Marie-Jo and Her Two Loves

Shot, like Guédiguian's other films, in and around Marseille and I'Estaque, and featuring his usual actors, this is otherwise rather atypical in jettisoning both the working-class milieu and a strong political context in favour of a straightforward tale of adultery. Ascaride plays an ambulance driver, still very much in love with builder husband Darroussin and devoted to her teenage daughter, but also passionately involved with harbour pilot Meylan. On the whole, until the absurd contrivance of the 'tragic' ending, the film is emotionally astute, striving to understand the characters in their difficult predicament, rather than pass easy judgment. At the same time, however, an uncharacteristic clumsiness - in the use of music, in the sometimes hackneyed notions of 'romance', in the daughter's dialogue - regularly disrupts the otherwise often intense mood, so that after a while, one simply begins to lose interest in the characters and their fate.