May 21, 2006
L'Enfant
Million Euro Baby
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne started their careers as filmmakers making socially-conscious documentaries. They brought their documentary aesthetic and concern for the dispossessed to the world of fiction, most recently with their latest film L'Enfant. The film is their seventh work of fiction and their second to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival (the other being Rosetta).L'Enfant opens with Sonia (Déborah François), a young woman who looks to be about eighteen years old. In her arms she's carrying a newborn child, Jimmy, while banging on and screaming at what is apparently the door to her apartment. The door opens and a couple that she doesn't recognize peek their heads out. They inform her that Bruno (Jérémie Renier), her boyfriend, has sublet the apartment to them and slam the door shut. Furious, Sonia continues pounding on the door and demands that they hand over the cell phone charger she left in the apartment.
Cellphones and highways with cars whizzing by play prominently as motifs throughout the film. Both are symbols of a larger world that surrounds the intimate story that we're being told. Although they're methods of communication and transportation they offer little hope to the couple. Bruno, makes his living as a petty thief (because "Only fuckers work"). His cellphone is used for little more than meeting up with blackmarket dealers who buy his stolen goods and sell him illegal SIM cards for his phone.
In spite of all the busy highways winding through their small Belgian town, Sonia and Bruno aren't going anywhere. They're stuck in a world in which money is the bottom line, even when it comes to raising their child. Although it's easy to blame society and say that it failed them, in many cases that turns out not to be the case. Doctors come to check on Jimmy and shelter is provided for them when they have nowhere to sleep but the couple are incredibly irresponsible. They smoke around Jimmy and on more than one occasion cross a busy highway on foot with baby in tow. This is just a couple that shouldn't have had a child before finding their place in the world. Already struggling to make ends meet, Bruno soon confuses the baby for a bundle of cash (no, not literally).
The premise of the film is simple. After Sonia gets her cellphone charger, she finds Bruno and introduces him to their newborn child. Bruno's reaction is a bit underwhelming for both Sonia and the audience. Although he doesn't display any sort of dismay he shows a great lack of interest in raising the child. In fact, when left alone with Jimmy he ends up selling him to a shady adoption ring. The scene in which Bruno breaks the news to Sonia is beautifully realized in its simplicity. Instead of bursting into a fit of anger as one would expect in a film she merely collapses as Bruno tries to assure her with the promise that they can "make another one."An outburst of rage would've been completely understandble albeit unnecessary to express the profound sense of agony that Sonia felt at that moment. Being great directors who know that actions truly do speak louder than words, the brothers went only with what they needed.
Shot in what I once read to be described as the "Dardenne verité" style, the look of the film is very en vogue at the moment. The camera is handheld and constantly on the move but held as steady as possible; unlike a lot of handheld work which appears to go out of its way to be shaky. Thankfully, we're also spared the arbitrary zooms and random focus readjustments that plague so many films and television commercials that yearn to look cool. The camerawork is more functional than it is breathtaking and function it does. What we see is the real star of the show, the Dardenne brothers' mise-en-scene. Unaided by fancy camerawork, no movements, actions, or props are wasted. Everything works to further the story.
The stylistic sparseness of the Dardenne brothers' is often compared to that of Robert Bresson's but whereas Bresson's style was rigid, the Dardennes bring to their films a much more freeflowing feel. Cutting is kept to a minimum as nearly all the scenes are done with a single shot but without the "hey look, we haven't cut yet!" attention drawing gimmicks of a P.T. Anderson or Brian DePalma film (not that I have anything against them). Music is also completely absent but that doesn't mean the soundtrack isn't interesting to listen to. Again, like Bresson, the brothers are adroit when it comes to building a world offscreen using sound design. Although the film is sparse in its construction the emotional journey is rich.
For some the film is going to be too bleak or the ending is going to be unsatisfactory. There's no twist ending and the brothers don't partake in any moral posturing. Bruno's life as a small time crook is neither vilified nor romanticized. He's presented as just another human being in a cold harsh world in which people suffer but also find love and comfort in the strangest of ways.
Note: The baby does not actually sell for a million dollars. I just liked the title.
