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In the working-class district of old Marseille, Rosa is the heart and soul of her community, a nurse and the matriarch of a large, close-knit family. She meets Henri and realises that it is never too late to fulfil her own dreams. The collapse of the buildings on the rue d’Aubagne in Marseille occurred on 5 November 2018 at 9am and caused the death of eight people. These were two ruined buildings in the city centre. This tragedy opens the film; Robert Guédiguian has become the dedicated director of our times. Like his English colleague Kenneth Loach, Robert Guédiguian describes the other side of the mirror; In the French well-being landscape, his works are, more than ever, essential; because I am not exactly what they call “feel good” although there are moments in his work that give the viewer more joy than trendy films. his masterpieces " “The City Is Quiet,” “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” or the forgotten “A Story of Fists” are bold stories that go straight to the heart: generous, unwavering, compassionate. Rosa (the wonderful Arianne Ascaride, Guédiguian’s life partner and protagonist of most of his films) has these lines that are key to the film: “Who should have two lives: one to take care of ourselves and one to take care of our companions?” Like many of the director’s films, “And the Party Continues” is the chronicle of a family in Marseille. “La ville est tranquille” in miniature (I always thought Julien Duvivier was Guédiguian’s closest relative, especially “la belle équipe”, “sous le ciel de Paris” and “la fête à Henriette” (of which “à l’attaque” is a kind of political remake) by Rosa, now sixty years old, takes stock of her life: a devoted nurse – the scene where she caresses her black colleague, desperate because she did not hold her patient’s hand when he died, is admirable: she is also an activist, she has so many tasks going on at once that it is impossible to see them; despair is close and breaks out during the meeting of the candidates on the list; her son has found the woman of his life and plans to have many children; as well as being the father of the future bride, he is also an activist who falls in love with Rosa; it may seem melodramatic on paper, but Guédiguian’s treatment avoids pathos and the dramatization; the young man’s love, after escaping from a shame, shows her that life can go on, even if not according to her plans. Her father (the wonderful Darroussin, Guédiguian’s favorite actor who often acted alongside Ascaride), will be the light that still shines in Rosa’s darkest night. Together they will fight against the “marchands de sommeil” ; (sleeping dealers) who rent uninhabitable apartments, on the scene, around the bust of Homer, where the voices multiply until they become one. The heroine finally relaxes to the point of recognizing that the personal is both personal and political; which, in turn, makes him more pleasant and effective as the “classical Aznavour” – unlike most of his peers, Guédiguian uses the FRENCH songbook – is a transparent metaphor: outside the harsh realities of life, happiness is out of reach.
