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.
Review of Rosetta
Rosetta
(1999)
A wonderful actress and terse shots result in a movie bursting with empathy
28 July 2000