Rosetta [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne Luc Dardenne

Overview

From the directors of the critically acclaimed La Promesse (1996) comes this stark portrayal of a young woman coming of age at the edge of social oblivion. Rosetta (Émilie Dequenne) lives in a tiny, beat-up trailer without toilets or running water with her alcoholic, irresponsible, and utterly dispirited mother, who requires her frequent care. Rosetta longs to have a "normal" life and become a productive member of society, but even this modest goal seems beyond her grasp. Quietly terrified that she will slide into the abyss like her mother, she wages a desperate, purely instinctive battle to lift herself out of her wretched, semi-feral existence. At the film's outset, she is bodily removed from her job at a food factory; for much of the rest of the film, her attempts to gain employment are thwarted by the callousness and indifference of others. The only person to show any kind of sympathy is Riquet (Fabrizio Rongione), who ekes out a pittance at a waffle stand while secretly skimming profits from his boss. Though his awkward attempts to gain her interest go unacknowledged by the barely socialized Rosetta, the two develop something like a friendship. Later in the movie, however, her loyalty to her new-found friend clashes with her all-consuming desire for a job. First-time actress Dequenne, who spent time in a similarly harsh environment to prepare for the role, won the Best Actress prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. This film also won the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes and was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/14/2012
UPC:	0715515097512
Original Release:	1999
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	15,501

Special Features

Conversation between film critic Scott Foundas and Filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne - New Interview piece featuring actors Émilie Dequenne and Olivier Gourmet; Trailer; ; ; Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kent Jones

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Emilie Dequenne	Rosetta
Fabrizio Rongione	Riquet
Anne Yernaux	Mother
Olivier Gourmet	Boss
Bernard Marbaix	Campgrounds Manager
Frederic Bodson	Head of Personnel
Florian Delain	The Boss's Son
Christiane Dorval	First Saleswoman
Mireille Bailly	Second Saleswoman
Thomas Gollas	The Mother's Boyfriend
Leon Michaux	First Policeman
Victor Marit	Second Policeman
Colette Regibeau	Madame Riga
Claire Tefnin	Girl in Locker Room
Sophie Leboutte	Fired Woman
Gaetano Ventura	Store Manager
Christian Neys	First Paramedic
Valentin Traversi	Second Paramedic
Jean-Francois Noville	Hospital Worker

Technical Credits

Luc Dardenne

Luc Dardenne	Director,Director,Producer,Producer,Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Laurent Petin	Producer,Producer
Jean-Pierre Duret	Sound/Sound Designer
Thomas Gauder	Sound Mixer,Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

The Dardennes brothers' unflinching portrait of an impoverished young Belgian girl ranks with the neo-realist masterpieces of De Sica and Rossellini. Rosetta (Émilie Dequenne) is a grim-visaged 18-year-old girl who desperately seeks a job which will allow her to escape the wretched trailer she shares with her alcoholic, layabout mother (Anne Yernaux). A film of nearly unbearable physical intensity, it plunges the viewer into the life of the immiserated girl so completely that one forgets that any other world could exist. Shooting with a handheld camera, the directors provide no aesthetic distancing, no opportunity for reflection, and no emotional respite from the suffering of the girl, whose soul is so knotted with anger and loneliness that she's nearly as unreachable as the feral boy in Truffaut's L'Enfant Sauvage (1970). Her suspicious, awkward reaction to the sympathetic overtures of a boy (Fabrizio Rongione) who runs a waffle stand painfully reveal how much damage she's already sustained. Indeed, it's the film's most disturbing insight that even after Rosetta has secured a measure of the normalcy she has so hungrily sought, her inability to enjoy her new state suggests that the scars inflicted on her by a cruelly indifferent society are irrevocable. Dequenne is astonishing as this creature, who she has fashioned less a young girl than a vulnerable, wounded animal. Although the film has been compared to Bresson's Mouchette (1967) and the films of De Sica, it lacks the former's sense of Christian redemption and the latter's sentimentality. But the spirit of fierce integrity which permeates the film is that of unique and visionary artists. The winner of the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 1999, the film provoked a change in Belgian labor law, which now prohibits employers from paying teenage workers less than the minimum wage.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello