User Reviews

This is beyond the intensity of Gary Oldman's "Nil By Mouth", and Tim Roth's "The War Zone", while Erick Zonca's "Dreamlife of Angels" seems heavenly compared to the conditions presented in "Rosetta" by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.

A down right harsh film. Unsparingly direct depiction of a young girl's poverty struggle. She is as tough as she can be. She fights vigorously to hang on to a job. She cares for her mother, a helpless alcoholic, and a seamstress when not drunk. Rosetta (Emilie Dequenne) is unrelentingly stubborn about receiving kindness, or food unsolicited. She has her dignity. A young person with so much burden on her shoulder and a heavy heart.

Things may be seemingly repetitive: again and again we see her crossing that traffic roadway, jumping into the bush trail; we hear the rustling leaves, the thumping of her footsteps; we watch her stopping by the hideout where she kept her rubber boots, changing her only good pair of working shoes; we follow her as she crawls through the wire fence loophole, arriving at the campers -- feels like a mindless routine. Yet, she's intensely single-minded on getting "a real job" (vs. moonlighting) and to have "a normal life", not to "fell into a rut". At one point, we can almost be happy for her to have "found a friend" in Riquet (Fabrizio Rongione), a waffle street van vendor. She actually was able to peacefully sleep that night. Only to wake up and report at work to be told she's again out of a job. A devastating blow. Out of desperation, she did something that most of us viewers may not be able to comprehend -- but what do we know of her travails, who are we to judge her action?

It was not easy for her to have done what she did -- she did hesitate and took the risk. She risked her newfound friendship -- she desperately needed "to have a job". In a way, she has lack tenderness, love and warmth for so long that she's numb to human kindness -- she needs to be thawed! One has to be patient with her, to give her time and see through her tough surface and rekindle her heart. Trust needs to be rebuilt for her to continue living and tackle difficulties afresh!

This is no Hollywood fare. Dialogs are few. No exploitative, explosive, abusive scenes. We're given the bare structure of the story, and Rosetta, plus the sparing few supporting characters, held the movie steadily intact.

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.

A strange character, who is about 19 years old, but looks about 14. She also has a drunk of a mother. Rosetta winds up being the sole provider of the household. The film-makers do show us throughout the film that she is the more mature of the two and that there is desperation to find work. This tediousness shapes a very basic film, with a slow pace and don't even get me started about the bottle she keeps throwing into the pond. I tried to enjoy the interesting hand-held camera work, which gave it a voyeur feeling. The film looked like it was much older than 1999, which gave it a docu-drama feel, that I liked. There were some unique close-ups, which I found compelling, but these positive aspects couldn't save this pointless wreck. I felt exhausted after watching this.

This small Belgian film was the unexpected winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes during the year when David Cronenberg and his panel of contrarians ruled. Because other, more popular films ("All About My Mother," "L'Humanité," "The Straight Story") were passed over, "Rosetta" has received a reputation as an undeserved winner. I am here to proclaim it a great film and a worthy addition to anyone's Best list. I have not researched whether or not the director of "Rosetta" set out adhere to Dogma 93 principles, but many of them are present – no movie makeup, natural light, natural locations, no soundtrack music, and hand held cameras. The camera follows one person – the title character – so that just about every shot is either of her or from her point of view. Rosetta lives with her alcoholic prostitute mother in a camping trailer at a run down campground called The Grand Canyon. She is in her late teens, doesn't have any friends (except one she meets during the course of the story) or even communicates much with other people, and is only interested in getting a regular job and living a normal life. In a remarkable episode, we see her in bed just before going to sleep. She is having a conversation with herself that goes, "You have a job. I have a job. You have a friend. I have a friend. You have a normal life. I have a normal life. Good night. Good night." Rosetta is played by Émilie Dequenne (who won Best Actress at Cannes). She is so good, so natural, so much *Rosetta* that, along with the photographic technique, she gives the material a documentary feel. One reviewer even called her a "non-actor" as if she were not a professional actress (this is her first movie role) and had been picked right out of that campground to play her own life. The film goes by quickly even as the plot unfolds slowly. We follow Rosetta as she travels her city by foot and bus looking for work, catching fish to eat from an urban river, and tentatively letting one other person into her routines. Sometimes character motivation may seem murky, but it is a thrill, later, when you realize what was really going on. If I remember correctly, there is only one brief dialog exchange near the end where one person explains plot points to another for the audience's benefit. The ending is a tender moment that may indicate a new stage in Rosetta growth. Highly recommended. A beautiful and deeply felt film.

