Le Fils is a brave film about forgives and redemption! The Dardenne brothers are expert at capturing regular people under extraordinary pressure. Somehow, the TRUTH is just beyond our grasp but the opportunity to be human is always there to fully embrace.

'The Son' ("Le Fils') is a 2002 film by the Dardenne brothers, the creators, writers, directors of some of the more impressive works of film of the last twenty-plus years. It's a very quiet film, but it is also an intense film, with that intensity created as much with the camera and physical expression as with the story line or actions. The Dardennes love to concentrate on the faces and body language of their characters. This has never been more true than in 'The Son', where the film not only stays almost constantly on lead character Olivier, but it is so close much of the time it is almost like and extension of his body. This allows the wonderful actor Olivier Gourmet to create the person we are to come to know and understand largely without dialogue or exposition. The story is one of loss, how it is dealt with or not, but this is not some revenge movie or heartfelt melodrama, so the less said about the plot, the better. It starts simply as we find Olivier teaches carpentry to teenage boys. He checks their work. He demonstrates proper technique. He's quiet and meticulous, but there's always that intensity about him. Maybe this is a training program for kids who've had some trouble in their lives, but the Dardennes are far too subtle to spell that out. Instead they follow Olivier as he helps the boys measure, cut, and hammer. He is offered another boy to learn the trade after having some time served for some criminal behavior. He first refuses, but then takes him on, knowing something about that boy that begins to take him over. We learn there was a tragedy, and he and his wife split up. Does this boy have something to do with it? Is he looking to maybe use this boy as some sort of proxy for his own loss? The reality is a bitter pill, and we begin to sense another tragedy may occur. The film merely observes what they're doing now, diving right into what feels like a very real world, knowing that these people are today the sum total of all of their days. In one scene, the boy (Francis) finds pleasure in measuring parking spaces with his new ruler while admiring Olivier's ability to eyeball distances with great accuracy. In another scene, we see the boy clutching his head after nearly causing an accident on a ladder that says about as much on his mental state as an essay might. Still, that claustrophobic camera stays there on Olivier's shoulder, literally and figuratively, as he struggles to find the right and necessary distance to keep between himself and his pupil, which is harder to eyeball than the distance between parking spaces. He, the filmmakers, and the viewers all have choices to make: what should he do, what might he do, and what's the most that a society can reasonably expect of him, knowing that people seldom reach their ideals and carry anger in their hearts? Truly fine stuff, but there's such subtlety, such quiet intensity, that I feel a great many viewers may miss or just fall short of appreciating what the movies gives us. Life unfolds like this, not with big bold, brash statements and actions; not with melodramatic swoops and flourishes. 3.8 stars

I've seen few Dardenne brother's now, so I knew better than expect a fast paced, feel-good story, but "The Son" was nevertheless challenging. It is another good film, but the austerity and simplicity, in these case, was a bit too much for my tastes. We take a bit to understand what is going on, and when we do, nothing much else happens!

Another social drama with simplistic and down to earth approach by Dardenne Brothers. Here the close character study protagonist,ill-fated father of a son killed mistakenly is examined thoroughly. The film explores the universal but doomed fatherly love in an unusual way when he employs the juvenile criminal and starts teaching him different crafts, then some questions are certainly arisen from Dardenne's screenplay. Does he find his son or his being in that boy? Does he just want to know the boy better? Does he want to take vengeance even after the boy's trial? Or Is he just trying to get some explanation? Well, throughout the film the directors are answering those questions from time to time as they are going those dark and unexplored corners of person's mind . In the end, we also come to know that he has forgiven the boy charged as guilty. And it is realized that this should be the only option to that whole case.

An excellent film, but maybe it's not for everyone, especially if you think that movies like M. Night's Unbreakable move 'too slowly'. The Son is more along the lines of a character study. It takes a while to start to really go somewhere, but really gets you hooked once you start to get some information on some major details about the characters' and start forming ideas of where the film is headed. This is one of those films that should be seen without reading anything about it ahead of time. I'd say it's a must-see for anyone who truly loves film.

Breathtaking. Understated. Perfect. The Dardenne Brothers weave a subtle and sinister tale of a Carpentry Teacher whose unusual obsession with his newest pupil builds into a strange and unnerving relationship. Culminating in a stunning, memorable stand-off in a wood shed, that will have your heart pumping and your nerves jumping. This is intelligent and thought-provokng stuff, Independent Cinema at it's very best.

Unique movie that captivates the audiance in a battle of forgiveness without any extra hollywood music and meaningless words. A true one of a kind movie. Beautifully done.

possibly the most overrated film ever.

The events are simple. The emotions are hugely complex. Simple yet deep. Not for blockbuster fans but amazing in its own way.

Maybe their starkest, grittiest film. Not sure yet what to say about its religiosity (this is something I’ve only recently begun thinking about in connection with their work), although the Christ imagery in the vocation school was pretty clear. Olivier was wonderfully played, and, as in Rosetta (another Dardenne movie with a single, central character), the camera has a fascinating relationship with him. Of course it moves when he moves etc, but beyond that there’s more going on. Olivier’s back is frequently emphasized, also his expressionless face… I recall an early scene where Olivier nervously stops in to speak with his manager about Francis’ appointment, and the camera almost acts in his place, slinking through the door, quickly panning over to the manager, and then retreating, as if in embaressment. Fantastically developed claustrophobic atmosphere, and, as in all of their other films, a stomach-turning overarching feeling of hard desperation. They have a knack for finding deathliness in objects… here it’s the stacks of wood… in Rosetta and L’Enfant it’s cold water… They also have a talent for coaxing great performances out of young people. Might also think on carpentry as a metaphor and the significance of objects in the movie (mirrors, Olivier’s belt, the matching tool boxes). As in Bresson’s films (am I contributing to “the problem” bringing up Bresson like every other critic who’s commented on the Dardennes?), everything is physicalized… movement’s are deliberate and there’s an acute “in the now” sense of time. Having seen three of their films before, I wasn’t surprised when the credits rolled during the post-climax silence between Olivier and Francis. I love that their films always end wordlessly, often with two humans reduced to very basic, very pitiful states… just staring at each other and wondering how to rebuild and move on.

In their films, the Dardennes are most interested in detailing an encounter with an other, with someone or something outside oneself. The Son accomplishes this through the protagonist Olivier. The film's style keeps us insulated in his narrow and uncertain world. There remains throughout a strange otherness to the boy's character, an otherness that destabilizes what we know (or think we know about Olivier). This brilliantly creates tension and makes the conclusion that much more compelling.

A true Belgian drama!

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Not for the current M온라인카지노추천 generation: a methodically-paced examination of one solitary figure who collides with another. There's an eruption coming, you just don't know when. That's where the film works. What doesn't work? The handheld camera, with almost exclusive use of close-ups and shoulder shots, with only tilts and pans revealing information instead of cuts or wide shots. Very tedious and grating to watch. This lessened my enjoyment of the film. Nonetheless, I do recommend this small gem that starts off slow, allows the suspense to build, the anger to simmer, and finally culminates with a satisfying payoff.

Watched this as a part of a faith and film series. Not a "religious" movie, but a movie that explores issues of forgiveness and redemption.

Que bona!, realisme cruu. Unalliço de cinema atemporal

The Dardenne Brothers keep the realist flag flying with their claustrophobic hand held study of grief and its well-known counterpart, redemption. It’s a film about the presence of absence in that the title is eponymous and refers to the dead child of Oliver (Olivier Gourmet). Gourmet plays a carpenter teaching vocational skills to ex youth offenders whom is assigned the boy who is responsible for his own son’s death. But since film is explicitly concerned with the presentation of things that are no more the role of the dead son is more than just for the purpose of narrative. It is the locus for a study in faith and the opportunities in life to return good where evil has passed. Thus Oliver takes his young charge under his wing without revealing his secret knowledge and sets himself on a path to possible forgiveness in the face of Sisyphean obstacles. As much as it is about isolation in a social world, the sometimes insurmountable obstacles of loss and the importance of "insignificant" moments it is also about work and the physical laborious rituals, which constitute our daily lives. It is in such work and activity that the creation of hope lies. Thus the diegesis of the film is painstakingly presented at eye level: there are no sweeping or epic shots, which correlate to no ones point of view and the action only cuts when it has to. The long continuous take traverses time, space and labour uniting our experiences of them. We are concerned with the duration of our existence and not the contrivance of plot and its necessity to truncate time and space through the use of motivational editing. The film also explores the conventions of the thriller mode, without deliberately referencing it, as the tension rises as a genuine relationship blossoms between protagonist and antagonist, leading to confrontation and revelation.

A tense depiction of ordinary people, struggling with the acceptance of a painful past, and a sin. Forgiveness is only granted to those to recognize their own guilt, but acceptance has a price. The Dardenne's brothers will accompany the viewers towards the expected finale, slowly but relentlessly: human like divine justice has all the time in the world.

Tense and griping. Emotions boiling under the surface of a relationship that is not all that it appears to be.

Excellent, deeply humane film about pain, suffering, secrets and the fragile bonds between humans. The Dardenne brothers (Jean-Pierre and Luc) construct their film in a unique way. They structure the picture as a sort of emotional mystery, slowly revealing secrets about the relationship between Olivier, the carpenter and main character, and the young boy who works as his apprentice. An interesting sort of suspense is generated, with the form fitting the content beautifully. Their handheld camera work rarely eases off Olivier's face, and even the most subtle emotions are brought to light; the techique ratchets up the intensity. The mundane details that the Dardennes focus on almost serve as a kind of subtext in the film. The ending is pitch-perfect.