Place de la république (1974)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Louis Malle

Release Date:

30 April 1974 (France)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot Keywords:

Paris France | Interview | 1970s

Cast

Louis Malle

...

Himself

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

I can almost smell the tobacco resin and the diesel exhaust.

I really enjoy this document. I don't know if I find it fascinating or melancholic or charming... not sure what it is. I like looking back into a world that I didn't know in the first place; yet somehow I feel nostalgic for it. It might be the little things that have changed about all of us: there are smokers, no cellphones, well worn clothing, plain (or less adorned) figures, all somehow charismatic whether brash, jovial, sullen, spent and nebulous. These are people "apres le deluge", war survivors, immigrants, country folk in the city, vamps, authentics. I especially liked the consistency of some of the replies, and Malle's alarm at how many people living near La Place are ill. This film will change like a memories do - watching it from 2007 is a different experience than in 1974 or 1984 or the year after Malle's death. This movie was a service to his country and to all. There is no threatening bias to the document. It may be beyond current historians to even dare to make something like this today; they all seem so bent on imprinting everything with smarmy moral equivocations ala Ken Burns. I would like to see this experiment continued - perhaps someone like Gondry should take to the street again.