Widowed at 26, devoted mother and grandmother, ardent left-wing activist, 60-year-old caregiver, Rosa (Ariane Ascaride) is tipped to become the next mayor of Marseille. When the pasionaria meets Léo (Jean-Pierre Daroussin), a stoic bookseller with “neither fear nor hope”, she shows some signs of weariness and wants to give love one last chance. Do we have the right to disengage after devoting a life to our community?
“No, we don’t have the right, on the other hand it is legitimate to be tired because it’s a lot of work,” says Robert Guédiguian, joined by videoconference. “Sometimes there are small disappointments that overwhelm us, but we must not let ourselves be discouraged and complacent with failure. I think it’s interesting to write about the state of the characters involved and the psychology of the activist, which, obviously, concerns me. Deep down, I believe that there are people who are made for that and even made of that. They are cut from this fabric and I think they never manage to let go. I can’t see myself just enjoying the beautiful things in life, it’s not my nature. »
After so many years of making committed films, doesn’t the filmmaker feel a certain weariness? “I myself am sometimes quite depressed in the evening when I get home. Then I encourage myself and go for it. And the party continues!, it’s a diary in disguise embodied in several characters, so I could say that I agree with each of them, I could take on board everything they say. It is absolutely necessary that collective action continues, action that does not only involve us. »
For the story of And the party continues!, the filmmaker was very freely inspired by the political journey of Michèle Rubirola, former mayor of Marseille whom he accompanied during her electoral campaign. Rather than recounting the life of this woman, whom he describes as formidable, he wanted to focus on the fact that, despite her committed behavior, she did not want power.
The other trigger of the film, where Robert Guédiguian addresses the fate of immigrants and the tense political situation in Armenia, the country of his ancestors, is the tragedy of the rue d’Aubagne, where, a few meters from the bust of Homer, two unsanitary buildings collapsed on November 5, 2018, resulting in the deaths of eight tenants.
“This story seemed to me to be quite symbolic of many other things, precisely of the collapse of the way we experience the world today. There was COVID-19, health restrictions, but also the wars which are starting to shake up many places on the planet. We must find a way to live together. A century ago, people said it was communism, today we have to invent something. So I wanted to tell the story of this new thing, to invent a way of telling it, of going on a new odyssey. »
It is also the figure of Homer, author of The Odyssey, who was blind, who will give Léo the idea of suggesting to his daughter Alice (Lola Naymark), who has recently been seeing Sarkis (Robinson Stévenin), one of Rosa’s sons, to recount, shouting at the windows, with the citizens, the tragedy of November 5.
“I believe that we must continue to have a sense of narrative, which is also a sense of representation, of spectacle, of humor, of songs. The party must continue. That’s a bit of what I’m trying to do with the film, to find a form that can tell all of this in fluidity, in love, so that the audience finds the film uplifting. »
The director of Marius et Jeannette also points out that by choosing to borrow the music that Georges Delerue had composed for Le contempt by Jean-Luc Godard, he went beyond paying homage to the committed filmmaker, who disappeared during the montage of And the Party Continues! in September 2022.
“Remember that in Godard’s film, which was in formal research, there is Fritz Lang who wants to shoot The Odyssey. I, modestly, in my way of telling the story, I link Godard and Homer to all that. When we write, we have to look at what our predecessors have done since the dawn of time to see how they told the story. I wanted to make a resolutely encouraging film, because the more depressed I am, the more I make encouraging films to encourage myself,” concludes Robert Guédiguian.