I saw Rosetta 3 or 4 months ago and it has stayed vividly in my mind. I would like to respond to two other commentaries here which compare Rosetta to earlier films.

One commentary compares it to Nights of Cabiria. But this is no pastoral fantasy like the Fellini. Another contributor calls Rosetta a fake Bresson. Presumably the point of comparison is with Bresson's Mouchette, and it's a good comparison to make, but I don't think it is one that diminishes Rosetta. Both Mouchette and Rosetta capture the flow of time and the characters' interior worlds realistically, but with realisms which are quite different. Mouchette's struggle is a spiritual one; Rosetta's struggle is with her physical conditions.

To make a comparison of my own, albeit an off-the-wall one, Rosetta's determination is strangely like the pure will-power that Lee Marvin demonstrates, barging into the Organisation's HQ in Point Blank. Maybe this forceful quality is what makes it a "war film".

The film-makers do the opposite of sentimentalising Rosetta's conditions as Fellini would have done. Arguably, they even go past Bresson, if you tend to a materialist rather than a religious point of view. They argue how poverty operates, how surviving it involves anger.

There is one moment when Rosetta slips in a lake and we understand exactly at the moment she does, that she may in fact drown. Not a moment that's easy to forget.

The test of some performances is how much empathy you feel for an exasperating character you would normally not care for. The actress Emilie Dequenne, especially in the final scene of "Rosetta," really makes you glimpse why desperation drives some people to do the things they do -- although you may not totally understand. All the disgust and anger you feel toward her evaporates when you glimpse the soul of the character through her face.

She does not know how to lift herself out of her circumstances. Does she grow as a person or remain trapped like an animal? You hope that her decision to leave the prize was made out of remorse for the betrayal of a friend. After the sudden ending, you pray she gets a new attitude and finds a way out.

But I don't think she will. The character is caught like a bird flapping around a cage and can't get out of the film's stoic vision.

Jean-Pierre Dardenne, one of the two brothers who authored 'Rosetta' was co-director a couple of years before this film of a strong documentary describing the life of the homeless orphan children in post-Communist Romania. That film which became a repeated item on some European TV channels like Arte-TV when they need to say something about Romania seems to have inspired the Dardenne brothers in making 'Rosetta'. The difference is that Rosetta is not a documentary, but a low-budget art film. The focus however is the same - the desperate life of a teenager who is forced to fight for her basic survival in a world and within a system which does not seem to offer her any help. She fights not only to survive but also to keep some dignity, although the lack of a proper childhood left her without tools to manage basic human relations, to understand and receive friendship.

There is a strong moral and social message in this film. Most of the time the camera focuses on the actress Emilie Dequenne who won a Cannes prize for her performance. The problem is that the lack of action and events in the film, although keeping it simple and direct, cannot sustain the movie as a piece of art. It takes more than a strong message and good acting for a great film . What works well in a documentary is not good enough for a full length feature film. 'Rosetta' lacks complexity and the direct approach eventually gives the perception of simplicity, decreasing the overall impact. 6 out of 10 on my personal scale.

Rosetta breaks all of the rules of film making and comes up with an amazing drama of almost epic proportions. This is a heartbreaking film, in line with the Dogme 95 manifesto. No artificial lights, no music, shot on location, and with non professional actors. The best of these is inevitable- Rosetta herself, played by Emile Dequenne. Both film and actress won major prizes in Cannes. Just rewards for an astonishing peice of work.

The camera work was often a little irritating, although it didn't really bother me THAT much. While the story of Rosetta is indeed depressing, I found it to be compelling, and despite the sometimes nauseating camera work, at no point did I want to give up on the film and quit watching. I wanted things to work out for Rosetta, even though it seemed doubtful that they would.

