This film is so un-American, but perhaps that’s just what a Belgian film should be. Critical darlings Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne follow La Promesse and Rosetta with another penetrating look at proletarian life. The brothers remain true to their documentary roots, and to the environment in which they grew up. The long takes seem captured on the fly, though in reality carefully rehearsed. We see more of the protagonist’s neck than of his face, viewing most of the action from over his shoulder. Also un-Hollywood is the refusal to explain -- you have to watch intently and figure it out as you go -- plus the inversion of the typical revenge fantasy (or even atypical ones like In the Bedroom.) The brothers built the film around their favorite actor, Olivier Gourmet, but allowed it to grow from its initial inspiration into something quite strange and surprising, a gripping suspense story without any of the usual tropes of cinematic suspense. Olivier (the character) is a carpentry instructor in a trade school for delinquent boys, who takes an unsettling interest in one of his students, for deep but only gradually revealed reasons. But be forewarned, if you do not approach this film as a quest for understanding, it will frustrate and irritate you. (2002, dvd, n.) *7-* (MC-86, RT-89.)
In the proletarian vein, if you wish to dig a little deeper into the recent news from France, then I strenuously recommend that you watch La Haine, a 1995 film by Mathieu Kassovitz, a Parisian Mean Streets set in precisely the milieu that is now aflame.
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