The son (film)

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Movie
German title The son
Original title Le fils
Country of production Belgium , France
original language French
Publishing year 2002
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
script Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
production Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd
music no music
camera Alain Marcoen
cut Marie-Hélène Dozo
occupation

The Son (Le fils) is a Belgian - French film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne from 2002.

action

Olivier is a master carpenter at a vocational training center for juvenile offenders. The application of a 16-year-old unsettles him. At first he refuses it, sends it to the welders, but later he takes it home. He constantly watches the newcomer. He is connected to the unsuspecting boy through a dark past.

Complete content

(Wednesday)

Olivier is a master carpenter in a vocational training center, a responsible job that he enjoys and fulfills. An apprentice's letter of application upsets him, he rejects it; he should go to the welders. But this doesn't leave him in peace: he watches the newcomer from the first minute when he signs his apprenticeship contract with the welders (Olivier flees in a panic so as not to be seen). He is always looking for excuses so that he can leave his apprentices alone to secretly observe the newcomer. He asks how he is doing, but avoids the canteen to avoid the apprentice.

On the same day, a woman visits Olivier at home. They seem familiar yet distant. She reveals to him that she will get married, that she is expecting a child, that something new has to start. How is it with him? Yes, she still works at the gas station. Olivier is lost in thought, does not wake up until she has already left; when driving away he can still catch up with her, why did she come today?

(Thursday)

On the second day, Olivier goes to the HR manager. Several times he wants to leave the woman on the phone without having achieved anything, but she keeps holding him back. He would take the new one - it wasn't going well with the welders. Then Olivier is confronted directly with the new for the first time: tentatively groping, almost anxiously searching, he finds the sleeper in the changing room. He looks at it for a long time before waking it up and taking it to the carpenter's workshop.

There he instructs the newcomer, again using every little opportunity for silent observation. After work, he follows the bus the boy is taking home, trying to find out where he lives. He walks through the streets searching with a piece of paper; When Olivier notices (at that moment he suddenly turns around and hurries back to the car), he calls him, runs after him, saying that he has lost his way where the Rue du Molinay is. Olivier shows him the way, follows him again, watches the boy up to a front door, two blocks away.

Olivier drives to the gas station; he ponders for a long time whether to enter. He smokes a cigarette nervously, his hand continues to shake. He enters, meets his ex-wife. He is happy that she is having a child. Olivier speaks calmly and calmly: Francis Thirion is free again. He wants to learn to be a carpenter at the center. At first he did not take him and hesitated whether he should take him as an apprentice. The woman: Olivier is crazy, he killed our child!

The apprentice meets Olivier in a bistro. He initially wants to continue, but then hesitates and eats his sauerkraut bun in front of his car. The newcomer steps up, asks if he can lean against the car, offers chips. The mood only eased a little when Francis Olivier's excellent judgment of distances and sizes tested with the folding rule - he was impressed that Olivier had predicted the exact size of his carpenter's suit on the first day. They watch each other as they eat, suddenly Olivier leaves: Bye!

(Friday)

The newcomer is doing well, no mistakes, is obedient, willing to learn; A carpenter is his calling. During an exercise in which the apprentices carry beams up a facade on steep ladders, however, he loses strength: he threatens to fall. Olivier rushes over, Francis lands hard on his master's shoulders (Olivier unfortunately has severe, chronic back pain). The apprentice cannot hold his own, threatens to tip over. The beam crashes to the ground. Francis goes down crouching, afraid that he will be sent away again.

Olivier steals Francis' apartment key, breaks into his apartment, looks around: poor kitchen-cum-living-room, tiny bathroom, he finally lies down (in work clothes) on the bed, next to it a folding chair with an alarm clock, radio, tablets.

Back at the training center, the master instructs the apprentice to build a carrying case. Francis is very skilled. Olivier asks him what he's doing on the weekend. Francis doesn't know. Olivier insists. The family does not visit Francis, the mother's friend is against where the father lives, he does not know. A brief farewell in the parking lot, then Olivier calls the boy back, wants to drive him and drop him off.

Olivier's former wife joins them, she has been watching them. Olivier catches her, calms her down. It is him . She suffers a fit of weakness, collapses. Francis runs up to help; Olivier chases him back in the car. You: Who do you think you are? Nobody would do that. Olivier doesn't understand why he's doing this.

In the car, Olivier Francis offers to go with him on the weekend to fetch wood. In this way he can get to know the types of wood and reduce his deficit compared to the other apprentices. He'll pick him up tomorrow at nine in the morning, he refuses to shake hands.