An example of a true drama, as opposed to a melodrama (Saving Private Ryan is a popular example of a melodrama that passes itself off as a drama). It's been a few years since I've seen it, so I'm fuzzy on the names, but the finest scene in the movie occurs as Rosetta serves customers at a kind of snack food stand. She had just recently 'stole' the job from her only friend in the film. Customer after customer is served, as we wait in suspense for a certain person to arrive--the very man who's job she took. He arrives...off-screen (!), but we know exactly who it is. The camera painfully lingers on Rosetta as we beg for it to pan right, or (even better) to look away. Excellent.

In my opinion, the best movie of 1999.

Definitively, underlining the existence of a master-piece called "Mouchette" is a must. Though Dardene brothers are not changing the cinematographic language as Bresson did, their movie almost attains in a few moments both the beauty and the intensity of Bresson's master-piece. Only a true artist can repeat the suicide of Mouchette succesfully (and, without any doubt, the moving final sequence belongs to the history of cinema with all merits). I'd like to point out also the magnificent use of music in this film (you could hardly find two movies a year in which the music is not a nuisance nowadays, some directors should limit themselves to the music that comes from the scene itself -a radio, a piano...- ): it appears only once, and is a messy, distortioned home recording of drums, which serves the co-starring as an excuse to dance with Rosetta. To those who are looking for a contrast in the movie, it's precisely this boy and specially this scene the ones that offer a way out.

Do the people that need to know why Rosetta is like that also want to know why the birds attack the humans in Hitchcocks classic?

Is it possible to construct such a character without showing, by repetition of sequences, the redundance of Rosettas' life? Is it possible such a beauty in the final sequence without the proper patient use of time?

If I had known this movie was filmed in the exasperating and quease-inducing Dogme 95 style, I would never have rented it. Nevertheless, I took a dramamine for the seasickness and gave it a shot. I lasted a very, very, very long forty minutes before giving up. It's just boring, pretentious twaddle.

The last French movie I saw was "Romance" and it too was pretty dismal, but at least the camera was steady and not breathing down the necks of the characters all the time. I am baffled at the continuing popularity of Dogme 95 overseas -- it'll catch on in America about the same time as the next big outbreak of leprosy. (It's called Dogme 95 because that's the average number of times the actors are poked in the eye by the camera.)

i think, this movie is an intense experience in real life from the first to the last minute.maybe the camera is a little bit uncommen in the beginning; but very soon you forget about that and you get drawn into the plot. well there are not too many things happening, but what's happening is just like real life. in some way this movie ressembles the "dogma95"-films, but is much more authentic, as it takes place in some sort of sub-proletariat and not in

the middle class with its phoney-problems.

As with "Breaking the Waves," the documentary style of this film invites you to drop your guard, relax your detachment... and then the movie hooks you with a ferocious performance by Emilie Dequenne, who plays Rosetta, a teenager from the Belgian underclass coping with the despair of her predicament while dreaming of a "normal" life. She's different, of course, and it's this difference that makes for a story worth watching. FIrst of all, she will do almost anything to get that normal life. Second, she has a sense of dignity. These two impulses will clash. It's a simple plot, but Dequenne fuses the disparate impulses in her character so well that it riveted me to my seat. This film also reminded me that cinema at its best has a gaze that goes much deeper than surfaces. Dequenne is not a conventional Gallic beauty a la Sophie Marceau, yet her portrayal of Rosetta's steely fragility made her simply beautiful.

This is a good movie, but who failed to respond to my expectations. The camera work is unique (in the Dogme style), but it's a little too much. Some scenes almost make us dizzy. The acting is very good and Émilie Dequenne is excellent as Rosetta, the 17 years old Belgium girl who can't find her way in life. But the movie drags on, even though it's just over 90 minutes in length. Somehow you're care for Rosetta and somehow the movie ends and you don't think of her anymore. The movie does have an important social message: How it's difficult to break the cycle, to get out of the learned way. But in all, a very average movie.

Out of 100, I give Rosetta 75. That's good for **½ out of ****.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on September 22nd, 2002.

