…………………………………………………

Rosetta Movie Review

Rosetta is a 1999 Belgian drama film directed by the Dardenne brothers. It is a quite good yet deeply flawed movie.

………………………………………………….

“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 in a rut. I won’t fall in a rut. Good night. Good night“

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

As is usual for European movies, this is a very hard-hitting, serious drama and it is one of the worst of its type as its story is just so terrible. You have an adolescent girl who is basically homeless with a prostitute alcoholic mother and she moves from job to job in order to survive. The movie is very primal in its approach as the protagonist displays almost animalistic behavior as she would do anything to survive.

That was great and very unusual to see in a film. The film is thus tragic and should be seen by everyone so that we all realize how really happy and entitled we are. But Rosetta also never really became as truly tragic as it needed to have been as its protagonist is just so unrelatable and such a bad human being.

Yes, Rosetta herself lost me entirely with some of her actions. Ratting on her friend was not cool, but what was even worse is that she almost left him to drown in the river. I do not get why someone would do a thing like that and the movie truly lost me with that very unfortunate choice. I cannot possibly root for a main character like that, now can I?

Another thing that annoyed me is its camera work. It employs that annoying shaky cam in order to tell a story and I know that it thus differentiates itself from the other dramas of that time especially and it was somewhat suitable, but I still thoroughly dislike that approach and I disliked it here as well.

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

Rosetta is well acted for sure and Emilie Dequenne did a really good job in such an unfortunate role to play. I liked the movie’s approach with less dialogue and more details and it felt sometimes that we truly were following her quest for survival. The dance scene was also quite nice. It is such a shame how the movie treated Riquet as he was such a nice guy.

Rosetta is an engaging and hard-hitting but deeply flawed drama. It is well directed and acted, it is important to see and the almost animalistic behavior of its protagonist was interesting to see. But the film lost me with Rosetta herself who is such a downright terrible human being and had she been more likable, the movie would have been much more tragic.

My Rating – 3.5

………………………………………………….