À la vie, à la mort! (1995) - film review

In Estaque, the working class district of north Marseilles, a family of Spanish immigrants struggles to survive.  Marie-Sol’s job as a housekeeper provides both an income and a modest home, but her husband Patrick has been unemployed for years.  Her adopted brother Jaco is also without work, and he ends up losing his family and his home when he can no longer afford to pay the rent. When Marie-Sol loses her job, she, Patrick, Jaco and her disabled father, Papa Carlossa, move in with her brother José, who runs an increasingly run-down bar.  José laments not being able to find work as a mechanic, but contents himself with his ancient Mercedes and his partner Joséfa, who, despite her age, manages to perform striptease acts for the bar’s dwindling clients.  A young Arab boy, Farid, and a drug-addicted prostitute Vénus also turn to José for support.  Meanwhile, Marie-Sol continues to pray that she may have a baby, in spite of the fact that she has no money to bring up a child…

The impact of unemployment on working class families and the importance of family ties form the basis for this engaging social-realist piece from director Robert Guédiguian.  Once again, Guédiguian sets his story in his hometown of Marseilles, the location for numerous French films but none so strikingly realistic as those of this director.  The strength of Guédiguian’s art lies in his ability to combine realist and unreal elements (notably classical music) to tell a story of great humanity, poignancy and social relevance.

À la vie, à la mort! is unquestionably one of Guédiguian’s most complete and evocative films, rich in its portrayal of quiet human suffering yet wondrously poetic in its narrative style, with some wry comedy offsetting the film’s grimmer aspects.  The film is as much a piece of satire as a social-realist drama, yet it lacks both the vulgarity and simplicity of most contemporary satire and the depressing heaviness of most social realism.  It would be inaccurate to describe this as an uplifting film but, like much of Guédiguian’s work, neither is it too gloomy.  Poverty, emotional insecurity and death inevitably appear in the film, but whilst showing us these unhappy aspects of life it also shows us the positive side – friendship, the beauty of nature, the wonder of human imagination and hope for a better future.

© James Travers 2004

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