La ville est tranquille

A superb film dealing with some of the sensitive issues in France today. I would recommend this to anyone who has a rose tinted view of la belle vie en France as it does not pull any punches when dealing with social issues faced by many - not just in France but in much of the western world.

I watched this film in it's native French language so I may have missed some of the nuances but nonetheless it had the power to affect me and make me quite painfully aware of the issues shown.

Having visited the beautiful tourist side of Marseilles this film, and seen it as a back drop to this drama, the film presented a side I haven't seen before but could relate to through the careful placing of landmarks. It's a pity that we don't see films like this on British TV too often or at a watchable hour!

I have JUST seen this film - literally an hour ago and was curious to come to IMDb and see what others thought because I really knew very little about this film before I went to see it. Basically it had an 8:30 pm showtime and that worked out better than other movies and their showtimes so there I was. I felt the film really had trouble finding it's footing in the first twenty minutes. The director was obviously building blocks and setting things up but I was pretty uninvolved, but then, once all these characters' lives start to intersect and the stories start to build, the film just grips you and won't let go. Not in any thriller kind of way, but in a very believable, yet depressing, but human, real life way. The director trusts his story and actors so much (the acting is top notch) that he just lets the camera stay still and show you what happens. Now, if this film was just bleak and nothing else, well, then I probably would have hated it, but there are real moments of true, selfless love and even at the end, signs of hope and beauty that makes the movie special. I could see how many people might dislike the film and even walk out in the beginning, but Overall, the film packs a punch, a wild emotional punch, but like many great dramas, it leaves you thinking a great deal about life and society and mankind (good and bad).

One is used to British director's Leach and Loach concerning furious films about the working class, but Robert Guédiguian beats them. Not that his fury is lesser, but it's more quiet and therefore maybe more effective. This is about Marseille working class, drawn down in every aspect because of the globalization and a capitalism which is stronger and more destructive than for many decades. Even the conventional left-wing politicians seem to have abdicated completely and that is why Le Pen is very popular among these people. If you see this movie you indeed might understand why.

Beside the critic of capitalism and especially it's maybe most disgusting form, the drug trade, there is also drama here. You get really engaged in ten people's life and the people are not uncomplicated, "although" they are working class. The acting is marvelous, especially from Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Gérard Meylan.

See this one. It's almost a masterpiece

A very humanistic film. The persons appearing are really of flesh and blood. Marseille and even France is described as a stagnating society where fascism and racism is increasing. The old methods of the socialist/communist movement to improve the living conditions are generally regarded as obsolete. This is of course a very pessimistic view. But in the same time we feel that the film is taking side for the oppressed persons. Besides the misery we also meet men and women with warm hearts. The way the persons appear and how the story is told is so captivating that this must be regarded as one of the great films this year.

In the contemporary Marseilles, Michèle (Ariane Ascaride) is a worker in the fishing market. She supports her family, composed by her unemployed husband, her addicted daughter Fiona (Julie-Marie Parmentier) and her granddaughter Ameline. Fiona prostitutes to buy drugs. Paul (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is a stevedore, who betrays his colleagues and the union in a strike and buy a taxi with his indemnity. Gérard (Gérard Meylan) is a mysterious owner of a bar. Abderramane (Alexandre Ogou) is a black man who left jail and has an affair with a bourgeois. The lives of these characters are interconnected along the story. This movie is about ordinary people and touches in serious wounds in most of the worldwide societies, like unemployment, drugs, violence, crime, prostitution, prejudice against immigrants, loneliness, racism, low salaries, corrupts politicians. There is one particular scene that really touched me, when Michèle comments that only books have happy end. The title "The Town is Quiet" is very ironical and unfortunately the plot shows reality. I do not know if Robert Guédiquian wants to give some hope to the viewer, with that boy magnificently playing the piano he has finally bought in the end, but I found the story very bitter and pessimist. The direction and the performance of the cast are outstanding, and the soundtrack is excellent, highlighting Janis Joplin singing 'Summertime' and 'Cry Baby'. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'A Cidade Está Tranquila' ("The Town is Quiet")