MovieChat Forums > L'enfant (2005) Discussion > Anyone prefer Lorna's Silence to this fi...

Anyone prefer Lorna's Silence to this film? This was a bit of a let-down

posted 14 years ago by Vjcat
3 replies | jump to latest

I've only seen two Dardenne brother films so far but I have to say that I enjoyed Lorna's Silence a great deal more than this film. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the actress who played Lorna was amazingly charismatic and well-versed in her craft while the actor who played Bruno seemed to be a one-trick pony who's range seemed to be grounded at "wounded puppy" level.

I found myself fast-forwarding through many of the endless travel scenes because after a while, they all asked you for the same thing: to contemplate the emotional state of the character. But their emotional state was already communicated to us effectively in any number of other scenes so it seemed redundant to keep asking us to revisit the same feelings over and over again in these long, drawed-out, dialogue-bereft scenes.

In Lorna's Silence, there wasn't anywhere near this amount of redundancy. Character development was done in such a way that was both effective and narrative-supporting rather than tacked-on in scenes that wouldn't have hurt the film one bit if they were left on the cutting room floor.

What I did like about L'Enfant though was the fact that if you take the title at face value, "The Child" was Jimmy. But once you watch the movie you realize that L'Enfant was really Bruno and it was only through his journey in this film that he realized it was time to shed his Peter Pan wings and start becoming an actual man. That's a story that resonates with me as I too had an extended adolescence which may be why I was expecting more from this film than was actually delivered.

Lorna's Silence will have to remain my favorite Dardenne film for now since, again, I've only seen the two.

Can anyone recommend another to me?

[–] quaddo 14 years ago

I can recommend:

Rosetta http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200071

RIP Ian Richardson (1934-2007)

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] le_samourai_delon 7 years ago

No, I much preferred "L'enfant" to "Lorna's Silence." Dardenne Brothers movies can go either way for me - they are always impeccably made, to be sure, but I find some of them start to feel morbid for the sake of being morbid. "Lorna's Silence" was one of those movies for me - I mean, having it end with Lorna curled up alone and insane in a cabin in the middle of the woods felt unnecessarily over-the-top to me. I understood the weight of her moral dilemma without this level of tragedy. Though I do feel "L'enfant" had its similar moments of going too far (Bruno's helper going into hysterical paralysis in the cold water), I felt it generally gave us more with less. The climactic chase scene was so tense, and I felt Bruno's growing desperation and panic throughout the whole film. His redemption felt earned and real. I appreciated the transformation.

That said, I would highly recommend "Kid With the Bike" - by far their "lightest" offering with an almost fairy-tale quality that nicely offsets the otherwise realist tone. I also loved "Promesse." Others love "Rosetta" and "The Son," but I personally found both of these movies to skew more toward overly serious banality. Obviously, to each their own!