The Villa

Robert Guédiguian's latest slice of southern French life is a thoughtful treatise on belonging that serves as a timely rejoinder to France's increasingly vocal xenophobes. When their restaurateur father suffers a stroke, actress Angèle (Ariane Ascaride) and the recently retired Joseph (Jean-Pierre Darrousin) return to the Mediterranean coast to support stay-at-home brother Armand (Gérard Meylan). But all is not well, as Joseph refuses to admit that his May-December romance with a former student has run its course, while Angèle is determined to resist the flattering attentions of a 30-something fisherman, who has been besotted since seeing her on the stage. The late discovery of a trio of frightened migrant siblings has been criticised by some as contrived and sentimental. But Guédiguian makes cogent contrasts between the two threesomes in a discussion of memory, tradition and the passage of time that is made all the more affecting by cinematographer Pierre Milon's adroit use of the scenery around Calanque de Méjean. The recycling of clips from the director's 1985 film Ki Lo Sa (featuring the same three lead actors in a coastal locale) is a nice touch, too, and adds emotional continuity and authenticity to this fractured family's past.