Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.
- Awards
- 10 wins & 7 nominations
Leon Michaux
- First Policeman
- (as Léon Michaux)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaContrary to popular belief, the film did not inspire a new so-called "Rosetta Law" in Belgium that prohibited employers from paying teen workers less than the minimum wage and included other youth labour reforms. In a Guardian interview with the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre explained the misconception: "No, that law already existed, it just hadn't been voted through yet. The truth is always less interesting than the fiction."
- GoofsWhen Rosetta is giving her mother money for a water bill she is wearing a jacket with the sleeves fully extended. However in the next immediate cut when she goes outside the sleeves are rolled up.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: Instinct/The Loss of Sexual Innocence/Limbo (1999)
- SoundtracksSomething New
Featured review
A harsh but superb portrayal of the brutalising effect of human hardship.
The Dardenne brothers were not incorrect when they called their Palme D'Or winning work "a war film.". It is an unremitting portrayal of the most dire hardships, centred around Rosetta (Emilie Dequenne), a young, spirited girl who battles with desperate tenacity to find a job and not so much escape as merely survive in her surroundings. Her life is a bleak struggle for subsistence in a world devoid of tenderness, in which her mother (Anne Yernaux), a quasi-prostitute more concerned with the source of her next drink than her daughter, stands as an example of the potential results of such continued deprivation. When she is befriended by a waffle vendor (Fabrizio Rongione), her prior existence leaves her unsure of how to act in the presence of an affectionate, concerned face, and when he attempts to teach her to dance, she can do no more than move jerkily without rhythm, uncomfortable in the arms of another human. The arisal of an opportunity to take his job forces Rosetta to confront whether physical necessity can ever be an excuse for the betrayal of others.
What follows is a superbly wrought piece of social realism, unsentimental in its examination of the dehumanising effects of poverty. For Rosetta and many others in analogous situations of the most dire physical hardship, their material deprivation leads to an erosion emotional and mental qualities. The Dardenne brothers' ruthless directional style, laced with close-ups and unpleasant details, tangibly conveys the dirt and drudgery of Rosetta's impoverished life. Indeed, the film is palpably cold, almost painfully explicit in its depiction of an uncaring world. In addition, Dardenne's performance, for which she won the Best Actress Award at Cannes, brings to life with understated excellence her fight, not to live well, but simply to survive by any means in a world that, for her, contains few hopes and no love.
The Dardenne brothers make no excuses or apologies for their presentation of Rosetta's base strivings, delivering a film that charts how far individuals can fall. Consistently raw and at times brutal, the film nevertheless proposes no answers, expects no sympathy, it merely conveys and evokes with a clear, uncompromising eye the bleak struggle for existence that is, for some, the total of what life has to offer. Harsh, but utterly compelling viewing.
What follows is a superbly wrought piece of social realism, unsentimental in its examination of the dehumanising effects of poverty. For Rosetta and many others in analogous situations of the most dire physical hardship, their material deprivation leads to an erosion emotional and mental qualities. The Dardenne brothers' ruthless directional style, laced with close-ups and unpleasant details, tangibly conveys the dirt and drudgery of Rosetta's impoverished life. Indeed, the film is palpably cold, almost painfully explicit in its depiction of an uncaring world. In addition, Dardenne's performance, for which she won the Best Actress Award at Cannes, brings to life with understated excellence her fight, not to live well, but simply to survive by any means in a world that, for her, contains few hopes and no love.
The Dardenne brothers make no excuses or apologies for their presentation of Rosetta's base strivings, delivering a film that charts how far individuals can fall. Consistently raw and at times brutal, the film nevertheless proposes no answers, expects no sympathy, it merely conveys and evokes with a clear, uncompromising eye the bleak struggle for existence that is, for some, the total of what life has to offer. Harsh, but utterly compelling viewing.
helpful•113
- Ruvi Simmons
- Jan 22, 2001
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Розетта
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $266,665
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $20,187
- Nov 7, 1999
- Gross worldwide
- $293,092
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