The Town Is Quiet

Name: The Town Is Quiet
Genre: Drama
Released: October 26, 2001
Duration: 133 min
Rating: 65
Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin

2001

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

New Yorker Films | Release Date: October 26, 2001

Starring: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Summary: Marseille in the year 2000 is the backdrop to this story of several characters whose lives overlap and influence one another in both tragic and uplifting ways. (New Yorker Films)

Director: Robert Guédiguian

Genre(s): Drama

Runtime: 133 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

David Stratton

Guediguian's seemingly sprawling but in fact quite precise picture takes a while to establish itself, but is eventually rewarding viewing. Read full review

Stephen Holden

You are left with an overall impression of a movie so full of life that it is almost bursting at the seams. Read full review

Ernest Hardy

Leaves you reeling from the force of the humanity it captures and -- in its own gut-wrenching way -- honors. Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Intermittently compelling drama.

Ken Fox

Multi-character drama that reveals a vivid cross-section of the city's inhabitants but fails to live up to the director's high ambitions. Read full review

Ted Shen

Some of the film's situations and motivations seem convenient or underdeveloped, but Ascaride and Darroussin are riveting, and Guediguian's frankness and empathy illuminate this kaleidoscope of lonely lives. Read full review

J. Hoberman

The last-minute combination of Greek tragedy and Janis Joplin is so genuinely startling that, had the movie been shorted by a third, it might have turned everything around. Read full review

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User Reviews

ChadS.

Nov 14, 2005

If the mother is going to turn tricks, why doesn't she use that money towards rehab rather than shoot her daughter up with drugs? Michele(Ariane Ascaride) clearly loves Fiona(Julie-Marie Parmentier) but her judgment is even more haphazard than the mother played by Holly Hunter in If the mother is going to turn tricks, why doesn't she use that money towards rehab rather than shoot her daughter up with drugs? Michele(Ariane Ascaride) clearly loves Fiona(Julie-Marie Parmentier) but her judgment is even more haphazard than the mother played by Holly Hunter in "Thirteen". In a film with multiple storylines, equal, or close to equal time should be spent on each narrative. In comparison to the cabbie's and the aforementioned mother with a junkie daughter's story, the music teacher and ex-convict's affair seems hardly there. It's sketchy, as is the narrative of the ultra-right organization, which makes this ambitious film a little more than uneven. Still, "The Town is Quiet" has its moments. Gerard's reason for giving Michele the drugs surprises us when we learn their shared history. And even though Paul(Jean-Pierre Darroussin) was raised by liberal parents, the cab driver takes full advantage of a foreign couple on holiday. Paul is basically a nice guy, which prevents "The Town is Quiet" from the interesting possibility of Paul joining the nationalist movement to avenge his revoked license. This route might've been a more graceful way to intergrate the ultra-conservatives with another story.… Expand

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