Jean-Stéphane Bron
Switzerland | 2022 | 90 min
Languages : French, Romanian
Subtitles : English, French
Jean-Stéphane Bron's latest self-imposed challenge is “to make a 3-hour film about a 165-metre street” – the one he lives on. In this documentary mini-series, filmed over the course of two years during the pandemic, the director shines a light on the entertaining troupe of characters who people the street below, mischievously casting them in his universal human theatre.
“The rue de l'Ale is like my living room television. With a 180 degree screen.” Antonio-José Abileira is the concierge of a building in this commercial and busy strip of Lausanne. Driven by a “kind of internal movement”, after having travelled a great deal for his previous film, the filmmaker becomes interested in the stories that arise at the corner of “[his] rue de l'Ale”. He composes a wonderful gallery of portraits in the form of a documentary mini-series (4 x 45 minutes), with a light tone that follows the conventions of storytelling. From one episode to the next, we revel in the adventures of the Barbaro family, butchers from father to son; of Gilles, an organic grocer struggling with the effects of climate change; and of Maricica, a Roma woman living in a hostel. Like all good heroes – in fiction and real life –, they want to achieve their individual dreams, but their path is sometimes filled with obstacles. Bron mischievously guides us through twists, turns and sub-plots in this refreshing work of hyperlocal cinema.
Emmanuel Chicon
