reunion in the shadow of death
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ARTE – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 7 AT 8:55 P.M. – FILM
In the beginning there is the end. A tanned, pensive old man, leaning on the terrace of a house overlooking the calanque (known as “de Méjean”). Time to look, one last time in conscience, at the familiar beauty of the site, the modest and multicolored houses, the overhanging viaduct, the sparkling sea on the horizon. then to say ” never mind “, and to collapse.
End of prolo paradise, the story can begin. Everything is played out, here, in the reduced perimeter of the maritime cove, a scene surrounded by anguish, on which the pale, wintry sun now sets of an inexorable end of the world. With, muted, the litany of questions dear to Robert Guédiguian: how to remain faithful to the heritage of struggle and the ideal of justice embodied by this man? How not to betray them in the renewed and triumphant jungle of the liberal economy? How can we still hold on to the necessity, trampled on every day, of solidarity and the common good?
ghosts of the past
It is here that the three children of the man who was the victim of an attack meet to watch over him, bedridden in the silence of his announced end. Scattered siblings, whose late reunion brings back the tender bonds, but also the cruel ghosts of the past. All this, in a few shots, is remarkably posed, felt, shown. So here is Angèle (Ariane Ascaride) – disembarking from a taxi, suitcase in hand, as if ready to leave. Here is Armand (Gérard Meylan), who welcomes him without a smile, the sacrifice clinging to the soul. Here is Joseph (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), seeing her coming from the overhang of the balcony, before presenting her with his “too young bride”, Bérangère (Anaïs Demoustier).
The first, an actress who left home a long time ago, broke up with her family after the stupid accident that cost the life of her little girl, entrusted to the care of her grandfather. Conversely, the second has not budged, has taken over the worker’s restaurant from his father, persists, out of filial loyalty as much as out of ideals, in cooking generously at low prices, at the risk of bankruptcy, looks after himself alone of the patient since the accident. The third, who always seems to look down on life, is strong-witted, a bitter joker, a fake cynic on the verge of losing everything.
This reunion takes place in the shadow of death, which seems to envelop everything. It is this familiar specter who, today, questions his children without saying a word about the buried continent of their childhood, about the meaning they have given to their lives, and about the hour of the balance sheet, which they foresee for the first time, these old children, that it is theirs as well. Suffice to say that the scores, of each with his own conscience and of all with all, are settled here on the edge of the abyss, but with a delicacy and complexity that spare us the burden of the game of massacre. Everything here is touching, close, human.
The villa, by Robert Guédiguian (Fr., 2017, 105 min). With Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan.
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