Marathon UpdateL'enfant There's a moment in L'enfant the beautifully crystalizes why I like the Dardenne Brothers films. Two characters meet. One asks the other if they'd like coffee. The other says yes and then sits there while coffee is retrieved. The camera stays on the person. An important meeting is about to happen. Where might this possibly go? Goes against everything they teach you in film school, where they'd want you to get right into the argument. The Dardenne's are wise enough to know that the best moment is the wait right before the conversation. That's why they start the scene with "Would you like some coffee?"
L'enfant brings me to the end of my Dardenne road trip. I've already seen The Son, which remains their best through the quiet grace of the conflict. I'll get to Lorna's Silence and their new stuff sometime down the road. This one was more padded by quiet than their other works. The hook doesn't happen till we're about a third of the way in, and there's a particular moment where Bruno is hitting the water with a stick that exceeds the bonus patience I have for their slow and steady pace.
The great Olivier Gourmet is once again handed a role too small for his talent. The focus is back on Jérémie Renier, who comfortably plays a rather horrible human being. The film could easily have been called Enfants, because there is more than one child here. Actually the mother (Déborah Francois) also has a lot of growing up to do, and it happens when Bruno sells her baby for money. (That's the hook.) Renier is extraordinary at making me believe he would do such a thing. That he would see a logic in it, and that he would realize his mistake as quickly as he does. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't let Bruno off the hook that easy. He tries to rectify the situation immediately, but things just go from bad to worse. Everything he does just blows up in his face as another problem to solve. I was glad... and I was absorbed.
But in the end I was unsatisfied because this film builds to the
exact same ending as another Dardenne film. You can argue that the build up of the two films are completely different, but even still the emotional climax and the way it is filmed is the exact same. So I have to think you will better appreciate whichever Dardenne you watch first. I really wish they found a different way to conclude this. It's not even like this is the only possible way the film could end. Took me out of the film right at the final minutes.
RATING: ***Here's the ranking of the 4 Dardenne Brothers films I've seen.
I will probably watch Aleksandr Dovzhenko's Arsenal and Earth before I see Delmer Daves' 3:10 to Yuma