Le Fils (2002) - film review

Olivier teaches carpentry to young men at a vocational training centre.  His world is thrown into turmoil when a convicted criminal, Francis, is enrolled on his course immediately after his release from a juvenile prison.   Olivier has good reason to be upset.  Francis is the man who killed his infant son...

The Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, follow their critical successes La Promesse and Rosetta with this similarly bleak portrait of human relationships, inter-generational conflict and social exclusion.  Le Fils has the sparse, minimalist style which has become the Dardenne’s trademark, a style which skilfully evokes the profound sense of personal crisis and isolation experienced by the film’s protagonists.

The wobbly, hand-held camera work adds a palpable sense of disorientation and uncertainty, but is an artistic device which makes watching the film a very taxing – indeed painful - experience.  To avoid succumbing to severe motion sickness this reviewer was unable to watch the film through from start to finish without stopping the video recorder five times and taking some fresh air.

© James Travers 2004

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