The House by the Sea

Guédiguian's movies are highly charged with social, political, philosophical and emotional subjects. He uses the same actors, and almost all his films are filmed in his birthplace Marseille. In his 2017 'The House by the Sea' he expresses the same social subjects, using the same actors, and the filming location in Marseille. This establishes a continuity with his other films, not unlike a painter using the same color palette.

Particularly strong here is the subject of the roots that people maintain to a place, usually their birthplace. While some characters in the movie have left town, they do return, even though only for special occasions.

The film's characters are damaged demoralized and full of grief. Angèle, who returns to see her incapacitated father after 20 years, must reconnect with her daughter's death, Bérangère who is in an impossible relationship with Joseph and is about to leave him and Benjamin who is hopelessly in love with a woman twice his age or more.

A sense of moral devotion is clearly expressed by all the characters.

This movie proved much more interesting than I had assumed beforehand, after having read the various plot descriptions. This is not a movie with three talking heads, reviving old memories and related discussions, and so on. The threesome gathering around their ailing father, form the center of several related protagonists. Each has a useful role to clarify what is on everyone's mind. All of them bring ample extra story lines to make up an assortment of relevant human drama and unexpected developments. Especially the latter turned this screening into a positive surprise. Even the stranded fugitives who have a side role near the end of the running time, did not feel as unnatural nor introduced solely to add a contemporary issue like immigration to the mix just for the sake of it. Similarly, euthanasia is another contemporary topic, creating an extra story line that is introduced at a natural place, where it was understandable that the people involved arrived at a certain "useless" point in life (nevertheless, I had not expected them really doing it). Apart from these two examples of unexpected plot lines, several other people came around to liven up the overall story and causing even so many unexpected developments, yet the collection of protagonists did not feel over-crowding the plot.

My only other viewing of a Guédiguian film is Une histoire de fou (A history of madness) released with the incongruous and ludicrous English title Don't tell me the boy was mad. It deals with Armenian expats in France and then those who wage war against an unforgivable past.

In La villa (The house by the sea) the director uses Ariane Ascaride again as the central character. After a twenty years absence owing to trauma Angéle returns to the villa of her ailing father. Unlike Une histoire de fou, La villa doesn't rely on a fast moving plot. There are secrets, there is suspense, there are unexpected developments, but it's gentle and 'slice of life' cinema not blockbuster.

I've noticed on reviewer giving it one star and calling it boring. One has to live this movie. It's akin to a Chekhov play and all the characters (with the possible exception of the children) unfold softly and with immense understanding. There are shades of The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya. Not in circumstance, but in the inner lives of the characters. Angéle can easily be a mixture of Nina, Irina Arkadina and Jeljéna. Her brothers Armand and Joseph are also reminiscent of the Russian master's works. So are the neighbours, their son (Yvan) and the smitten fisherman.

There are no emotional or real summer thunderstorms or winter blizzards. La villa contains real people with day to day needs and wants and at the same time unfulfilled dreams and passions.

The four young visitors who are only seen in two brief scenes could be a jarring note, but then again they portray those with sheer hedonistic goals as opposed to the inhabitants of the villa and their lifelong neighbours.

Yet the family is not totally cut off from the world. Political intrigue also touches their lives but in a humane and personal way.

This is slow cinema at its best with excellent script, editing, direction and acting. The lack of underscoring music is also refreshing. However: La Villa is not for those who can only think in sound bytes.

I have a fondness for picturesque and/or very beautiful views. And "The House by the Sea" gave me both. I also liked to follow the main characters Angèle, her brothers Armand and Joseph and Bérangère, Josephs fiancé as they navigated through life.

This movie portrays a couple of different things. For example, the siblings when they try to take care of their elderly and gravely ill father. Because of a trauma in the past this proves to be difficult. I admire them for their strength.

Another theme in this movie is when the main characters help three refugee children. And that isn´t very easy because the adults doesn´t speak the same language as the children.

All in all I must say that I enjoyed this movie. I suggest that you give it a honest chance.

First, I saw this without subtitles in my native language, so I may have missed a bit, but the poignant story came through anyway. It's time-tested: family dealing with pending death, but much more slips in: love, politics, real estate exploitation, to name just a few. The sites of the Mediterranean are delightful, as are visions of a life that is disappearing there. At the end, I thought, unlike another reviewer here, that these actors truly inhabited their characters; they caught me up. I did find the smoking disturbing, but that people resort to smoking again in a time of crisis is not unusual. The only consistent smoker was a young person, so go figure. Enjoy this film, if you can. It does not disappoint.