Marius & Jeannette
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B
Robert
Guédiguian is more like the kind of French director that made their cinema work
so well in the first place. Though his
2000 film The Town Is Quiet was not
bad, it was not anything we had not seen before, however competent. Earlier, in 1997, he made the far better Marius & Jeannette, a comedy about
a couple who seem mismatched until they fall for each other. In Marseilles, Jeannette (Ariane Ascaride, in
a gloriously manic performance as a Marxist who can’t take it anymore) tries to
steal paint, until caught by guard Marius (Gérard Meylan) who does not want to
loose his job because of her.
In what
could have been a chance meeting that could have led to arrests, a physical
altercation or other conflict, turns into an affair. She is the free-spirited one and he is a bit
suppressed, but not necessarily Marxist.
He likes the freedoms she and it offer, but knows there might be too
high a price attached and are their not other ways for him to find ways to make
his life less miserable?
Well, the
films sides with the workers, a bold thing these days or those. However, the film is also an exploration of
another couple in a situation that could be the best or worst thing that ever
happened to them. Dialogue is bold and
the performances solid all around.
Ascaride even won the Best Actress Cesar. But the best part of what makes the film work
is the combination of humor and energy.
You don’t have to agree with any ideology to enjoy this film, unless you
are too narrow and stuck in your own closed ways. You can watch with interest at the script’s
fine observations of human nature and in the end, realize that it is more
important than ever to have all these ideas out on the table.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 has a softness and detail issue that might be problems going
from PAL to NTSC, but the color is still decent and cinematographer Bernard
Cavalié (who shot The Town Is Quiet
as well) is a good cameraman. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo unfortunately has no real surrounds, but dialogue is clean,
clear and funny in the delivery by the cast where applicable. Extras include an interview with the
director, and trailers for this and four other New Yorker DVD releases. Marius
& Jeannette is a pleasant surprise worth going out of your way for.
- Nicholas Sheffo
