John Flynn Films by Dardanne brothers tend to lack backstory and context. They have insinuations of what the backstory of the characters is, but it never definitively tells you what is that story. You have to either ignore the lack of context and go along with the story presented objectively, or to use your imagination and fill the gaps yourself. Watching a film by Dardanne brothers is like walking into someone's house for the first time. What I mean by this analogy, is that, when you walk into someone's house for the first time, you may catch a glimpse of what the history of the house is and the people who live/lived there was. You can look at the pictures of people who live there, or at the décor, and build your subjective version of its history, but you'll never know for sure. But just because you don't know the history of the house doesn't mean it doesn't have one. The thing that I appreciate in Dardanne brother's films, or indie films in general, is they intentionally deny you the obvious information to make the experience more subjective, thus more real. Which is something that I always admired in films, and which is what I wish was more prominent in bigger films. Sometimes, the lack of context can be an excuse for lazy screen writing. Sometimes, it can be a beneficial to the story. It depends on how the lack of context co-exists with the objective story we're seeing. Films like "Le fils" only benefit from lacking the context, because its story is very basic, it doesn't rely on sentimentality and schmaltz to sell itself. It's a simple tale, told in a very subjective manner, that grabs your interest by telling a story that, as it goes along, has a reveal that seems like a very pivotal moment for the film, but it never overdoes it, and rather shows you the ramifications of that pivotal moment in a very subtle and mundane approach. Which is why this is such a great film.

PoppyTransfusion This was my second film by the Dardennes brothers (the first being L'Infant/The Child) and I recognised the style immediately: thrown into a world in which explanation and understanding might emerge organically rather than fabricated as a tale with a beginning, middle and end and, a lead character, Oliver, who like Bruno in The Child is constantly in movement. Bruno was always walking; with Oliver it is his everyday tasks that choreograph the film.It is the character of Oliver that amazed and delighted me. Played with a remarkable, studied intensity by Oliver Gourmet I was mesmerised by him even when doing the most banal or mundane things. Oliver seems faceless and unremarkable yet in his past is the sort of event that wrenches people from the comfort of ordinary existence. Oliver's routines and habits become more meaningful as we, the audience, make discoveries about his past and so, the present day man.This film shows that good stories, compelling stories, are to be found in many people's lives if you brush away the surface dust that settles when one is going about the daily business of living, which for many means just getting by. It also shows how anguish, despair, rage and hopelessness can be borne and contained within routine. There is no sentimentality attached to the lot of the characters we meet: consisting of Oliver, his ex-wife and an adolescent fresh from a juvenile detention centre called Francis.In short what is amazing is the authenticity of this film that, with its lingering close-ups, confronts the viewer with reality and one that is probably closer to us than we realise. It is refreshing to find such a film in an age of cinema based on special effects, CGI created images, comic book super heroes and meaningless remakes.

camclaying This film really challenged me. It made me reconsider my well-worn habits of movie viewing, my lazily rendered moviegoer inclinations. Utterly mundane in its realism, a slice of life if there ever was one, "The Son" by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, is a film about forgiveness, the kind buried deep within the dull folds of a man's tedious day-to-day existence. Oliver is a stern, expressionless carpentry teacher at a trade school for reformed youth transitioning into civil society. His thick glasses obscure his eyes, nonetheless his presence is startling in its austerity. A new student, Francis, becomes enrolled, one that Oliver takes a bizarre interest in, to the point of obsessively monitoring him both in and outside the workshop. At this point in the film I'm thinking to myself: "So is this guy a pedophile? Is he looking to molest this kid?" I had much to learn. As the movie progresses we learn that Oliver's young son was killed by Francis, an incident that happened five years prior, with which both he and his estranged wife are still coping. After learning this, all of Oliver's actions take on a different meaning. They are now to be scrutinized in a compassionate, yet discerning way. Up to this point I had been desperately trying to apply tried and true suspense scenarios to this film, which never did stick. Oliver treats this boy like a son, however Francis is completely oblivious to the man's knowledge of his crime. He pays special attention to the boy's improvement. He is demanding, yet fair in his disposition. He eventually takes Francis out to a remote lumberyard so that he may learn to recognize different types of wood. Now I'm all: "Oh man, he's totally going to exact sweet, sweet revenge!"Here again I was thinking too simply. What follows is an elegantly paced final sequence, one that moved me beyond words. There are many things that make this film work. There is no musical score, only the harsh sounds of power tools and clacking wood. There are hardly any cuts. A hand-held camera follows Oliver around voyeuristically at very close range, almost always over his shoulder. The viewer becomes part of the guilt-ridden cloud of claustrophobia strangling a broken man's conscience. The plot arc is pretty flat-line, but the amount of nuance in the acting is breathtaking. Most of the time Oscar and Francis are completely deadpan, yet the subtlest mannerisms imbue these characters with hyper-realistic depth. This film is slow, but skillfully so. In the first half we are subjected to the minutiae of carpentry instruction, slightly enticed by Oliver's strange behavior towards Francis. But once we come to learn about the murder of Oliver's son, the behavior that was once dull suddenly becomes lush with significance. I was rapt with anticipation from then on out, dissecting each twitch and gesture.This film really captivated me, but above all made me a more mature audience member.

