On the screen, La Camargue is par excellence the French region where the losers wind up : in 1937 ,Jean-Paul Paulin's "les filles du Rhône" displayed love for this wild region ,whereas Yves Allégret's "chien de pique" (1961)featured an easily influenced young lad meeting a former gangster.
Tony Gatlif is par excellence the French director of the outcasts ; many of his works deal with the gypsies life,his best "Korkoro" (2009)depicting the -too often forgotten- genocide of this people in WW2 .
Tom Medina is par excellence the outcast : one has not got a clue about him : where does he come from? (he is on parole from a reformatory ,that's all we know) Snatches , some questions out of nowhere such "have you ever been humiliated Ulysse? "suggest he had a raw deal .It takes the whole movie before one knows a little of his past .But Tom Medina will remain an enigma to the world : the last picture is not really optimistic : both he and Suzanne have a long way to go ,and it's a rocky road : somewhere a place for them?
David Murgia's performance is anything but conventional :at first his overplaying may infuriate, but further acquaintance reveals a tormented soul,whose eyes long for love,affection ,and a place in a world which always elude him ; same for Slimane Dazi : his first appearance introduce a petulant sullen man who cuts Tom down to size : he is on parole, he is on the Mas (Provençal farm ) to work and he must behave himself .
There's a good use of the Provençal language ("langue d'oc" ) with subtitles ; in spite of occasional gaffes ( the girl bawling out her songs ,naturally in English , makes the viewer put his fingers in his ears in the end ), this is a very interesting movie , filmed on location in the wild landscapes of la Camargue ; the bullfight (with an imaginary animal) may put off people like me who do not approve of this kind of show ; but the meeting with Suzanne ,another loser, who sells rosemary in the streets and who longs to find back her little daughter makes up for it; all that Tom does backfires on him : coming to her rescue when she 's attacked by a brute , he's blamed and the would be justice is hard on the weak or on the poor .The scene of the fight is not included , for Gatlif denies any show to his audience .
This is not a very accessible film , but on the feel-good French scene , it really brings something else.
Tony Gatlif is par excellence the French director of the outcasts ; many of his works deal with the gypsies life,his best "Korkoro" (2009)depicting the -too often forgotten- genocide of this people in WW2 .
Tom Medina is par excellence the outcast : one has not got a clue about him : where does he come from? (he is on parole from a reformatory ,that's all we know) Snatches , some questions out of nowhere such "have you ever been humiliated Ulysse? "suggest he had a raw deal .It takes the whole movie before one knows a little of his past .But Tom Medina will remain an enigma to the world : the last picture is not really optimistic : both he and Suzanne have a long way to go ,and it's a rocky road : somewhere a place for them?
David Murgia's performance is anything but conventional :at first his overplaying may infuriate, but further acquaintance reveals a tormented soul,whose eyes long for love,affection ,and a place in a world which always elude him ; same for Slimane Dazi : his first appearance introduce a petulant sullen man who cuts Tom down to size : he is on parole, he is on the Mas (Provençal farm ) to work and he must behave himself .
There's a good use of the Provençal language ("langue d'oc" ) with subtitles ; in spite of occasional gaffes ( the girl bawling out her songs ,naturally in English , makes the viewer put his fingers in his ears in the end ), this is a very interesting movie , filmed on location in the wild landscapes of la Camargue ; the bullfight (with an imaginary animal) may put off people like me who do not approve of this kind of show ; but the meeting with Suzanne ,another loser, who sells rosemary in the streets and who longs to find back her little daughter makes up for it; all that Tom does backfires on him : coming to her rescue when she 's attacked by a brute , he's blamed and the would be justice is hard on the weak or on the poor .The scene of the fight is not included , for Gatlif denies any show to his audience .
This is not a very accessible film , but on the feel-good French scene , it really brings something else.
