Okay, I am not nuts about these guys (yet?) but I've seen a couple of their movies recently and I am pretty interested in seeing them all now!

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are a pair of Belgian Bros who make naturalistic movies about work, bleak social situations and people deep in the shit. I've seen L'Enfant and Le Fils so far, and they were both pretty good although I am pretty sure I liked Le Fils more.

Le Fils is about a guy who forgives something really bad. Trailer:


L'Enfant is about an asshole who sells a baby. Trailer:


Apparently, their big breakout film was Rosetta, which I haven't seen yet, but I have it downloading right now and I'll watch it soon. It is about a girl who lives with her alcoholic mother and is trying to find a way out of her shitty life by getting a job, apparently.

These guys seems really good to me, so far. At least in their intention. The style of their movies isn't anything special, because absolutely everybody is doing the no music, no lighting: just life approach these days and sure - that's cool! I am on board with that. I like music and I think there is alot more to film that this kind of approach but I think it works well with the subject matter they deal with.

I recently watched 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days and it is very similar to the Dardenne movies in almost every way (except it is romanian). There are films getting made in the same way in the USA, like by Kelly Reichardt and probably things I am forgetting. This stuff is everywhere. I think it is pretty much always good, too. I'm sure there is some bullshit, but anybody who really tries to make a film using the same kind of approach as the movies I am mentioning has got to have some decency in them. I'm not talking about dogme bullshit where a bunch of rich people have freak problems or just act weird, I mean getting right into the dreary bullshit that everybody is dealing with these days and just telling stories purely about that.

I'm rambling like heck and I could say everything I have said better but I'll post this in case anybody wants to talk about these Dardenners or these kind of movies in general.
 

It is about a girl who lives with her alcoholic mother and is trying to find a way out of her shitty life by getting a job, apparently.

this sounds like nearly everyone I know except for the girl part

this sounds like nearly everyone I know except for the girl part

I watched this one and yeah it was very good! apparently it got some kind of labour legislation named after it in belgium.

I think the Dardenne bros are basically a couple of smart guys with their eyes on post-industrial city dwellers who aren't doing so well. It's really good for what it is, I think, and it definitely gives you some stuff to think about and yeah some good stories, too - the films are all really tightly plotted and there isn't alot of time spent pondering and meandering. It's just a basic set up of here's some rough stuff that happens, and here's where it can lead.

The endings of their movies are all pretty ambiguous, is something I noticed. Usually that ambiguity provides you with some sense of hope. The movies tend build up tension up towards the final few scenes, where it all gets released and everybody is devastated, and things look bleak, then there is one last note which indicates that this might not be the end of the story, and it might get better from here, but this is where we are going to leave these people because what needed to be said has been said and whether this has a sad or happy ending is really up to you.

So I think they are optimistic guys, really! although their films are all pretty depressing, yes, but that isn't all they are. they are very lively movies, too!

I'm totally going to check this out when I get back.

it seems like something I'd really like