Rosetta is one of the most greatest productions about fighting to live in the cinema industry."life is a valuable gift so you should protect it by being as strong as you can."I think this is the main message of the film.Emilie Dequenne in the role of Rosetta would remain in the memory of cinema forever.She didn't speak that much but she was such a professional actress that showed all her feelings in her face.The scene that Rosetta spoke with herself before sleeping was fantastic.Technical features such as carrying camera on hand and using no music even at the end of the film,make us to believe that this is going to be a special documentary.

I figure Rosetta to be a Nineties version of a Giulietta

Masina character from several decades ago: Gelsomina in La

Strada lived in circumstances limited by poverty, her low

social status as a "gypsy" of sorts, and being raised to

assume that a man will always be in authority over her.

Cabiria in Nights of Cabiria added a more aggressively

self-destructive touch, making herself into a woman who

believed she was in control because she allowed men to

hurt her.

In the time since Fellini's films, a lot of the hegemonics

of presumed male superiority have fallen into disuse, and

Rosetta, the title character played by Emilie Dequenne, is

seen as a waif enclosed in her own cloak of responsibility, for herself and her even more dysfunctional mother, and yet her appearance of independence is a liability too -- a mere compensation for

the fact that she lacks the social tools to reach out to

other people who might give her love and affirmation. These limits are suggested strongly by the camera technique, which hugs Rosetta rather closely about the

shoulders so we seldom see more than a few feet beyond her

face. This story is one of clinical pathology, without

pretending to analyze the complexity of how she got this

way. The choice of the name Rosetta apparently refers to the Rosetta Stone, a famed archaeological find whose inscriptions were a puzzle for many years, and yet eventually were decoded through logical, scientific methodology. Perhaps in a similar way Rosetta the woman's basic humanness is ultimately inscrutable; yet there is always a hope that a key to resolving her emotional conflicts will bring her closer to happiness.

There's a good deal of truth in her obsession with "getting a job" as a means of establishing who she is, not to mention earning an income in order to

survive. Everyone in the audience must see himself or herself in this quest for employment, and in the ignominy

of the lack of same. Rosetta apparently doesn't think of

identity as being unique, so much as it is being included

in what she assumes to be the normal life of people in the city around her. Ironically, it's the uniqueness of herself that she considers mundane, and from which she

can't break away.

Rosetta's search for a change of identity is also shown in certain rituals, such as leaving the trailer camp where she lives through a hole in the fence rather than the front gate, and changing into a pair of boots she has hidden outside the fence before venturing into town (the boot fetish may also be paying homage to Vladimir, one of the tramp characters in Beckett's existential masterpiece Waiting for Godot). Please don't think the film is riddled with blatant symbolism, however, because such apparently bizarre habits are no doubt symptoms of compulsive behavior among any number of people in real life. Rosetta's bleak outlook is assisted by the overcast weather conditions under which the film was shot. Apparently it's winter, another reason for depression, anxiety and introspection to become familiar visitors which any member of the audience can

recognize.

Rosetta, as played by Dequenne, is pretty yet clearly a

damaged person, who makes quick, believable transitions to the angry, violent side of her character: she gives us an attractive, interesting gamine type character, one of the

few points on which the filmmaker bows to commercial considerations. A version of this same story could just as easily be about a male character, yet, as soon as one gets used to the somewhat claustrophobic camera technique, the

viewer will concede that the choices that were made in

telling this story, for whatever reason, are compelling

and interesting.

The first impression that the film gave to me was that it was going to be one more of the same bunch of Euro-leftist films simply telling us about how cruel life is to some, how the system sucks and making an "hagiography" of the portrayed "unfortunate" character. Well, I found that this film for once, goes much deeper than that.

What we actually get is a picture of the failed bureaucratic system of "social care" (a la Francaise) not by focusing on 'politics" but through a strong and touching human story. The film-makers present us with a strong, direct portrayal of the leading character (Rosetta). We see Rosetta's struggle for survival but also her inner struggles and the power of individual human qualities (strength, forgiveness, etc...).

All this comes with a big "BUT"... The constant, hectic motion of the camera during the first half of the film drove me totaly dizzy and, coupled with the almost complete lack of dialogue, I felt my eyes closing 4 times... Then, in the second half, the dialogue gets... invented, the camera starts moving a little more smoothly and the plot starts to unfold. Your choice! ( a combined 6/10 from me for all the reasons above).