Ilpo Hirvonen The Dardenne brothers, Luc and Jean-Pierre, are an acclaimed Belgian filmmaking duo who direct, write, produce and edit their films together. They first became known for The Promise (1996) which was an unconventional story about illegal immigrants and the business behind it. Their next film was Rosetta (1999) a film which built around the idea of Franz Kafka's The Castle - where a prince gets thrown out of the castle; in Rosetta a girl gets thrown out of society. In Rosetta they started modernizing cinema, both philosophically and narratively, and continued it in Le fils which, to my mind, represents a vast turning point in the language of cinema. In their films social messages are combined with subtle documentary-like narrative.The plot isn't as important to the Dardenne's as the movement is. The energy on the screen, how close we get to the characters, how close the distance between them and the audience is. The job Olivier does, woodcraft, has obviously something to do with this: it's the kind of work where you need to measure distances between destinations; Olivier is measuring the distance between himself and the boy. There's no music at all in Le fils - as in the most films by the brothers. The opening credits will put the whole audience into silence and when the film's over the silence will fall to the theater once again. There's not much of dialog either in Le fils and through that we have to observe to get familiar with the characters. And this is what the Dardenne brothers are famous of - minimalism. We get to know the characters through their body language; through their eyes and gestures.The story is about a carpentry teacher Olivier (Olivier Gourmet) who works in a rehab center. One day he refuses to take a new student to his class for an unknown reason, but eventually starts stalking and following him. When he finally accepts to take Francis (the new student) to his class an absurd relationship build between them.The narrative is something mind-blowing for those unfamiliar with the earlier work of the brothers such as Rosetta (1999). This is a radical change in the language of cinema. The whole movie is filmed with a hand-held-camera so all the events are seen from the main character's shoulder. And that let's us to actually feel his emotions and get into his head. The narrative is very slow and quiet which let's us to observe and think on our own. The camera follows the character - it shows its life. The camera doesn't know, it doesn't see, it only sees what the character sees. So what has been cloaked from us? "Cloaking is very important" -Luc Dardenne.Olivier, the main character, is so well built that one can't compare it with anything else. In Le fils he's very calm but yet it seems like he's aggressive and could explode at any second. The characterization is minimalist but very precise and considered. To me Le fils represents finest characterization out there today.The main themes, this film deals with, are loneliness, guilt and forgiveness. It can be seen as some sort of an allegory for Christian redemption and forgiveness. The film is not religious but the Dardennes had a strong catholic upbringing and just as Krzysztof Kieslowski, an acclaimed Polish filmmaker, so do they understand what a vast impact Christianity has had on us and our conception of morality. They both have said that they're atheists and Luc Dardenne has written in his book, Behind Our Pictures: "God is dead, we know it. We're alone, we know it."Le fils is quite a film, to my mind it's the best film made in the decade. It's multidimensional and complex a film which could be interpreted in a thousand different ways. To me the film was a touching moral study about the ultimate power of love, and forgiveness. Alongside with Rosetta this is one of the most experimental films made in the past few years. I think the brothers have reached a whole new level in cinematic narrative. The brothers are film-philosophers and Le fils has once again proved that film can and should be an instrument for thinking and contemplating.