L'enfant

Dramatic, realistic, proposing honest portrait of an age, generation, near reality. A film about parenthood. Bitter, cold, well made. And about the build of responsability. All - gived in wise manner. With admirable force. A father. His son. A decision. And the transformation. And the price of option.

I can't say that I'm a fan of the previous Dardennes' movies... Saw Rosetta and "Le fils" and... well... didn't really go INTO them as I would have liked... probably because of the way (at the time) they were filmed ... sort of "dogma inspired" way of filming... following the neck/back of the characters, moving all the time... that makes me sea-sick... That's a detail that can make you laugh but something that disturbs me a lot from the story and that must not be used all the time in a film I think...

To me, the film is first a love story between two young people, two kids in a way (more the guy than the girl) more than a social drama... a true one... but nevertheless standing in a social context that is obviously proposed from the first images, and that counts and is indissociable from the characters and what they live and are living in.

What I felt is a real empathy for those two young lovers... Their love, their strength - each one trying to find a future, a new future... with their own means... Through money, through surviving, through a baby... through tears and the rare basic things of life they know or have been taught of...

It's 1h35 you're watching a young man grow...

My great enthusiasm for the film is also because of the actors. Jeremie Renier and Deborah Francois... They shine, they tremble and they're so true... I will also add the young boy who play Steve.. The film wouldn't be as touching without them... Wonderful belgian actors !!! BEST wishes to you all, you deserve it ! (Little moment of chauvinism, sorry LOL... anyway...

This is a film I would recommend...

L'Infant is extraordinary surprising. I never had seen a Belgian movie so I was very curious about this when I was in the theater.

The script is about 2 young youths that aren't yet mature already carrying the burden of taking care of their own baby. Unemployed, without any good prospect of a real future, school droppers and not having reached maturity, they went on living just for the moment. The father is just a young, dull and irresponsible teenager that lives thru schemes and small petty crimes. The mother, looking as a 12 years old girl, thrives to support the child and don't discourage the way of living of her "husband", seen by her as fair and needed to aid their life.

The film focuses also on the illegal and dark commerce of adoption and selling of children, which is by the way what the boy will do to gain a load of money...

The movie then runs to decadence, regret, awareness of childish mistakes and bad options that, without surprise, would lead to an expected nightmare... jail.

Great acting, fair dialog(Due to the content of the story) and a voyage to the sorrow for the misfortunes of these 2 child-parents.

The Dardennes, who won their second Palme d"Or at Cannes this year with "L'Enfant" (The Child), describe it as "a love story that is also the story of a father." Twenty-year-old Bruno (Jérémie Renier) is a petty thief and scam artist in Seraing, an east Belgian steel town, who lives off his girlfriend's welfare and impulsively spends whatever he steals. When eighteen-year-old Sonia (Déborah François) returns after the birth of their son Jimmy, Bruno's far worse than merely unready to accept the responsibility of fatherhood. Unbeknownst to Sonia, he decides to sell the baby on the black market. The film is about what happens following this grotesquely ill-advised decision. Who is really the "child" here? Well, clearly the story is about Bruno.

"L'Enfant" is urgent with movement and has little talk. As with the 1996 "La promesse" (The Promise, 1996), where Jérémie Renier debuted, "Rosetta" (1999), and "Le Fils" (The Son, 2003), the action is ceaseless and obsessive and seems almost real-time. But the Dardennes make every minute count. In those rare moments when the hyper-kinetic Bruno is momentarily still and the camera looks into his face, there's a strong sense of the doubt that will lead to his transformation. When Bruno tells Sonia "I'm sorry," or "I need you" and "I love you" the words carry weight because he doesn't normally ever say such things. But Sonia says, "You lie as you breathe." "L'Enfant" is as powerful and accomplished as anything the Dardennes have done, and as thought-provoking.

Bruno (Jérémie Renier, magnificent) and Sonia (Déborah François, who reminds me of a younger Julie Delpy) are immature, teen lovers. They live on the streets of Seraing, Belgium, getting money from Bruno's gang's petty crimes. Sonia gives birth to a baby boy, Jimmy, but Bruno is totally indifferent. He sells his newborn son without Sonia's consent, and she has a nervous breakdown when he tells her what he did. Bruno then goes against all odds to get Jimmy back, but it won't be an easy ride.

"L'Enfant" is a beautiful, raw poetry about children who haven't grown up, and have their own kids without even knowing how to care of themselves. This is a film of silences, gestures that say more than a thousand words. "L'Enfant" is the first film by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne that I've had the opportunity to watch, and I couldn't be more satisfied. After reading great things about some of his other films - "La Promesse" (1996), "Rosetta" (Golden Palm at Cannes 1999), "Le Fils" (2002, Olivier Gourmet was awarded Best Actor at Cannes) -; now I understand why they're considered some of the most talented names making films nowadays. Their honesty and strength to tell this poignant story, which could easily become an absurd melodrama, is mindblowing. "L'Enfant" gave the Dardenne brothers a second Golden Palm at Cannes, and hopefully the pompous award will make more people curious to check this work of art. Nothing is as simple as it seems, and as we get into the nightmarish world of Bruno, we see he's not only an immature, cruel lad who sold his own kid, but someone who hasn't even begun to live.

Sad and remarkable, "L'Enfant" has some similarities with Hector Babenco's classic "Pixote - A Lei do Mais Fraco" (1981) and is certainly one of the year's best. 10 out of 10.