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La Promesse (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1996)

Jeremie Renier , Luc Dardenne , Jean-Pierre Dardenne  |  Unrated |  Blu-ray
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

List Price: $39.95
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Blu-ray 1-Disc Version $19.99  
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Frequently Bought Together

La Promesse (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] + Rosetta (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] + The Royal Tenenbaums (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Price for all three: $59.77

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Product Details

  • Actors: Jeremie Renier
  • Directors: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
  • Format: Blu-ray, Color, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
  • Language: French
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: Unrated
  • Studio: Criterion Collection
  • DVD Release Date: August 14, 2012
  • Run Time: 94 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0083V2W54
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,821 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by Alain Marcoen
  • Conversation between film critic Scott Foundas and filmmakers
  • New interviews with actors Jeremie Renier and Olivier Gourmet
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kent Jones

  • Editorial Reviews

    Amazon.com

    La Promesse draws on the considerable documentary acumen of its directors, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Rosetta), to prove a revelation in narrative filmmaking. Shot on the outskirts of an industrial city in Belgium, the film follows Igor (Jérémie Rénier), the 15-year-old son of a single parent named Roger (Olivier Gourmet) who rents squalid apartments to recently arrived immigrants, many of them illegal. As Igor struggles to hold down odd jobs while assisting his father in crooked dealings, the Dardenne brothers plunge the audience into the thick of difficult issues--immigration, cultural and racial bias, bureaucratic injustices--without overtly politicizing or diminishing any of their characters. When Igor promises to help a young African woman, he finds he must choose between loyalty to his father and his own conscience. The beauty is in how the Dardenne brothers seem to share in the viewer's curiosity about the film's outcome, having captured a world so charged yet unadorned you feel the surprise of each new scene alongside the directors. An extraordinary film that bears repeated viewings. --Fionn Meade

    Product Description

    This is the breakthrough feature from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (The Kid with a Bike), who would go on to become a force in world filmmaking. The brothers brought the unerring eye for detail and the compassion for those on society’s lowest rungs developed in their earlier documentary work to this absorbing drama about a teenager (Summer Hours’ Jérémie Renier) gradually coming to understand the implications of his father’s making a living off of illegal alien workers. Filmed in the Dardennes’ industrial hometown of Seraing, Belgium, La promesse is a brilliantly economical and observant tale of a boy’s troubled moral awakening.

    Customer Reviews

    4.5 out of 5 stars
    (10)
    4.5 out of 5 stars
    Does one follow instinctual bonds to family, or honor and committment to a worthy promise. Scott D. Allen  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement
    I,like this movie,even thought I throught it was sad. james brown  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement
    Most Helpful Customer Reviews
    12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best of 1998 February 17, 2000
    Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase
    This is not a warm fuzzy picture by any means, but it is film for people who love people and appreciate the higher instincts of mankind that transcend nationality, race, gender, and age. Does one follow instinctual bonds to family, or honor and committment to a worthy promise.

    I absolutely loved this film...and so did my Parisian friends to whom I recommended it.

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    14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars Flat-out my favorite film of the 90s December 1, 2000
    By A Customer
    Format:VHS Tape
    If you haven't seen this one, well... Its emotional impact on me was devastating. I saw it when it opened, and a friend and I, who are normally quite talkative after a good movie, walked at least two city blocks afterwards before either of us said a word. I compare it in style to "The Dreamlife of Angels" (hand-held cameras, naturalistic acting, a plot that unfolds gradually and builds to a harrowing finale, and no musical score) and in theme to, of all things, "The Apartment" (main character is waist-deep in wrongdoing but has a crisis of conscience that forces him to re-evaluate himself and his actions). Please find a copy somehow, or go ahead and spend the money here -- I don't want Amazon to get angry with me.
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    4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars Promise Keeper! July 29, 2009
    Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
    Belgium documentary film makers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne deliver an unflinching glimpse into the horrors and exploitation of undocumented workers and the opportunistic people who prey on them in order to improve their own sordid, wretched lives. The directors also have an amazing eye for casting as all the actors are so natural that you think you are watching a documentary, rather than a compassionate piece of fiction.

    The heart and soul of the piece is Igor portrayed by a stunning looking fifteen year old Jérémie Rénier (Summer Hours (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]) in an amazing first performance. Every good story needs a great villain and here it supplied by Igor's father Roger in a bravura performance by Olivier Gourmet (Rosetta [Region 2 Import - Non USA Format]). The lying, cheating, brutal Roger exploits everyone near him and even though he loves him, poor Igor is no exception.

    The motherless boy has been pulled out of school under the pretense of an apprenticeship so his dad can use him to help run the family business of human trafficking. Absent of any moral teachings or decent role model, Igor is no angel himself:an expert forger of fake identities, purse snatcher, and lying to immigration officers. However, he is still a mechanically inclined 12 year old who snatches a few precious minutes to work on a motorized soap box type car with his friends and paints his dingy teeth with white-out to mimic the dazzling smiles of the Africans whose passports he is altering.
    ... Read more ›
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    2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars La promesse November 30, 2012
    Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
    A powerful movie on a difficult subject. I recently showed this to my French class because of the immigration topic, but it is so much more! Along the way the young Igor finds redemption for a life that has been less than honest. It is definitely one that will get the students talking and thinking about our global issues, the human condition! My first class to view it completely erupted in an uproar at the ending, perfect for a discussion on the issues. As a teacher, I highly recommend this movie to all French and sociology/psychology teachers out there! And anyone else wanting to present a more realistic world view!
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    2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
    4.0 out of 5 stars Coming of age boy developing conflicts with father September 9, 2012
    Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
    Superb coming of age film in which a pause, driven by rising consciousness, leads a young boy to develop conflicts with his father, and to engage in autonomous decision-making of right over wrong. The film is devoid of sentimentalism or saccharine actions. Reminds of Jerzy Grotowski's poor theater in which the set is stripped of ornamentation. The camera is always moving, keeping close contact with the diverse characters. Great film with impeccable acting and directing.
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    1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
    4.0 out of 5 stars A thought provoking, moralistic drama December 1, 2012
    Format:Blu-ray
    The Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, have created a good number of award-winning films.

    From the 2002 film "The Son" (winner of the "Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival), 2005 film "The Child" (winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), 2008 film "Lorna's Silence" (winner of "Best Screenplay" at the Cannes Film Festival) and most recently with their 2011 film "The Kid with a Bike", which won the Grand Prize of the Jury for "Best Film" at the Cannes Film Festival.

    With films that are highly anticipated for their quality writing and direction, back in the 1980′s, the Belgian duo were known for their documentaries. And with their 1987 film "Falsch", the Dardenne Brothers had the opportunity to direct a major feature 1992 film, "Je pense a vous".

    And the film didn't do well.

    Suffice to say, the film would go against everything that the Dardenne Brothers enjoyed. Having to be on a tight schedule preventing key reshoots, budgetary inconveniences and not shooting a scene in order. The experience turned the Dardenne Brothers off and both discussed that if they do a film, they do things by their own terms, even if it means shooting a low-budget film.

    So, in 1996, the Dardenne brothers worked on "La Promesse" (The Promise). A film in which they had complete control over. No need for expensive equipment, they will shot with a handheld camera. No need for spending a lot of money on talent, they would work with unknown talent. And no more having to shoot scenes in different order.

    And with this film, it earned them a Cesar nomination for "Best Foreign Film" and winning the Brussels International Film Festival for "Best Belgian Film".
    ... Read more ›
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