Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the Swann d’Or for Best Director at the 2012 Cabourg Film Festival.
After directing À la place du cœur, which dealt with racism, or Le Promeneur du champ de Mars, a biopic on François Mitterrand, Robert Guédiguian, openly Marxist, is directing a new social drama which he describes as a popular film : The Snows of Kilimanjaro, freely inspired by Victor Hugo’s poem, The Poor People.
The filmmaker takes viewers into the world of workers, in Marseille, and more precisely in the working-class district of L’Estaque where he spent his childhood. In front of his camera, his favorite actor Jean-Pierre Darroussin plays Michel alongside Ariane Ascaride, who plays his wife Marie-Claire. The couple’s happiness is shattered when they are victims of a brutal attack organized by one of the young workers dismissed with Michel.
Presented at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard selection, the film received fifteen minutes of applause after its screening. Indeed, it is impossible to remain insensitive to the humanism of this sunny feature film (some scenes are shot in Super 16, bringing a warm grain to the image) and solidarity, a true ode to generosity and forgiveness. With, as a bonus, the young revelation Anaïs Demoustier, who plays Flo, the daughter of the protagonists.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Robert Guédiguian with Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan…
Tonight on Arte at 8:55 p.m.