Director: Robert Guédiguian
Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Gerard
Meylan Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Pascale Roberts, Alexandre Ogou
The Town is Quiet is
Guédiguian's most ambitious work to date. Set in the modern
city of Marseilles, this ensemble drama follows people from different races
and backgrounds who find themselves lost in an increasing sense of confusion
Guédiguian, a native of Marseilles, has made that bustling Mediterranean
city, with its potent mix of races, classes and cultures, his special muse,
chronicling the lives, loves and dreams of its inhabitants.
With constant references to Robert Altman's
Nashville,
an epic portrait of American life in the 1970's, Guédiguian attempts
to weave the same sort of intricate tale of tangled lives in modern day
Marseilles. There is Michèle (played by Ariane Ascaride),
a fishmonger who is raising her granddaughter while her daughter struggles
to rebuild a shattered life; Paul, who uses his severance pay as a dockworker
to buy the car of his dreams; and Abderamane, transformed by his experience
in jail and now looking for a way to make his mark on the world.
Their stories combine with those of the other finely etched characters
to create a rich, insightful, Altmanesque fresco of a particular contemporary
urban reality, showing, in the words of the director, that "at a time when
life is more and more meaningless, the town is not quiet."
RELEASE DATE: January 17,
2001, France; October 26, 2001, NY; November 9, 2001, Limited.
NOT RATED.
WINNER: FIPRESCI Prize -- European
Film Awards
Best Screenplay -- Mons International
Festival of Love Films
Best Actress - Ariane Ascaride (unanimously)
-- Valladolid International Film Festival
A selection of the Rotterdam Film Festival
and the Toronto Film Festival.
RUN TIME: 143 Minutes
French - with English Subtitles.
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