La Promesse
Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B-
Luc and Jean Pierre Dardenne
are award-winning filmmakers who occasionally do a dramatic feature film. Though not known of strongly in the U.S., one of their more noted successes is 1996’s La
Promesse, about a father and son who are involved
in illegal immigrant affairs. The father
is setting a bad example for his son, which comes to roost in the film.
15-year-old Igor (Jeremie
Renier) rides around on his motor scooter, working at a local auto
body/mechanic car shop. He is not the
best employee, but the owner has hopes.
Father Roger (Oliver Gourmet) offers no alternatives to his son, and has
no immediate plans to eventually exit this way of life. Igor becomes close to one of the immigrants,
which becomes more dramatic when their particular situation gets dire. Roger wants Igor to stay away, even beating
his son over this, but Igor is becoming torn apart by this, resulting in even
more conflict.
I like the set-up, locations,
acting, casting, and story, but as real and consistent as it is, the film
offers few surprises. I like Renier’s
performance, which manages to carry the film in the lead role. Writer/directors the Dardenne Brothers are on
the right track, but there was something more to come up with here, but they do
not find it.
The anamorphically-enhanced
1.78 X 1 image is not bad for what looks like a PAL recycling, though the
colors are still a bit off and definition suffers, but co-cinematographers
Alain Marcoen and Benduit Dervaux capture the sights very well, making this
have a sense of happening it would not in lesser cameramen’s hands. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo comes from the
original Dolby-A theatrical sound, playing back well-enough in Pro Logic. It is not bad for its age. The extras include a photo gallery, some New
Yorker DVD trailers (including the European one for this film), and
Filmographies of the participants.
I also liked the energy of the
film, which has heart underneath the street world it reveals. There is an early segment of Igor enjoying a
go-cart ride with some friends, representing the childhood he did not have to
some extent. He makes a promise to an
immigrant when those around him who should have taken better care of him do
not, one of life’s ultimate ironies in how adults keep failing children.
- Nicholas Sheffo
