The Son
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Morgan Marinne, Isabella Soupart Olivier GourmetDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Unknown), Unknown; English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
Published: 2004-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: New Yorker
Movie Reviews of The Son
Movie Review: Brilliant Personal Connection with Sorrow & Forgiveness...
Summary: 5 Stars
The two brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne directed Rosetta (1999), which won the Golden Palm in 1999. This time the two brothers bring another unique tale of social importance to the audience in a spectacular story with wisdom, integrity, and artistic value. The Son has some resemblance with Rosetta in regards to the cinematography, which might be compared to the Dogma 95 style. However, this time the two brothers maximize the potential of the camera technique as it serves its ultimate purpose in the story telling.
The camera follows Olivier (Olivier Gourmet), a carpenter teacher at an institution for troubled adolescents, wherever he travels. The audience is allowed to peak over Olivier's shoulder to see what he sees and gradually enter his world. Frenetically, Olivier runs around in the building while peaking through windows, around corners, and he makes up excuses to be in locations where he can stare undisturbed at a young male adolescent. Slowly the audience begins to make their own assumptions to why Olivier does what he does.
Olivier eventually gets enough courage to approach the head of the institution as he requests that the new boy, whom he has been secretively stalking, is transferred from the metal craft department to the carpentry department for which he is the supervisor. The head of the institution agrees to Olivier's request, and shortly after he picks up the young adolescent from the metal craft department. Olivier brings the boy to the carpenter department where he closely examines him with his eyes, and provides work pants and tools for him.
The film might appear dreary at first, but this is essential, as the audience will be rewarded for its cerebral participation in the story of the Belgian carpenter Olivier. Through Olivier the Dardenne brothers dissect the audience's perception and participation in the story through what psychologists might call the attribution theory. Through this the film tells an extraordinary story of an ordinary man and his uncharacteristic relationship to a teen.
The Dardenne brothers' minimalist approach to the story does not offer any extravagant flamboyance, which might be seen in Oscar winning films. There are no symbolisms, no analogies, nor additional visual syntaxes to what is ordinarily supposed to be within each frame to enhance a film. The script tells more than what is in the lines, yet it does not provide any clear indications in what direction it is venturing until the very end. The audience is merely suspended to their own knowledge and wisdom as they begin to interpret what the film depicts. In the end, the viewer will have experienced truly brilliant cinema, which offers much insight into life and its many complexities.
Summary of The Son
The brothers Dardenne craft lean, unfancy movies, full of ordinary people, with no special effects--but the emotional impact of their movies (which include the superb "La Promesse" and "Rosetta") is devastating. In "The Son", a carpentry teacher named Olivier (Olivier Gourmet) accepts a new student into his class after having first rejected him; it is soon revealed that this new boy, Francis, is responsible for the death of Olivier's son. But Olivier takes Francis under his wing--is Olivier planning on taking revenge? Is this a phenomenal act of compassion? Is he simply tormenting himself? The movie watches Olivier engage in his daily tasks without comment, yet every scene is almost unnervingly dense with emotion (it's no wonder that Gourmet won the Best Actor award at Cannes for this performance). "The Son" builds complex and potent feelings from utterly mundane moments. It's simply an astonishing feat of moviemaking. "--Bret Fetzer"Similar DVD Movies
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