(Saturday)

The next day in the car, the conversation ends up as if by chance at Fraipont, the juvenile prison where Francis was imprisoned between the ages of eleven and 16. Later, Francis sleeps. Olivier watches him, then checks the rearview mirror and brakes sharply. Francis is thrown forward, but nothing happens to him. Olivier talks his way out with a rabbit ... Francis notices he fell asleep. He takes medication to sleep well. He falls asleep again, is rudely awakened by Olivier: Why did you come to Fraipont when you were eleven? . He had committed a stupid thing: theft. Olivier insists on an answer: Fraipont for a theft? There was something else . He asks to be allowed to sleep on the back seat. Olivier watches the sleeper again, first in the rearview mirror, then directly.

Then Olivier stops for a rest and wakes Francis to see if he's hungry. He buys an apple pastry; Francis also takes one, but when asked by the baker, Olivier has it settled separately. Over dinner, Francis asks if Olivier wants to be his guardian. He's looking for someone from outside Fraipont. After a while, Francis repeats his request: Olivier wants to think it over. Why do you want me as a guardian? Because you are my teacher . At the invitation of Francis they play table football. Francis asks if he could say Olivier, the other apprentices called him that too. Olivier reluctantly agrees.

  • What else was there besides the theft?
  • There was one dead.
  • Did you kill someone
  • Yes ... I was the hero in Fraipont.

Later in the car:

  • Why did you kill? As your guardian, I should know that, shouldn't I? What did you steal?
  • A radio from a car.
  • That's what you killed for?
  • In the back sat a boy whom I hadn't seen. He didn't want to let go of me. I grabbed his neck until he let go of me.
  • You strangled him.
  • He didn't want to let go of me.
  • You strangled him!
  • I did not want that. I was afraid.
  • You did it or he wouldn't be dead.
  • Yes but...
  • No buts! Did you do it or not?
  • Yes, yes.
  • Do you regret what you did?
  • Yeah yeah
  • Why clear?
  • Imprisoned for five years, everyone regrets that. I go pissing fast.

(In the wood store)

You have arrived at the timber trade, it belongs to Olivier's brother, so he has a key. Francis is only interested in carpentry again, he wants to learn something. Then they take wood, Olivier hands it down to Francis from gigantic piles. The mighty planks dance over Francis' head like a sword of Damocles. Downstairs again, they cut boards. The boy you killed was my son. Francis flees. Have no fear. Come back! Olivier follows Francis through the lumber yard. I don't hurt you! I don't believe you! Francis is in a panic, he pelts Olivier with boards. I was imprisoned for five years. I have paid! On the adjacent forest property, Olivier confronts the fugitive and throws him to the ground. Here, what Olivier may have lived through in his dreams all these years becomes reality: he kneels over the defenseless Francis and chokes him. He comes to his senses again and lets go of the trembling man. Both are completely exhausted.

Olivier goes to load the boards. Francis steps in and helps. Together they pack the boards in a tarpaulin.

Stylistic devices

It is constant restlessness that worries Olivier, constant restlessness that is carried by the (shaky) hand-held camera: no other camera is used. The medium only allows short, quick cuts, hard transitions. Olivier almost always appears from behind, which means that the means of facial expression are hardly available to him. Olivier Gourmet masters this hurdle with flying colors, and in Cannes 2002 he received the award for the best male actor.

Music is absent throughout: the directors completely dispense with this stylistic device in order to generate emotions in the audience and rely completely on the production design, photography and the acting skills of the protagonists. This absence becomes abundantly clear in some scenes, e.g. For example, the dominant cassette recorder, which is silent next to Francis' bed, or the car radio, which never emits a single sound on the various journeys.

Reviews

epd Film : “The masterful film by the Belgian Dardenne brothers tells of a father's encounter with his son's juvenile murderer. He uses the cinema as a medium that can also make borderline experiences tangible in an authentic way. "

Cinema : "The great idea for an exciting psychodrama falls by the wayside."

playerweb.de : “You have to mention it: Under the simple title there is a stylistically simple, taciturn, insidious masterpiece boiling away, ready at any time to put out its claws and suddenly strike the hardest. [...] the shockingly abrupt ending with brilliant visual composition is ultimately a brutally compelling, deeply disturbing blow into the mental solar plexus. You can possibly suppress it, but impossible to forget. "

Awards (selection)

  • The film won two awards in Cannes in 2002 : Olivier Gourmet was named best actor, Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne received an Honorable Mention from the Ecumenical Jury .

swell

  1. ↑ epd film No. 6/2003, joint work of Evangelical Journalism, Frankfurt a. M., p. 37
  2. ↑ Cinema magazine
  3. ↑ Playerweb magazine

Web links