Besides the harrowing sequence late in the film, I felt that the action was quite static compared to their other efforts. For long stretches, Bruno is stationary, simply waiting to complete a deal; even when him and Sonia are seen fooling around on a few occasions, everything else comes to a standstill. And as I mentioned, I didn’t quite see much chemistry between the two.
When a team make a series of very similar films, the educated audience is going to cherry pick retroactively, preferring the earlier films when the preoccupations and methods were all fresher and newer to them, and in time will perhaps tend to lose interest in the whole project.
That’s a valid point. But to use one example, Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-Liang has not only made more features than the Dardennes, but in most aspects he’s been even more consistent so far. And every one of his films has felt fresh to me.
Film Comment's Kent Jones made a point similar to yours in mentioning that, "The complaints about their new film began the moment the closing credits started to roll: it’s too formulaic, it’s too much like their other films, every film has been a little less good, etc. All this talk of repetition is intriguing. Whenever a modern filmmaker revisits the same territory, whether moral (Goodfellas/Casino) or textural (Rushmore/The Royal Tenenbaums), they get clubbed over the head. Yet when we look back at Hitchcock, Hawks, Ford, Mizoguchi, we celebrate such repetition. Why?" Later adding "Twenty years from now, we’re all going to look back on what will certainly be one of the strongest bodies of work in cinema and wonder why we were so harshly judgmental."
I don't have a problem with the aesthetic employed by the Dardennes -- I, in fact, love consistency and repetition. But my problem with L'Enfant is with the narrative itself.
Bresson's Pickpocket has been brought up by a few, and it's easy to see why. But unlike this film, the Bresson's earns its final moments because nothing prepares you for them. And that's why they leave you in a state of admiration.
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