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Rosetta (1999)

Director: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne

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From Time Out Film Guide

A deserving Palme d'Or winner at Cannes '99, Rosetta is in the same, grim realist mould as the Dardennes' earlier La Promesse; it, too, offers a glimmer of hope through the prospect of friendship. Teenage Rosetta (Dequenne) has it tough: living in a trailer park with her promiscuous, alcoholic mother, she tries to hang on to whatever mundane jobs she can get, but for all her determination and hard work, bad luck and her surly, volatile disposition repeatedly tell against her. Is life really worth living? Using very little dialogue and long, hand-held tracking shots (the relentlessly restless visuals perfectly reflect Rosetta's unsettled life, the secret to which is provided only halfway through the movie - and even then, subtly), the Dardennes never sentimentalise their heroine but respect the mysteries of her soul; the result is a film almost Bressonian in its rigour and power to touch the heart.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Feb 08 2008 02:18 Primal,spirited endeavour by the Dardennes brothers.Rosetta,even the name,like an original language of film.The young heroine is a driven,cursed soul,rushing everywhere,trying to break into the Fort Kox of normality,so she can live and breathe and see. For most of the film she is blind,going about her busy day,surviving with an alcoholic,promiscuous mother.She beavers about the trailer park where she lives and by a river bank,using an old bottle to fish.She cannot hold a job down and is sacked from one and the employer has to literally fight her off the premises.She is angry,unsmiling and tearful,whispering mantras to herself as she goes to sleep,to reinforce her little gains.A man's interest is of liitle comfort to her although his attempts to make her dance bring the only smiles.The young girl playing the part is an unprofessional actot.Her every body movement is tracked by a hand-held camera,literally zipping all over the place.This girl has no disguises,she is truthful,a wiry young soul,burning like a fuse.She has more grit than a bucketful of oysters.She moves the film along at such a pace,au naturelle,in such spartan settings you wonder if this is documentary or real.

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