Les Toits de Paris (2007)
Directed by Hiner Saleem

Film Review

Les Toits de Paris is one of those rare pieces of cinema that really can alter your outlook on life.  Directed by the acclaimed Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem, the film shows us life from the perspective of someone who is at the extreme lower end of the social spectrum, an old man who is literally counting down his last few days in the squalor and decrepitude of an existence that most of us would think unbearable.  Smile folks, this is our future.

And yet, despite the abject bleakness of the film's subject matter, Saleem gives it a bizarre sense of joie de vivre, as if to say that however bad things get, life is still worth living.  The characters in this film may initially appear to be pitiful wretches with nothing to hope for, but as we get to know them we realise that they are not miserable, and that they perhaps have a greater appreciation of the value of life than most people at the other end of the income spectrum.

There is something tragically noble, heroic even, in Michel Piccoli's portrayal of the oldster who is at the heart of this film.  Piccoli of course needs no introduction to aficionados of French cinema and is renowned for the colour and vitality he brings to his performances.  Here, the actor is at his near-best - sympathetic but not pitiful.  He conveys the brutal tragedy of old age and yet there is no mawkishness or self-pity evident in his portrayal.  Whilst human beings, whatever their personal circumstances, can still make contact with other human beings, life is still a thing of beauty, and Piccoli conveys this sentiment admirably, with the connivance of his talented co-stars Mylène Demongeot (best known for her many appearances in rubbishy comedies of the 1960s and 70s), Maurice Bénichou and Marie Kremer.

Les Toits de Paris is not an easy film to watch.  Some viewers will find it relentlessly depressing, since it reminds us of the fate that awaits most of us: a solitary and miserable decline into advanced old age from which death will be a merciful release.  Yet, gloomy as this may seem, the film is also strangely uplifting, a darkly engaging auteur piece that is crafted with a distinctive poetry, insight and a touch of mild eccentricity.

Film Synopsis

Paris, during a long hot summer heat wave.  Marcel is an old man for whom home is a tiny room beneath the roofs of a Parisian apartment block.  His only relative is his son, whom he rarely sees, and the number of friends he has he can count on the fingers of one hand.  He has one true friend (if that is the right term): Amar, an immigrant of his own age who lives in the room next to his.  Marcel is shocked when Amar reveals he intends to go back to his own country.  Amar's companionship has been the one thing that has made his extreme poverty and solitude bearable...