Customer Reviews

Rosetta

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Coming off the critical success they had with their first movie, "La Promesse," the Dardenne brothers again give us a glimpse into the monumental struggles that encompass our everyday lives. Emilie Dequenne, in her first screen appearance, plays Rosetta, a young woman determined to find a job and keep it. That's it, there's your story. No farts or fireworks. The petty and pathetic lives of those around her, though, prevent her from obtaining a glimpse of normality. Somebody who wrote a review here complained that the motion on the film was too jerky, ala "The Blair Witch." There are essential scenes in the film where a hand held camera is used but there is no excessive use of it and, like I said, these scenes are required as Rosetta is always on the move. She has no time or desire to remain still and dormant like the others around her, and thus, as the story is told from her point of view, the camera must move with her. Again, unlike the Blair Witch, this movie is a realistic view of hell and fear in today's world. The last sequence in the film is just tremendous. Buy this, you will not regret it.

I remember, at least half a dozen times, passing this movie by in the video store, gravitating towards it due to the legend "Winner Palm D'Or Best Actress/Best Picture" and the lovely face of Emilie Dequenne, then passing it by after reading the back. The summary of the plot bored me so immediately and intensely that I could not imagine actually sitting and watching the film. I eventually changed my mind, and thankfully so.

Rosetta is an absolutely driven character, almost an animal, single-minded in her goals. Those goals are mundane: find a job, lead a normal life. Her obstacles are mundane: rent, alcoholic mother, cramps. She asks questions, gets her answers, and walks away with no pretense of social grace. For most scenes the camera either points in the direction of Rosetta's POV, over her shoulder, or aims directly into her face. The shot rarely sits still: action and object are the same here. We see what she sees as she sees it and make judgments about people and situations alongside her, a process that usually reveals how silly normal people seem when viewed by someone with no tolerance for nonsense. She does not understand dancing - leisure, or why people would indulge in it when other things need doing, is foreign to her.

Routine fills her existence, and when the routines of friendship and work cannot be found, she constructs new and even unnecessarily complicated routines: cross the road to find the sewer where she hid her boots, change out of shoes into boots to cross the mud to reach the lake where she's set up fish traps with bobbypins and broken bottles, every day. She doesn't even keep the fish. In that way she, like most of us, is completely neurotic - but who has the motivation to carry out their designs with so much determination, in ignorance of those neuroses? Who completely ignores defeat?

I would recommend other Dequenne pictures, but apparently her only other role is alongside Mark Dacascos in the inscrutible Brotherhood of the Wolf. Stick with Rosetta and enjoy.

Rosetta,a film that deals with the struggles of a young woman who has just been fired from her job at a factory in Belgium,was an extremely pleasant surprise for me.Emilie Dequenne's performance in the lead role is riveting,realistic,raw,and energetic.If this were a film financed by hollywood,there's no doubt her gender would have been exploited,and she would have been some sexpot with boy troubles.Not so in this cinematic effort.The focus is almost entirely on her effort to secure employment just so she can get a meal and help her alcoholic mother with the rent.She doesn't have time to chase boys,she's only concerned with surviving.The most startling aspect of this film is it's avoidance of manufactured sentimentlity,complete with cheasy music,to get the viewer to sympathize with her predicament.There's no epiphanies,startling revelations,or some cheap trick ending tacked on for marketing purposes.The way the film is shot(16mm or digital video(i'm not sure),handheld tracking shots,what seems like natural lighting)gives it a powerful,frenetic feel.Some people are turned off by the camera movement,but to do it any other way would negate the spontaneous,out of control atmosphere(maybe it doesn't bother me because i spent almost 2 years out at sea without getting sick).The camera follows her every move,you'll feel like a peeping tom stalking this young lady.The supporting cast are all solid,but it's really Dequenne's show,it's the main reason to seek out this hidden gem.Highly recommended,especially for the art house crowd.My only complaint,and it's not with the film itself,is that,why can't more director's take chances with movies such as Rebecca.It's an example of what can be accomplished when you don't try to please the masses,and truly "reflect" grim realities(something hollywood portends to do).Croupier,Dark Days,Human Resources,Blair Witch,The Last Broadcast,and now Rebecca,it's been an amazing 2 years for independent film.I consider this another one of my all time favorites.

Warning: Please eat at least 2 hours prior watching this film. If you can't stand the handheld camera in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, then don't even bother watching this film. Believe me, you'll get sick.

The great thing about ROSETTA is the fact that the Dardene brothers chose not to make her character sympathethic. All she wants is a normal life, which consist of finding a job. And she will do anything to get it. The film literally follows her as she walks around the city, looking for employment. The ending is shocking, but reminds me of Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Emilie Dequenne gave a brilliant performance in a realist film that plays like it's coming from the French New Wave. Overall, this film is worth watching. It deserves to win the Palme D'Or, although most people disagree (they chose the entertaining but thin ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER instead). Watch this film, and you'll never forget it. You probably won't like it, but it's worth watching, because there's rarely a minimalist film like this.

Relentlessly downbeat. Heck, the sun doesn't even shine in Rosetta's world of despair. And the production values made me wonder if the Dardenne brothers signed the Dogme 95 pact. I now understand the controversy at the 2000 Cannes film festival when this dour film picked up the Palme D'Or. However, despite it all, I was moved by Rosetta's plight, and I rooted for her. No doubt this is due to Emilie Dequenne's amazing performance in the title role.

