skinner_nick_007
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
16 years
Reviews
Marius et Jeannette (1997)
Dull, aimless meanderings in a dull, aimless suburb
The film being a HSC study text probably doesn't help its cause, but soon after I starting watching I was wishing the board of studies had chosen a more entertaining text.
The "action" (if the cinematic ramblings of a nostalgic director can be labelled as such) takes place in the working class suburb of l'Estaque in the south of France. The plot is simple - the titular characters fall in love, clichéd plot devices pull them apart, before getting back together for a feel-good ending. All wonderfully bland and formulaic.
The only difference here is that there is a variety of interesting (but pointless) side-characters and subplots around them, sometimes genuinely good as individual scenes but always jarringly disjointed.
And here is the film's main fault: there is a lot of potential within the quirky neighbours, but they are reduced to little more than unrelated vignettes that simply distract from the main story.
By themselves, unrelated vignettes would have been fine - as would a bland romance.
But by mixing the two, director Robert Gediguian creates an unappetising sludge that is messy, meandering and boring - a crime with such potentially interesting characters to explore.
The "action" (if the cinematic ramblings of a nostalgic director can be labelled as such) takes place in the working class suburb of l'Estaque in the south of France. The plot is simple - the titular characters fall in love, clichéd plot devices pull them apart, before getting back together for a feel-good ending. All wonderfully bland and formulaic.
The only difference here is that there is a variety of interesting (but pointless) side-characters and subplots around them, sometimes genuinely good as individual scenes but always jarringly disjointed.
And here is the film's main fault: there is a lot of potential within the quirky neighbours, but they are reduced to little more than unrelated vignettes that simply distract from the main story.
By themselves, unrelated vignettes would have been fine - as would a bland romance.
But by mixing the two, director Robert Gediguian creates an unappetising sludge that is messy, meandering and boring - a crime with such potentially interesting characters to explore.