Marie-Jo et ses 2 amours

In Marseilles, Marie-Jo (Ariane Ascaride) is an unfaithful middle-age middle-class woman, who drives an ambulance and is married with the builder Daniel Jean-Pierre Darroussin). They have a teenager daughter Julie (Julie-Marie Parmentier), who is engaged of Sylvain (Yann Tregouët). Marie-Jo falls in love with the pilot Daniel (Gérard Meylan) and divides her love by her lover and her husband. This weird relationship ends in a tragic and moralist way. I have just watched the good movie 'La Ville Est Tranquille' and I have decided to see 'Marie-Jo et Ses 2 Amours' to know a little bit more about Robert Guédiguian. Inclusive both movies has the same cast. I found 'Marie-Jo et Ses 2 Amours' a non-original, tragic and moralist movie, but again with a great performance of the cast. The storyline is identical to Ingmar Bergman's 'Beröringen (1971)', with the difference that 'Beröringen' has an open end and is a great movie. 'Marie-Jo et Ses 2 Amours' is really a very disappointing film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): 'Marie-Jo e Seus Dois Amores' {'Marie-Jo and Her Two Loves')

More Marseilles melodrama in the usual ultra-realistic style, and with Marseilles itself as co-star. Trim, 40ish Marie-Jo (Ariane Ascaride) is happily married to doting builder husband Daniel (John-Pierre Daurossin) but she has also fallen in love with craggily handsome bachelor Marco (Gerard Meylan), a harbour pilot. She has a job transporting the sick which gives her plenty of opportunity for dalliance with the frequently idle Marco, until one day her daughter Julie (Julie-Marie Parmentier) spots her at his flat and realises what Mum's up to.

Despite the sunny locale we know things are not going to end well, but what happens is a bit of a surprise. Ariane Ascaride gives her character plenty of the required sexiness, middle aged though she may be, and John-Pierre Daurossin does a great line in dog-like devotion (even when he finds out). I thought the Marco character a little unsatisfactory – what is he in this relationship for? Also I'm still trying to work out why the Marseilles-Corsica ferry, in and out of the harbour every day, still needs a pilot. (Maybe the pilots, though redundant, have a strong union. They certainly have a flash shore office). Anyhow Marie-Jo needs some emotional fulfilment outside her marriage, and he's it.

Robert Guediguian has a talent for bringing interest out of the ordinary and getting us to like his characters despite their flaws. He also mixes in the Marseilles atmosphere and manages to produce a cheerful tragedy, if that's possible. His use of the same actors in film after film gives a curious continuity to his work, despite the different roles – a repertory of the cinema, in fact. Ordinary their subjects may be I still find his films absorbing and on occasion moving.

Robert Guédiguian has created a world out of some parts of Marseille that I feel very comfortable in. His stock company of Ariane Ascaride, Gérard Meylan and Jean-Pierre Darroussin have made many films with him, and are at ease with his practices. If Darroussin's character is perhaps a little too eager to go along with his wife's infidelity, the richness of the narrative makes us pardon this flaw.

The film does have a very slow action which will make some viewers impatient. It takes a long time for Marie-Jo to leave Daniel and go off to Marco's house, and she has trouble at work (she drives disabled people to their doctor and back) that isn't fully examined. Ariane Ascaride's performance is fully equal to the demands made on her, and made me think more than once of Jeanne Moreau in Truffaut's masterpiece, a similar situation of a woman having to choose between two men and failing to do it.

The 2002 film 'Marie-Jo et ses 2 amours' explores the common theme of a love triangle between a woman is in love with two men. Marie-Jo played by Ariane Ascaride is married to Daniel played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and she loves him, but is also in love with Marco, played by Gérard Meylan. Throughout the entire movie she oscillates between these two men, and can't choose.

The story is weaved in Marseille with many nude scenes as well as maritime sea pictures. Mary-Jo is torn apart by her love, feels utterly guilty towards her husband and daughter, and eventually discloses the affair to her husband. Shortly after she leaves her husband and goes to live with Marco. However guilt and remorse bring her back to her husband who tells her that he would not be able to share her with Marco.

The movie builds up slowly towards the unknown question of how the love triangle will end. The secret of who is Mary-Jo's true love is revealed in the end, when Mary-Jo and Daniel take their boat to the water. Daniel has an accident bangs his head and falls into the water. Mary-Jo jumps to the rescue but they both sink down.

And Mary-Jo does not let go of Daniel's hand. Perhaps a declaration of her true love, and final choice.

How many films haven't you seen (especially French ones) about the married woman having an "affair"? There aren't many surprises here either, but the acting makes it believeable anyway. It's too much to say that this is like a documentary, it's far from it, but the realistic performances by Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin give real life to everything.

Marseilles plays a big part here. That city is almost like an actor. The emotional conditions for these people might have been different somewhere else. The tempo is slow however and so is the temper. You have time to breath, watching this.