Movie Reviews

A La Place Du Coeur

17 Nov 2000

It might seem strange that the French would adapt James Baldwin. "If Beale Street Could Talk", like most of Baldwin's novels, dealt with the topics of racial prejudice, religious hypocrisy and the roots of black identity from a strongly black American perspective. The French, however, invented the word "auteur". Their cinema can be recognised by its style rather than its stories. With "A la Place du Couer" ["In Place of the Heart"], director Robert Guediguian ("Marius et Jeannette") moves Baldwin's tale of interracial romance and injustice to his own home town of Marseille.

Teenage lovers Clim (Laure Raoust) and Bébé (Alexandre O Gou) are expecting a baby, much to the delight of Clim's working-class parents, Joël (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and Marianne (Ariane Ascaride), and her older, more urbane sister, Sophie (Veronique Balme). Bébé is a black boy, adopted by white parents who react very differently; Franck (Gerard Meylan) accepts it, but the deeply religious Francine (Christine Brücher) is enraged.

Enough drama there on its own, perhaps, but there is an even more drastic matter to attend, as a racist cop (Jacques Pieller, in a nicely repulsive performance) has framed Bébé for rape, leaving him in prison awaiting trial.

In a strange way, the laid-back, typically French elan seems to add something to the story, allowing even the slums of Marseille a certain beauty. It could easily have been made into a gritty American film, but the dialogue would have seemed trite. Here, even the teen angst (as we hear Clim's thoughts) seems poetic rather than corny. Likewise, Franck's outbursts against his wife's and daughter's devout Christian intolerance might seem heavy-handed, even cliched, in an American flick. Here it works well. It just required a new perspective.

Despite its strengths, it probably won't be remembered as one of the great movies about racial disharmony. The style, while attractive, is slow and overly relaxed, not giving the story the power it deserves.

Yet the cast does such a splendid job that one is drawn in nonetheless. They succeed in presenting the prize of all good actors: "real" characters. For all their faults, you like Clim and her family so much that you can even forgive them for being French.