L’Enfant
(The Child/2005)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: B-
Jean-Pierre
& Luc Dardenne seem preoccupied with family relations, even when people are
not necessarily related. This is not to
say they are obsessed with psychological transferences, but they are very
ambitious about the connections between human beings that make them human to
begin with. L’Enfant (The Child/2005)
is not as successful as their remarkable The
Son (Le Fils), but has more of
the connection troubles they experienced with La Promesse, both reviewed elsewhere on this site.
This
time, con artist and thief Bruno (Jérémie Reneir) hits a new low when he takes
his newborn infant son and decides to sell him on the black market for
money! Unlike the recent Tsotsi (reviewed elsewhere on this
site), it is his child and he is not as violent as that title character. Nevertheless, the film tries to poise the
possibility of moral redemption if he can get his child back, but the problem
is that no matter what the ending, he is an idiot in the first place no matter
how likable he or the actor playing him might be.
The Bruno
character is in the tradition of many such characters in the French cinema, but
despite the bold narrative intent, it does not reach the greatness of The Son and falls a bit short like La Promesse simply because it takes so
much to put into such a film and the duo seem to miss the mark by trying to
keep things too simple in the name of naturalism. However, there films are always interesting
because they try to go for heart and soul realism in a way that is not
condescending, so even when they fall short, they are still a cinematic force
to be reckoned with. That is especially
important at this time when the art of film is in trouble. Integrity still means something.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image is a little softer than one would have
liked, especially as compared to the image on the two New Yorker releases of
their work on DVD. Cheers to
cinematographer Alain Marcoen’s fine camerawork. The same for the sound, which is Dolby
Digital 5.1 like The Son and still
does not have the surrounds of the Dolby 2.0 Pro Logic Stereo on La Promesse, so something is not right
and maybe it is in the production more than the transfer, because I cannot find
outright flaws in this DVD. It is still
watchable, though.
The only
extras are trailers for other Sony Pictures Classics on DVD and an on-camera
interview with the directors about the film and their careers to date.
- Nicholas Sheffo
