the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

[Chris Knipp]

Jacques Doillon: Petits freres (1999) Netflix DVD.

You, Oscar, have previously listed Doillon's LE PETIT CRIMINEL as one of your favoites of 1990 and RAJA as one of your favorites of 2004, and we have had a brief exchange on RAJA, which I watched on DVD last year. PETITS FRERES shows what they mean when they say Doillon excels at working with children. The cast here is primarily in the 11-15 age group and Talia, who gets dubbed Tyson because she's such a tough, scrappy girl, runs away from one Paris ghetto to another, on to the Projects (Cites), because she can't stand her stepfather, who attempted to sexually abuse a girlfriend. She falls in with a boy named Ilias and his mates and her pit bull gets stolen by older boys to use in fights.

Nothing much happens except for Tyson's hunt for Kim (her "pit") and Ilias' on-and-off wooing of her, but over time a lightness and natural rhythm develop so you almost forget you're watching a movie and feel you're just following these kids around. Toward the end, in a kind of mock wedding and farewell to Talia/Tyson, who has decided to enter a foster home with her sister as the best alternative to two untenable situations, a kind of magic happens. This is very different from RAJA.

There is a beautiful review of this by Pierre Murat in Telerama in French.