Instinct/The Loss of Sexual Innocence/Limbo

A harsh but superb portrayal of the brutalising effect of human hardship.

Jérémie Renier and Déborah François in The Child (2005)

Cécile de France and Thomas Doret in The Kid with a Bike (2011)

Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night (2014)

Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages

Pablo Schils and Joely Mbundu in Tori and Lokita (2022)

Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Your name is Rosetta. My name is Rosetta. You found a job. I found a job. You've got a friend. I've got a friend. You have a normal life. I have a normal life. You won't fall in a rut. I won't fall in a rut. Good night. Good night.

Émilie Dequenne

Fabrizio Rongione

Anne Yernaux

Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Luc Dardenne

Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother. Moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.

Rosetta

You are entering The Real Zone

Have you seen the 1948 Italian classic &quot;Bicycle Thieves&quot;? Yeah think that, pumped up on crack. This is &quot;Italian neorealism&quot; but set in Belgium a half century later.

The character &quot;Rosetta&quot; is a 16-year-old girl who lives in a camper with her nearly catatonic, alcoholic mother and is, as the filmmakers say, &quot;a thin aluminum wall away from living on the streets&quot;. The fact that Rosetta is barely an adolescent who is thrust into the role of provider and responsible adult is a clever twist that further turns this social statement upside down. It becomes not just a tale of survival but terrifyingly a coming-of-age flick. Rosetta is socially and emotionally stunted, unfinished and handicapped. It&apos;s fascinating to see Rosetta (excellently played by Émilie Dequenne who won Best Actress at Cannes) attempting to grasp concepts of morality and ethics even though she has clearly had no guidance. There is a certain wild animal quality to her which you will immediately feel, and though she is tough and headstrong, she is still just a teenager who doesn&apos;t know how to dance, doesn&apos;t know what a &quot;friend&quot; is, and whose only reality consists of obsessively trying to find a legitimate job because she feels that&apos;s the coveted symbol of having a normal life.

In that respect, this film provides something we can all apply to our lives whether we&apos;re 16-year-old homeless kids or rising corporate execs. It&apos;s the idea that an obsessive pursuit of some type of social status, or social achievement, or even a relationship, is what we cling to as proof that we have a &quot;normal life&quot;.

In a memorable scene our protagonist Rosetta talks herself to sleep by whispering, &quot;Your name is Rosetta. My name is Rosetta. You found a job. I found a job. You&apos;ve got a friend. I&apos;ve got a friend. You have a normal life. I have a normal life. You won&apos;t fall into the abyss. I won&apos;t fall into the abyss. Good night. Good night.&quot;

The camera remains very tight, almost claustrophobically so, on Rosetta throughout the entire film which exaggerates the microscopic world she lives in. She repeats routines and engages in trivial labors which are shown to us in almost tedious repetition, but the effect is powerful in conveying a sense of quiet, lonely desperation.

Throughout the history of cinema, there have been many films that document &quot;how the other half lives&quot; but most of them approach the subject as if we are spectators, almost in a patronizing or voyeuristic way that leaves us thinking after the credits roll &quot;phew I&apos;m glad that&apos;s not me&quot; but here in &quot;Rosetta&quot; we get a sense that the bizarre life of this 16 year old outcast might very well be the story of the human race.

Bande-annonce [OV]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWY4MGMzYTItZjQwOS00MmVhLWE0MDYtMGZmYmFjNTkyYTU2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXRyYW5zY29kZS13b3JrZmxvdw@@._V1_.jpg

Have you seen the 1948 Italian classic "Bicycle Thieves"? Yeah think that, pumped up on crack. This is "Italian neorealism" but set in Belgium a half century later.

The character "Rosetta" is a 16-year-old girl who lives in a camper with her nearly catatonic, alcoholic mother and is, as the filmmakers say, "a thin aluminum wall away from living on the streets". The fact that Rosetta is barely an adolescent who is thrust into the role of provider and responsible adult is a clever twist that further turns this social statement upside down. It becomes not just a tale of survival but terrifyingly a coming-of-age flick. Rosetta is socially and emotionally stunted, unfinished and handicapped. It's fascinating to see Rosetta (excellently played by Émilie Dequenne who won Best Actress at Cannes) attempting to grasp concepts of morality and ethics even though she has clearly had no guidance. There is a certain wild animal quality to her which you will immediately feel, and though she is tough and headstrong, she is still just a teenager who doesn't know how to dance, doesn't know what a "friend" is, and whose only reality consists of obsessively trying to find a legitimate job because she feels that's the coveted symbol of having a normal life.

In that respect, this film provides something we can all apply to our lives whether we're 16-year-old homeless kids or rising corporate execs. It's the idea that an obsessive pursuit of some type of social status, or social achievement, or even a relationship, is what we cling to as proof that we have a "normal life".

In a memorable scene our protagonist Rosetta talks herself to sleep by whispering, "Your name is Rosetta. My name is Rosetta. You found a job. I found a job. You've got a friend. I've got a friend. You have a normal life. I have a normal life. You won't fall into the abyss. I won't fall into the abyss. Good night. Good night."

The camera remains very tight, almost claustrophobically so, on Rosetta throughout the entire film which exaggerates the microscopic world she lives in. She repeats routines and engages in trivial labors which are shown to us in almost tedious repetition, but the effect is powerful in conveying a sense of quiet, lonely desperation.

Throughout the history of cinema, there have been many films that document "how the other half lives" but most of them approach the subject as if we are spectators, almost in a patronizing or voyeuristic way that leaves us thinking after the credits roll "phew I'm glad that's not me" but here in "Rosetta" we get a sense that the bizarre life of this 16 year old outcast might very well be the story of the human race.

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