Rosetta deservedly was a co-winner of the Palm d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and was one of the best movies of the year. Like most European movies, the film does not have a plot or conventional story line. It instead focuses on the desperate attempts of the lead character, the seventeen-year-old Rosetta, to escape poverty and find a normal life. Emilie Dequenne stars and delivers a performance that would be remarkable for an actress of any age, but that is especially astonishing for someone so young who presumably doesn't have the life experience to show such depth. Yet Dequenne convincingly conveys Rosetta's absolute pain and despair. It is easy to empathize with Rosetta and to feel her pain, even when she makes a choice that hurts someone who has only tried to help her. Much of the movie's strength also comes from the camera work. The filmmakers made heavy use of hand-held cameras tightly and almost exclusively focused on Rosetta, creating an incredibly personal effect that enables the viewer to feel what she feels. Although not a light movie or easy to watch, Rosetta is a truly memorable and rewarding film that has a profound impact.

Rosetta is a powerful film depicting a young woman, Rosetta (Émilie Dequenne), living in the cracks of the Belgian society. The crack in which Rosetta has fallen is a part of society where she has no social protection from the government where corporations exploit her without giving her any securities. Rosetta is considered a minor as she is in the years between adolescence and adulthood.

The initial scene is set in motion as Rosetta violently fights her way into the office at the company where she works. When she arrives to her desired destination it becomes evident that she has been fired. However, what would make someone young that upset for being fired? This is a question that is answered as Rosetta returns home to the trailer park in which she lives. Rosetta is a proud person who struggles with keeping it together for her and her alcoholic mother. The mother evidently has been neglecting her daughter for most of her upbringing as Rosetta takes care of herself in every aspect of life as she has done it for a very long time.

The young female protagonist of story lives a life where she strives for socioeconomic security through a job. This is easier said than done as she finds it very hard to keep a job as she lacks experience and laws that protect her from being exploited by small companies. Rosetta also seeks a home, a place where she can find emotional security, as she continues to hold on to her alcoholic and neglecting mother.

The struggle of Rosetta is not told through long scripted dialogues, but through the daily actions of Rosetta. These actions are captured through a handheld camera as it flows with Rosetta and her difficult journey, which enhance the realism of the film. The realism is soul tearing as the audience cannot escape the world of Rosetta, a world in which Rosetta attempts to find a spot.

Rosetta offers an intricate character study of the young woman through her struggles. Émilie Dequenne was awarded the prize for best actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her part. Besides the character study the film also offers a well-made socioeconomic drama that had an impact on the Belgian government. Shortly after Rosetta was released the Belgian government passed a law branded as "Plan Rosetta". The law protects minors from being exploited by being paid less than minimum wage.

This is one of those films that restored my confidence in filmaking as an artform. It is anti-Hollywood in the extreme, and is realism in its most raw form; in your face, without apology.

To speak of a "plot" here would be inaccurate. Rosetta closely follows the life of a young girl who lives in dire poverty, as she struggles to find employment. Some reviewers have said she seeks a "normal life." But what is key here, is that in modern capitalist societies, a person's self-worth is determined by their projects, i.e. their occupation. Without a job, and without a real home, Rosetta faces an identity crisis. Every time she is fired from a job, her self-esteem is destroyed. Unlike her alcoholic mother, who has simply given up, Rosetta resolves to fight.

Like a ship trapped in an ice-pack, Rosetta is distant, cold, and detached. Because she cannot love herself, she will not permit others to love her, or even to befriend her. She has made a decision to obtain a job, restore her self-image, and THEN re-enter the world of the living. Her only possession of value are her shoes, which she carefully keeps clean, as she is forced to trod through a muddy forest to her mother's squalid trailer. Every detail of the film plays a crucial role; since we cannot know Rosetta intimately through her personality, we must learn to understand her through every little action she takes.

In a economic system which separates people both materially and emotionally, living a fulfilling existence is painfully difficult. It is only at the edges where we see the true drama unfold, and this is where "Rosetta" takes place. The final sequence is brilliant, as Rosetta is literally "forced" to make an ultimate decision.

Rosetta, the main character, is oppressed by life, not by men. Her mother is an alcoholic, and tries to get what she wants and needs--her drugs and some care--by trading her body for them. (Incidentally, Rosetta and her mother eke out some cash by a clothing reselling businesses of their own, requiring a good bit of industry and initiative.) The prematurely adult Rosetta sees that her mother is prostituting herself and does what she can to intervene. When Rosetta herself gets the opportunity (plot spoiler alert), she takes advantages of the friendship of a male friend to stab him in the back for his job. Suffering remorse, she tries to extricate herself from the web, but she's already perpetuated the cycle by her poor judgment (actually, by following the temptation to lie and use people for her own benefit). This is an excellent narrative of spiritual and psychological growth, of a girl negotiating opportunities and learning the ways of life. Betrayal and an underplayed if ambiguous redemption theme.

Kazimir Malevich once said "Viewers always demand that art be comprehensive, but they never demand of themselves to be comprehensible," or something like that. This low-budget, avant-garde film uses only the bare minimum of means with all extraneous elements eliminated. It's an honest, real portrait of a struggling Belgian teenager as she is determined to live a normal life. The film is shot almost entirely with hand-held cameras, many scenes close-up, and like most films of this genre, it is slow to start and some viewers may find this disconcerting. In the end they maybe left asking questions, but isn't that what it's all about? Despite it's unconventional style and anti-Hollywood approach, one is sure to be moved.