User Reviews

This film has limited interests but I keep a certain attachment to it. The key elements are : France, Marseille, Dockers, Strike, Factory Workers, anti-French-war-in-Indochina-protests, Romance, Solidarity and Family life ! There is not much of a plot as such but it's more a depiction of life in the 1950's in the docklands of the Southern French port of Marseille. Work is scarce, many dockers are on the dole and to boot there is a total strike with the obvious consequences that entails.

We follow the lives of a young docker and his fiancé who are both trying to obtain a flat to live in with great difficulty as well as the lives of their respective families and friends. There are of course inevitable scenes of families tucking into the "apéro" with a bottle of pastis ! Nearly all of the film was made on the docks. Those knowing Marseille well ( I have never visited the place so cannot feel the nostalgia in my own heart ) will no doubt feel reminiscences and pangs of nostalgia on seeing this film. The actors were all unknown to me and many of them seemed a little unsure of their lines ! There is lovely plaintive accordion music by Jean Wiener throughout the film and we get to see scenes of children and family life. All have the local Marseille accent which is very musical and different from accents in the north of France.

I like this film because it is not an intellectual film, it is made with the heart and sought to depict life as it was at the time. For that reason it has enormous documentary value, but you certainly should not look for a well constructed plot or marvellous actor performances. I do not think the film is readily available, I taped it many years ago off French TV channel ARTE but have never seen it since either on TV, VHS or DVD.

THis film was made in the early fifties...and was released in 1990...for a limited audience .Since no channel has bothered to screen it.From the very start,it was an accursed work:the censorship banned it and at the time who cared? It was the time of the war in Indochina (even the word "Vietnam" is used).In Marseille ,life would go on for better or for worse.Mostly for worse.A young couple plans to marry and to have an apartment .But the boy is a docker,often on the dole,for there is not much work on account of the economy.The girl is a factory girl;she is about to be fired,but her mates all stand together in a grand gesture and she keeps her work.

Along the quayside,they unload coffins for young men died in that dirty war ,and they load weapons and canons.THe humble people take a rebel stand: they have a balloon release with pacifist lines on them,they are marching on the street with little victories and big defeats ,they care about their fellow men.All this perhaps too good to be true,but "REndez-vous des Quais" is a good film,if only for its spontaneity.It has no equivalent in the fifties French output where political problems were passed over in silence most of the time .

And however,the youth we meet in this work lived through WW2 and was about to be sacrificed in the war of Algeria which was just around the corner.Hope against hope survived in a world where you did not know if you would eat or if you would starve.The movie has also feminist accents (long before woman's lib in the late sixties):not only women showed more solidarity than their male counterparts,but they were part of all the demonstrations and the cops did not give them a preferential treatment.And there is that marvelous scene (my favorite in the whole film) where a father (the hero's brother)is cooking pasta while helping his daughter do her homework (one can notice on her book a fable from La Fontaine).

There is a man who decides if you eat or you starve: An union man who is actually a traitor (a friend of the bosses) but who can provide you with the apartment you have been dreaming of for years.Our hero becomes a scab.

Paul Carpita told that an entire reel is missing (about 45 min) including a scene where the hero's niece is leaving for the country.Had the censorship destroyed sequences,they would have chosen the scene of the coffins or rebellion scenes.At a running time of barely 75 min,the film is rather short.

It was 2002 (half a century!) before Carpita could make another movie:"Marche ou Reve".His film is to the fifties what Autant-Lara' s "Tu ne Tueras POint" (about a conscientious objector) is to the sixties.Two cursed movies which used to scare anyone.One should note that Kubrik's "paths of glory" was not released in France before 1975!

Like this ? Try these:

-"Un Homme Marche Dans la Ville " (Pagliero,1950)

-"A view from the bridge" (Lumet,1961)

-"On the waterfront" (Kazan,1954)

-La Ville Est Tranquille (Robert Guédiguian,2000)