Transfusion #1: L'enfant
The other day I remembered that I had some posts sitting at another blog which isn't even Google-able, it's been dead so long. Rather than link to it, I'm going to freshly repost several items here.
Directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (The Son), this reminded me of Bresson's Pickpocket. We follow a young man around an urban environment as he performs petty (for the most part) criminal acts, mostly thievery. Eventually, though, there is a reckoning, in which the young man winds up in jail. The film ends with his girlfriend crying as she visits him there. Here, though, the thief himself is weeping, as he seemed, after an overwhelming series of consequences, to finally comprehend how destructive his irresponsible behavior had been, and perhaps what it means to own up to his actions, both criminal and paternal.
Early parts also recalled scenes from several Godard films, as the handheld camera follows the young couple frolicking recklessly. Similar to Band of Outsiders and Pierrot le fou, the early scenes of levity here counterbalance the grim stuff to follow. L'enfant, though, is much more grounded than those films. Very tightly framed, though not claustrophobically so, there are few establishing shots, really not much other than close-ups and medium shots except through a character's point of view. The style and form serve to create a sense of immediacy that is at times intense and even uncomfortable. See it for yourself.
Directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (The Son), this reminded me of Bresson's Pickpocket. We follow a young man around an urban environment as he performs petty (for the most part) criminal acts, mostly thievery. Eventually, though, there is a reckoning, in which the young man winds up in jail. The film ends with his girlfriend crying as she visits him there. Here, though, the thief himself is weeping, as he seemed, after an overwhelming series of consequences, to finally comprehend how destructive his irresponsible behavior had been, and perhaps what it means to own up to his actions, both criminal and paternal.
Early parts also recalled scenes from several Godard films, as the handheld camera follows the young couple frolicking recklessly. Similar to Band of Outsiders and Pierrot le fou, the early scenes of levity here counterbalance the grim stuff to follow. L'enfant, though, is much more grounded than those films. Very tightly framed, though not claustrophobically so, there are few establishing shots, really not much other than close-ups and medium shots except through a character's point of view. The style and form serve to create a sense of immediacy that is at times intense and even uncomfortable. See it for yourself.
Labels: Film
Posted on Sunday, December 07, 2008
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