partner Ariane Ascaride has never been more beguiling than she is here and the movie is punctuated by Ascaride smiles that light up the screen and, for the time you are watching, rival those of Hepburn (BOTH Hepburns actually) and Audrey (Amalie) Tatou. Once again she is more than ably supported by Guediguian stalwarts Jean-Pierre Darroussin (who may have it written into his contract that he gets to dance every time he goes to bat - catch him in 'Un air de famille' and you'll see what I mean) as Daniel and Gerard Meylan (the Marius of 'Marius et Jeanette') as Marco the pilot. Mid-life crises are not new, neither are mid-life affairs, but whereas the couple in 'Brief Encounter' were terribly well-behaved and kept a stiff-upper lip whilst enduring the torment of middle-aged longing, the French menage a trois here let it all hang out. The problem is that given the way Guediguian has elected to go with this story there's no real way to resolve it without upsetting some element of the audience.Brushing that aside this is a great movie, by turns lyrical, happy and heartbreaking. The three leads are outstanding but Neil Simon it isn't. Rating : Four and one half stars going away.

Marie-Jo is a woman who lives a perfect and happy couple's life with his husband, Daniel, and his daughter Julie. Daniel has a small building company and Marie-Jo works as ambulance driver. But Marie-Jo also loves Marco, a pilot of Marseille's harbour. Equally loving the two men, Marie-Jo shall face a very difficult situation and she lives this double love as a curse in spite of happiness that she has with it. She particularly suffers to be lying to her husband and not be able to share his love for Marco with him. One day, she makes a choice and goes away from his house to live with Marco. But, she can't accept the distress she has herself given to her husband and, after some days, she returns home. Nevertheless, Marie-Jo will return once a time with Marco and that will be the cause of the final drama. During a sea excursion aboard their boat, Marco and Marie-Jo will die by drowning. Suicide or accident? The movie perhaps a little too long is valuable by the actors' performance in this tragic love story, the sensibility of the telling of this adultery situation, the well-painted ambiance of human relationship in this Marseille district called "L'Estaque" and the magnificent Renato Berta's cinematography.