I caught this on digital cable a few weeks ago. I'm normally wary of these types of films (Lookit me! I am ART!!!) but I thought Rosetta was wonderful. The lead actress has an ethereal beauty, yet I could buy her as a trailer-park girl. There is a certain plot twist towards the end (I won't reveal it) which some might not buy, but I thought was heartbreakingly realistic for Rosetta's character. It was one of the few movies wherein I wished it wouldn't end because I desperately wanted to see what else happened to the characters. I hope the showings on digital cable give this movie some (belated) exposure in America.

9 out of 10 ~Kurt

To say that Emilie Dequenne. the young actress playing Rosetta - and who won the Golden Palm at Cannes for her efforts here, is 'plucky', would sound patronising, to say the least.

This is structured documentary film-making at its most urgent - and poignant. The premise for most could hardly be less appealing - an independent film, filmed at a moderately sized Belgian industrial town, with an actress who wears no make-up (yes, the odd pimple, too) has an alcoholic mother who gets more booze by offering herself for sex and they both 'inhabit' a tiny, leaky caravan on a caravan park.

By plucky, I mean that Rosetta is almost always running - from someone, after someone - including her own mother - to a job, from a job. When not doing that, she gets thrown in a lake (by same person as above), catching fish in said very muddy lake, using a broken glass jar. She is always trying to either get work, keep her job or survive, somehow.

This all sounds quite frantic - and it is, when the hand-held camera follows her, is glued to her, almost, as she goes past so close, she briefly goes out of focus. But often, it is meditative, thought- provoking and downright very ordinary. Which, oddly, is extremely compelling, never more so during the gaps in dialogue.

Underneath this hardened facade - she only swears and fights when really pressed, then she's like a terrier dog - we hope to see a normal young lady, who can do things that she enjoys. We only see this once, when the young man at the new waffle-van where she finally gets a casual job, takes her after the first day, back to his, for food and playing of some music.

If this is SO mundanely glum, why am I watching it for the second time? Well, my Halliwells Film Guide (bible, to me) rated it highly and I got a copy cheap as a Korean import and secondly, you just know that there is a message here. Not necessarily a very important one, but one that we need to reminded of, when we all (and our Governments) continually moan about the youth of today and how they never want to work - and about caring for those unable to care for themselves.

It's also very sobering (definitely no pun intended) and one with an ending that you'll remember.

This movie maybe actually deserved all the prices it won, but it's very unpleasant to watch. The camera is jumping worse than in any dogma-film, there's almost always traffic or other noise, and the main character is very nasty. Then suddenly it's over, and with an uncomfortable feeling when the credits are running silently without any music, you ask yourself if it was worth having spent one and a half hour watching all this ......... maybe not.

This film relies mainly on one camera to capture every little action and detail of the lead character, Rosetta, especially in her reactions to the despair she suffers throughout the film. I caught this one on IFC on May 23rd. The acting is so realistic, it is hard to imagine that the story is fictional and is shot in a documentary type style, where the hand held camera follows the actors, sneaks glimpses of their world in much the same way an ENG crew would on a story about poverty in a small European town where the economy is so bad there is little one can do to survive outside of desperate acts. In this case, Rosetta, the young girl with an alcoholic mother, lives in a trailer with no heat, has to sell re-sewn clothes to make a meager existence until she finally sees an opportunity open up for a job selling waffles at a small stand in a high traffic part of town. A young man who works there is smitten with her and offers to split some earnings from selling waffles he makes outside of his boss's knowledge. To tell you what happens next would give away the rest, but suffice to say this film is bitterly realistic, terribly sad and the ending is rather sudden but it shows some promise for the characters. The movie is shot with almost no budget, but some great camera work, some scenes a little long but edited fairly well, no music, and subtitles under the French dialog. It deserves awards for telling a very credible story demonstrating hardship of the poor in Europe and what measures one has to take to survive. I was deeply moved and driven to weep during painful scenes of the lead character's despair and what seems to be a hopeless situation. The character is genuinely portrayed by a young actress from Belgium performing extremely well for her first film role. Fine work by director and cast.