Film Review
Algerian-born filmmaker Mehdi Charef scored a notable critical success in
1985 with
Le Thé
au harem d'Archimède, adapted from an acclaimed first novel
which he penned two years earlier. He went on to direct several other
worthy films in a similar trenchantly realist vein,
Marie-Line being,
arguably, one of the most timely and moving. It is a film that deals
with a subject which, at the time (the late 1990s), was only just beginning
to gain traction in France as a major social concern - the exploitation of
illegal immigrants by an unscrupulous money-oriented commercial system.
The film failed to attract the audience that it merited (had it been made
just a few years later it would have had a much greater impact), but some
critics were fulsome in their praise for what is assuredly one of the most
pertinent films of the decade.
The film's main asset is Muriel Robin, whose portrayal of the highly conflicted
and doggedly ordinary Marie-Line is astonishingly authentic, and a career
highpoint for an actress who is now, sadly, more closely associated with
misfire comedies such as
Les Couloirs du
temps: Les visiteurs II (1998). Marie-Line is not the kind
of individual a cinema audience (even a French one) would naturally sympathise
with. She is abrasive, self-absorbed and overtly racist (at least when
we first meet her). Yet, as she is drawn into the precarious world
of her co-workers in a supermarket (which increasingly resembles a brutal
labour camp), as she gradually changes both her outlook and her behaviour
towards others, we cannot help but warm to her. It is the kind of transformation
that we would like to see in society as a whole - a willingness to see immigrants
not as mere drudges to be exploited and abused, but as human beings that
we need to engage with and help.
Despite the film's relentlessly realist approach, it has an upbeat message
which asserts that change for the better - in both individuals and society
- is always possible. Charef deals with the central themes of racial
intolerance and social exclusion with unswerving honesty, but also with considerable
compassion. There are a few stand-out scenes which have a colossal
impact and which stay with you long afterwards. Of these, the most
powerful is the harrowing sequence depicting a traumatic birth in a locked
elevator,
Marie-Line was perhaps too in-your-face, too pro-immigrant
to garner much interest when it was first seen, but today (at a time when
extreme rightwing sentiment is spreading across the world like an all-consuming
wild fire) it feels staggeringly relevant. This is truly a film for
our time.
© James Travers 2019
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Film Synopsis
Marie-Line is a down-to-earth woman in her mid-forties who works hard for
a living whilst she copes, as best she can, with a failing marriage.
She works for a large out-of-town supermarket, running a team of cleaners.
Because of budgetary constraints, the latter comprise mainly illegal immigrants,
who are so desperate for cash that they are unlikely to cause any trouble
or object to the harsh conditions under which they have to work. Marie-Line
is not naturally someone who has ever sympathised with exploited immigrants
in the past. Her politics have always been towards the far right and
she has had little truck with socialist and humanitarian concerns.
But as she gets to know her hardworking team of cleaners, as she becomes
familiar with their fraught personal lives and intimate tragedies, she begins
to develop a kindly understanding, even fondness for them. This growing
rapprochement has a positive impact on the hitherto tough and uncompromising
Marie-Line. She is motivated to do eveything within her power to help
her co-workers, even if it means placing her own job on the line...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.