'La Ville est tranquille', possibly a pun with 'Life is beautiful' ('La Vie est belle' in French), is a movie that confirms former ideas of director Robert Guediguian but in a new, dark style. Those who remember the pretty love story of low class people 'Marius in Jeannette' will be astonished by the maturity of this movie. The same elements, more or less, are here : location (Marseilles), sun, possible or impossible love affairs, racism, violence, addiction to drug and prostitution. But the director does not underline a love affair, he simply focuses on the ordinary tragedies of ordinary people. How we can go through a tragedy just withouth feeling it is possible to do things another way, to have another life - this movie is just about that. It is impossible to escape from one's life and from one's recordings, this can be the moral of this dark tale. As the director puts also several doses of black, desperate humor in several scenes, the audience can breathe and laugh and forget a certain clumsiness in some dialogues. The memorable last sequence is very surprising, and its strong lyricism makes the movie just unforgettable.
Review of La ville est tranquille
