The Son

With La Promesse (1996) and their Palme D'Or winner, Rosetta (1999), Belgian social realist film-makers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne followed a progression towards trenchant simplicity that is realised in this study of a middle-aged carpentry teacher, Olivier (Olivier Gourmet), at a rehabilition centre for juveniles whose carefully controlled life is upset by the arrival of Francis (Morgan Marinne), a sixteen year old just released from prison,

Gourmet, who was so good as the morally-soiled father in La Promesse and who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance here, is called on to carry the film largely through his silent presence and does it superbly. In what is really the only other significant role, Marinne is also very effective as the withdrawn young man,Between the two of them most of the film unfolds in silence or, at best, banal exchanges.

Although arguably there is too much use of the hand-held camera, with an excess of close-ups of the back of heads, the Dardennes explore the emotional anguish of the inarticulate carpenter and the moral issues his story embodied less through any dramatic moments (these are reserved for his wife, played by Isabella Soupart) than through the details of his ordinary life, one which covers up an extraordinary tragedy.

DVD Extras: Interview with the Dardennes; Interview with Olivier Gourmet; Stills gallery and original theatrical trailer

Available from: Madman

 

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