Dirs. Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2005, Belgium, 100 mins, subtitles
Cast: Jeremie Renier, Deborah Francois, Olivier Gourmet
Review by Mike Bartlett
The Dardenne Brothers’ sixth, and arguably best, feature to date finally makes its way to these shores after winning the Palme D’or at Cannes last year. Like its predecessors, it’s set in the grimly unremarkable landscape of an industrial backwater. A young woman, clutching her new-born baby, arrives home to find her boyfriend, Bruno, has let their apartment to complete strangers. Stumbling around the cold streets, she finds him pulling tricks on passing drivers, apparently oblivious to her plight.
The focus of the film now shifts onto this strange man-child, playful and affectionate, but always on the look-out for the next buck. And so begins one of recent cinema’s most powerful examinations of poverty and its dehumanising effects – for Bruno is in such thrall to the idea of the next dollar that everything else has lost its value. From the heroine of Rosetta (1999) getting her friend sacked from a waffle store, we move to a scenario where a man can sell his own kid. This is the ongoing message of the Dardennes’ films – that destitution leaves us cold, grasping, ruthless, able to shift allegiance at the drop of a hat, able to betray someone on a whim. In short, poverty makes children of us all.
The Dardennes have said they prefer to channel their social criticism through young people, who represent new ideas and the potential to change things in society. But because the protagonists of their films have been pushed to the margins, either through unemployment or social segregation, their options have been limited and their youthful energy wasted. This was true in La Promesse (1996) and Rosetta (1999), but it’s even more the case here. Perhaps because the central couple feel so naïve and innocent, the hardship of their circumstances and the way it corrupts them is more keenly felt.
Jeremie Renier and Deborah Francois are outstanding in the leading roles, the Dardennes’ thorough rehearsal process clearly paying dividends. And followers of the brothers’ work will be pleased to know that regular Olivier Gourmet puts in an appearance, once again portraying an ambiguous authority figure. There is an excellent use of location – it was all filmed in and around the Dardennes’ local town, Seraing – even extending to an exciting car chase, where the refusal to show anything beyond the protagonist’s vision only increases the suspense.
Ultimately, this film couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Now that Michael Haneke’s ridiculously overrated Hidden is about to finish its run, along comes a work that is truly of, and about, the Europe we live in. We’ll be lucky if this year’s Palme D’or winner is half as good.
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