Social drama
When only miracles can help – “Gloria Mundi” on Arte
Daniel (Gérard Meylan) is back from prison and is looking after his granddaughter Gloria. Photo
© Ex Nihilo/Agat Films & Cie/France 3 Cinéma/Bibi Film Italie 2019/ARTE F/dpa
A family in Marseille struggles against social decline. “Gloria Mundi” is a sensitive French feature film without voyeurism – with a strong, award-winning protagonist.
A child is born – and the world holds its breath for a moment. But the magic of this miracle quickly fades in the French Social drama “Gloria Mundi”, which will be shown on Wednesday (May 29th) at 8:15 p.m. on Arte. The young parents of the newborns simply cannot enjoy the gift called Gloria because they are up to their necks in the daily struggle for survival.
French director Robert Guédiguian, born in Marseille in 1953, has been telling the story of society’s outsiders in his films for many years. His haunting drama “Gloria Mundi”, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, is a convincing social study with strong acting and quiet moments about the working class in Marseille.
The situation of the family in the film is precarious: mother Mathilda (Anaïs Demoustier) works as a saleswoman in a cheap fashion store, father Nicolas (Robinson Stévenin) drives tourists around Marseille as a taxi driver, the two of them just about make ends meet. But soon there is no longer enough money for a childminder. When Nicolas is attacked and seriously injured, he loses his job too.
Luckily, Mathilda’s mother Sylvie (Ariane Ascaride) and her energetic stepfather Richard (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) take care of their granddaughter, and then there is Mathilda’s biological father Daniel (Gérard Meylan), who has just served a long prison sentence and needs to get back into his new life: a baby can be a good start.
Guédiguian’s wife Ariane Ascaride, who won the Coppa Volpi in Venice for her performance as best actress, plays the relatively young grandmother Sylvie. She works night shifts as a cleaner in the port and is able to remember better times after being reunited with her first husband Daniel. With her precarious job, Sylvie cannot afford to support a union call for a strike. The film impressively shows how defenseless many workers have become today – often it is just a matter of survival.
Paradoxically, Daniel, a long-term prisoner, has the greatest inner freedom and is able to enjoy his new independence. He writes short Japanese poems, known as haikus, and uses them to capture the fleeting magic of a moment. This film begins with a miracle, and after a catastrophic chain of circumstances, there is once again an almost heavenly twist at the end. As hard as these people’s everyday lives may be, they have not given up hope for a better life.