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Résumé :
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Shot over ten days in the titular square in Paris, PLACE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE is a tip of the hat to Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's cinephile classic, CHRONIQUE D'UN ÉTÉ. Taking to the streets of this working-class neighbourhood, Malle and his small team began approaching strangers and asking them all sorts of questions (What interests you in life? Are you happy?), in part to document their behaviour and reactions to the camera's unflinching eye. But very few shy away from the filmmakers; some flirt, others recount their life stories and are shockingly frank about their views on French society. The cast of colourful characters is almost too good to be true, especially the older women whose beauty and spirit Malle poetically captures despite the guerrilla methods of this filmmaking. Having turned forty during the shoot, Malle, consciously or not, imbues the film with a certain woeful tone, as if confronting the loss of his youth. PLACE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE is a fascinating portrait of a time and place which, at certain moments, amazingly defies the limitations of documentary-filmmaking that had so plagued Malle in India.
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