AGAT FILMS & CIE PRESENT The Snows of KilimanjaroA FILM BY ROBERT GUÉDIGUIAN 1 AGAT FILMS & CIE PRESENT The Snows of KilimanjaroA FILM BY ROBERT GUÉDIGUIAN INSPIRED FROM THE POEM BY VICTOR HUGO HOW GOOD ARE THE POOR 1H47 - Dolby / DTS - 35mm /DCP - FormaT 1.85 INTERNAtioNAL PRESS: WORLD SALES: Rendez-vous FILMS DISTRIBUTION Viviana Andriani 34, rue du Louvre 25, Fbg Saint Honoré 75001 Paris 75008 Paris Tel: +33 1 53 10 33 99 Tel/Fax: +33 1 42 66 36 35 In Cannes: BOOTH E5/F8 (RIVIERA) In Cannes: +33 6 80 16 81 39 Tel: +33 4 92 99 32 09 [email protected] [email protected] www.rv-press.com www.filmsdistribution.com Photos and Press book to download: www.rv-Press.com “Our neighbor died last night; it must have been When you were gone. She left two little ones, So small, so frail—William and Madeline; The one just lisps, the other scarcely runs.” The man looked grave, and in the corner cast His old fur bonnet, wet with rain and sea, Muttered awhile, and scratched his head,—at last “We have five children, this makes seven,” said he. “Already in bad weather we must sleep Sometimes without our supper. Now! Ah, well— ‘Tis not my fault. These accidents are deep; It was the good God’s will. I cannot tell (…) Go fetch them, wife; they will be frightened sore, If with the dead alone they waken thus. That was the mother knocking at our door, And we must take the children home to us. “Brother and sister shall they be to ours, And they will learn to climb my knee at even; When He shall see these strangers in our bowers, More fish, more food, will give the God of Heaven. “I will work harder; I will drink no wine— Go fetch them. Wherefore dost thou linger, dear? Not thus were wont to move those feet of thine.” She drew the curtain, saying, “They are here!” Victor Hugo How good are the poor (Les Pauvres Gens) (Translation by H.W. Alexander ) 2 3 Synopsis Despite losing his job, Michel lives hap- pily with Marie-Claire. They have been in love for more than thirty years … Their children and their grandchildren bring them joy and they are surrounded by their close friends. They are proud of their political struggles and moral values. This happiness will be shattered by two armed and masked men who attacked them violently, tie them up, and snatch the money they had received to go for a trip to Kilimanjaro. The shock will be even more violent when they discover that this attack was organized by one of Michel’s young co- worker, Christophe, laid off along with him. Michel and Marie-Claire gradually disco- ver that Christophe must also take care of his 2 young brothers as they were abandoned by their parents. 4 5 After a thriller (Lady Jane), and then a cinema can work to unmask this intellec- historical film (The Army of Crime) you tual deception – and my mind will never are returning to the type of film you star- be changed on this question: therein lies Interview with ted with. the essential. Obviously it was out of the question to tell a story about a fisherman from Brittany in In form as well, you have returned to a the 19th century; the idea was to make a sun-drenched, luminous film, with the Robert Guédiguian film that happens in contemporary times, sea and cicadas. in Marseille, with Ariane Ascaride, Gé- And we haven’t had to mix sound with rard Meylan and Jean-Pierre Darroussin. cicadas since Marie-Jo and her two And, as in 1980 with Last Summer, or in lovers. In my last five films I greatly 1997 with Marius and Jeanette, I wanted explored styles I was less familiar with. to take stock of things: in the neighbo- Now I’m back home! At the suggestion rhood where I was born, Estaque, and of Pierre Milon, my cinematographer, we of the “poor people» who live there…I even returned to using super 16, instead returned to the place where I started to of digital, which was used for my last two observe the world; to see how it is today, films. And we were very happy to do so: to take away, perhaps, two or three uni- it gave a certain warmth to the image, a versal truths. grain, something that was more alive…I returned to what I call my “fundamen- It’s a film that once again tests in a tals,” in style as well as in content. The very real way the meaning of the word difference is that in Last summer, the “group.” characters were 25 years old, because In my eyes, one of the most serious they were my age, and in Marius and issues in today’s society is there is no Jeannette they were a little over 40, and longer any class consciousness. In the now they are in their 50’s, because I am sense that you can no longer even say now in my 50’s. “working class;” this is why I speak about “poor people.” Yet, the actual awareness Marie-Claire and Michel, the characters of being “poor people,” doesn’t exist. played by Ariane Ascaride and Jean- As it is, there are no longer, in France, Pierre Darroussin, are parents, and even How did you get the idea to use Victor out that his wife, having taken the initia- these huge industrial entities where, in grandparents? Hugo’s poem How good are the Poor, as tive before him, had already brought the the 70’s and 80’s still, three thousand Working on two generations instead of a starting point for your film? children back to their home, is absolu- workers would come out of a factory. only one was bound to happen. At the In 2005, while writing a text calling for tely heartrending. Such goodness, such Class awareness in those times was writing stage with Jean-Louis Milesi, we people to vote against the European bigheartedness is exemplary. And more, not only possible, it was obvious: it was decide that the two central couples, who Constitution, I made a reference to the there is this mutual understanding, this embodied by these thousands of men in were of a certain age, would be surroun- «poor people» in Victor Hugo’s poem to loving gesture between the two charac- work uniforms, those “blue collar” wor- ded by very young characters. I wanted depict in a very general way «the new ters, the man and the woman, who are kers. And, naturally, these people were to make sure that the assailant was not configuration of the working class.» It equally generous. I immediately thought together, they had common interests, the only person from the younger gene- was for this occasion that I reread the that this would be a magnificent ending even when they had different identities. ration to be in opposition to Marie-Claire poem. The end of the poem, that is to to a film. I just had to find a contempo- There aren’t two types of populations, and Michel; this opposition between say when the poor fisherman decides rary path to reach this end. one being a native, employed, unionized generations also occurs with their own to adopt the dead neighbor’s child- home owner…and the other being an children, who don’t understand the ren saying: «we have five children, this unemployed immigrant, delinquent, from choices made by their parents. Florence makes seven» and then when he finds inner cities or poor suburbs. Politics and and Gilles have withdrawn into the circle 6 7 of their family and friends which, for me, intellectually, in reference to what they When Christophe points out how unjust changed on every level: nuclear power, equals a certain regression. They don’t have always fought for. It’s unbearable the blind draw is, Michel, the old union women’s condition, sexuality, punish- want to put their little comforts in dan- for them. Although they only have a few man is terribly shaken up. ment in society...In short, all the themes ger. I’m not pointing fingers, they also material things, they have, at the end of He’s more than shaken up: Michel thinks that don’t seem to be a part of social, have their own share of troubles. Gilles a lifetime of labor, finally been able to feel he “isn’t wrong,” therefore he’s right. economic, or political concerns, but in lost his job at the shipyard, even if he has like they “made it.” All the political and And that upsets his strategy in this com- fact very much are. since found other work, and Florence’s union experts have noticed this fact: we bat, and the choices made by the union husband has to work in Bordeaux. He’s are undergoing a downgrade in social members. What Christophe proposes, In this film, as often in your films, in addi- always traveling for work, which makes status. It’s the first time, historically, that examining each person’s individual si- tion to the serious subjects we have been their daily life complicated. Let’s just we are faced with a generation who will tuation, is more fair. This young man is a evoking, there are little things: teaching say that they have lost the ability to feel not live as well as their parents. libertarian, without appearing to be; he’s children to eat sardines, boycotting a indignant.