Marius and Jeanette

Jeanette (Ariane Ascaride) is a middle-aged cashier, struggling on a low wage in the new global economy and trying to raise her two children as best she can. Marius (Gerrard Meylan) is a security guard who falls in love with the fiery Jeanette but is uncertain if the traumas of his past will ruin the chance for happiness between them. Filmed in the industrial city of Marseilles, this deeply humanistic film reinstates the provincial working class as the subject of French cinema, examining the condition of working people in the post-Soviet era of globalisation and economic rationalism. Retreating from the radical aesthetics of the post-68 generation, “Marius and Jeannette” instead takes its inspiration from the humanist realist traditions of early French cinema and the social realism associated with the English cinema of Ken Loach and Mark Leigh. Family, commitment and trust are celebrated in this film, as is tolerance, and political and communal responsibility. The acting of Ascaride and Meylan is first rate, as it is with the excellent supporting cast. Filmed in the proletariat sections of the city, this film is also a loving tribute to the history of struggle in Marseilles. In the age of ironic detachment or extravagant violence, “Marius and Jeannette” is a fin-de-siecle film that argues for engagement and for tenderness. In French with English subtitles.