Robert Guédiguian Movies

Acclaimed Kurdish director Hiner Saleem (Vodka Lemon, Dol) takes the reins once again for his seventh feature outing, the offbeat drama Beneath the Rooftops of Paris (AKA Sous les toits de Paris, 2007 - not to be confused with the famous 1930 René Clair film of the same title). French screen legend Michel Piccoli (I'm Going Home) stars as Marcel, an octogenarian Parisian man who inhabits a decrepit and filthy top-tiered flat in the City of Lights, initially with his younger friend Amar (Maurice Benichou). The men experience their final months together as roommates one sticky, sweltering summer. Their days are littered with resolutely small, almost fleeting pleasures, such as consortions with a waitress, Therese (Mylene Demongeot) in a nearby café and temporary respites from the suffocating heat wave that is closing in on Paris via brief dips in the community swimming pool. As time roles on, however, Marcel's life grows unbearably difficult; Amar hearkens off to greener pastures, and as autumn spells an end to the summer, the elderly man's health deteriorates to the point of rendering his life utterly unbearable. Most problematic is the fact that no one seems to stay in his life for any length of time - friends come and go with alarming rapidity, leaving Marcel to fend for himself. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A boy is forced to witness the slow and painful collapse of his family in this drama from France. Martin (Julien Cochelin) is an eleven-year-old boy who lives with his family in a rural community. Their large, shabby house has seen better days, but household repair is the least of the family's problems. Martin's mother Nadege (Dominique Reymond) is emotionally unstable and has begun to retreat into a world of her own, and her husband Jean (Jean-Yves Chatelais) has all but given up on trying to communicate with her. Rose (Annie Cordy), Jean's mother, has moved in with the intention of helping out while Nadege recovers, but it's clear she has little regard for her daughter-in-law and avoids interacting with her grandson. Didier (Pascal Cervo), Martin's older brother, helps look after the boy, as does Malika (Fettouma Bouamari), a Middle Eastern immigrant who helps keep house. However, Didier suffers a falling out with his parents when they discover he's fallen in love with a neighbor boy, and Didier is devastated to learn his new boyfriend has announced his upcoming marriage to a girl. Le Dernier des Fous (aka Demented) was adapted from the novel The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Robert Guediguian's Marie-Jo and Her 2 Loves is an intimate, straightforward look at a woman having an affair. Marie-Jo (Ariane Ascaride) is married to Danielle (Jean-Pierre Darroussin). They have a teenage daughter, Julie (Julie-Marie Parmentier). For the last year, Marie-Jo has been involved with Marco (Gérard Meylan). Eventually, Danielle learns of his wife's indiscretions, although he says nothing to her. Although she loves both men equally, she eventually leaves her husband and moves in with Marco, causing Danielle to abandon his once stoic approach to the situation. Marie-Jo et ses 2 amours was screened in competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A couple puts faith in love to get them through times of extreme poverty in this comedy-drama that was a major box office success in its native France. Jeannette (Ariane Ascaride) is a single mother living in a working-class community in Marseilles; she tries to support herself and her two kids on her salary as a check-out girl at a supermarket and lives in an apartment complex where everyone is thrown into close proximity with everyone else (thankfully, they all get along). Marius (Gerard Meylan) is working as a security guard at a cement factory that has gone out of business; he's also squatting in the building, since the plant is soon to be demolished and he'll be needing his money later on. One day, Jeannette happens by the factory, and spotting several cans of paint, tries to take two of them home with her. Marius spots her and tries to chase her away, while she rails at him with curses against the capitalist system. The next day, an apologetic Marius appears at her doorstep, cans of paint in hand; the two soon become friendly, and a romance begins to bloom, though it quickly becomes obvious that Jeannette's romance novel fantasies about passionate embraces in the sunset are a bit off the mark from what the more pragmatic Marius has in mind. Ariane Ascaride won a Cesar Award (the French Oscar) for her performance in Marius Et Jeannette: Un Conte De L'Estaque; she's married to the film's director, Robert Guediguian. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this crime comedy set in the interracial slums of Marseilles, the children are pressed into service to run small-time theft rings to pay for their father's drug or booze habits. However, when the whole city is divided up into two rival gangs, the mothers decide they have had enough of this abusive foolishness. They take over the entire criminal business of the city, and ensure that their darlings steal from the rich instead of from other poor people. The story of this revolution is narrated by a sympathetic parish priest (Jean-Pierre Darroussin). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When a young man comes back to his hometown after leaving a job at a port, he takes up with several other men, of varying ethics -- or the lack thereof. One of his friends takes him out to social good times at dances, other of his friends take to stealing. When the hero meets a woman he begins to care about, he would very much like to leave his life in the town -- though how can he and where could he go? Before he has a chance to work out the solution to those questions, his girlfriend agrees to drive a car for him and his friends as they go to steal from a farm -- not a good way to begin a change of lifestyle and a decision that does not bode well for his future. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide