MovieChat Forums > Le gamin au vélo (2011) Discussion > Brat

Brat

posted 12 years ago by Shalomp
11 replies | jump to latest

belgium kids are such total brats and this movie is an honest and true representation of them. running around uncontrolled and causing mischief is just scratching the surface. its the little acts that really depict the finer details in these brats behaviour. messing up the place, getting into everyone's face and business, inconveniencing people, annoying the hell out of everyone, the list just goes on and on.

and the worst part is their parents / guardians / role models don't do anything about it to discipline them. in the part where he leaves the tap on and when told not to do so he just ignores. instead of being taught a lesson, the woman patiently asks what's bothering him. if i were her, i'd spank the hell out of him without giving any chance and lock him in the storeroom for a couple of hours till he's learnt to behave.

so really, this movie is ALSO a clear and precise depiction of how belgium elders raise their kids - to become pure brats!

[–] vivsree 12 years ago

yeah even i had the same feeling while watching the movie.. the kid was a complete brat and he didn't even apologize to that woman's boyfriend. couldn't sympathize with the kid even though most of his troubles were due to the *beep* up father who couldn't even look after his own son.. but any kid of that age knows its wrong to steal..

[–] Shalomp 12 years ago

and the woman actually took sides with the brat over her own boyfriend and ended up being his foster mother. i think that was the only far fetched part of the story. the rest was just utter perfection in representing kids in belgium and how they are raised.

spare the rod, spoil the child...

[–] rudykawa 12 years ago

Gilles was right.

I don't understand people that say "but it's only a child". Because there are children that aren't brats, even when their parents are HORRIBLE people. And vice versa, brats that comes from wonderful parents.
I think people are born rotten or good. You can try to repress the instinct, but deep down their nature is that.
We should live under spartan philosophy to eliminate those brats. The world would'be been much better today.

It almost makes you feel that it doesn't compensate to be good. When you see these horrible people getting all kind of attention and opportunities while you're on your own when you do everything right.

[–] Shalomp 12 years ago

i agree to an extent that people are born rotten or good. its more to do with their dna but i know of people who are born in whatever way they turned out to be, but still have the presence of mind. there's a time and place for everything and i know of guys who have the dirtiest mouths ever but when they are with their women, they show their dedicated and soft side. and for that, they see them for the man that's truly within.

sometimes in life, u have to do the wrong things for the right reasons. maybe that's why douchebags like steve jobs gets hailed as some kind of wonder hero

[–] jsr1984 12 years ago

"Belgium [sic] kids," seriously?! I'm not Belgian, in fact have never been to Belgium, but I'm pretty sure the kids there aren't "brattier" than anywhere else. Cyril just enters a difficult age, even more so when he has never known any sort of guidance or proper care, but only rejection and the feeling of being passed on from one guardian to the next. Samantha finally shows trust--she never says "OK, if you want to stay with me, you will have to be good" or anything--and patience and you can see the result in the end,

when he accepts what happens to him equanimously and cycles home.

PS I certainly didn't sympathise with Cyril over larger parts of the film either and yes, it would have been the polite thing to do to apologise to Gilles, but Gilles certainly had it coming when he took it personally. The situation was not about him. It was his fault to force Samantha to decide between them. This is how boys/kids this age are, they are stubborn, they sometimes don't apologise--even if they realise that they are in the wrong.
It might be "unbelievable" and part of the mentioned fairytale-influence of the film, but I actually want to believe that somebody would act like Samantha does. She never asked for any of this, never intended to become a foster parent, she just said yes when the situation came about without thinking about the difficulties and consequences first. It might be an "unrealistic fairytale" for some, but I would like to think of it as inspiring--and the beauty of this film that it achieves this without being in any way sentimental about it.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 12 years ago

Gilles certainly had it coming when he took it personally. The situation was not about him. It was his fault to force Samantha to decide between them. This is how boys/kids this age are, they are stubborn, they sometimes don't apologise--even if they realise that they are in the wrong.

Completely agree. Demanding an apology was one thing but making it a personal duel and then forcing the issue with his girlfriend meant he overstepped the boundaries.

Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make ...

[–] magnoliaspringsal 11 years ago

I knew a woman a while back whose son was 13 or 14 at the time. He was the apple of her eye and I thought he was a Precocious Little Snot.

The PLS was having difficulty in school with one particular teacher. His mother told the PLS that he needed to show the teacher some respect. The PLS replied, "Why should I, he doesn't respect me."

Gilles made the social error of assuming Cyril had been raised the same way he had and would apologize (for calling him a liar) due to 'respecting one's elders'. Outside of Oriental families, those days are long gone.

The fault may lie with the directors. As has been mentioned many times here, the reason why Samantha would want such an Obnoxious Little Snot in her life is not well portrayed.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 11 years ago

The anecdote about PLS would lead me to question mother and father, even if he is absent. Children become what they learn and what they learn accents aspects of their natural personality.

Regarding what is unexplained in the film: I think there are lots of reasons to imagine Samantha's reasons. We know little of her biography but we see a decent woman of a certain age who is unmarried and without children living in modest circumstances. The fact that her boyfriend issues the ultimatum he does and in the way he does, speaks volumes of their relationship and no wonder she chooses that moment to rid herself of him. When Cyril clings to her at the doctor's surgery he may have evoked her maternal instincts and she may have understood intuitively how distressed her was; that is what he is, distressed and not bratty. From there she is drawn into wanting to help.

All of this could be bunk but it feeds off what we see in the film concerning Samantha. The Dardennes brothers do not provide answers or transparent characters in the films of theirs that I have watched thus far.

Away with the manners of withered virgins

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[–] TomRosicky17 10 years ago

Actually you guys are totally off. Samantha doesn't make a wrong decision in this movie. She makes the most incredible mother to this child and never gives up on him. We should learn from her commitment. Even though the kid treats her like dirt how is he supposed to know how to behave well. He is looking for love in all the wrong places but because of Samantha's relentless loving pursuit of the child he leans and is changed for the better and not repaying evil for evil anymore by the end of the film. As far as the scene in the car goes. It's really powerful because her boyfriend and Cyril are both recognized by Samantha as behaving as children and at the moment when he is crossing the line by saying he won't ever stay with Samantha, it is an easy decision to leave him. And the right one. I'm sorry you guys did not see this. this is not Hollywood folks but a masterpiece.

"Doublethink. To deliberately believe in lies, while knowing they're false." Henry Barthes