Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne - Le fils aka The Son (2002)

Olivier - meticulous, careful, even-handed - teaches carpentry at a vocational school in Liège. He's asked to take on Francis, 16, a new student. He declines the request then begins to watch, even spy on, the new lad. Olivier knows something. Later that day, he's visited by Magali, his ex-wife, who tells him that she's remarrying and is pregnant. Olivier seems to follow instinctive responses: "why today?" he demands of Magali; he continues to follow Francis; he changes his mind about enrolling the youth. What's the history between the two? After that becomes clear, what is it Olivier will do? Is this precise and measured carpenter in control of himself?





The emotional terrain ''The Son'' stakes out has been plowed over many times before. The death of a child commonly provides warrant either for sentimental psychobabble or (especially when the killer is near at hand and the bereaved parent is a father) for righteous violence. With their uncompromising, almost unbearable rigor and their ruthless refusal of melodrama, the Dardenne brothers mount an implicit critique of the therapeutic nostrums and the vigilante fantasies to which we have become accustomed, putting both the slick, pretentious pandering of ''Road to Perdition'' and the earnest hand-wringing of ''In the Bedroom'' to shame.

Nothing about ''The Son'' is easy, and it has the balked, minimalist force (as well as the working-class setting) of one of Raymond Carver's better stories. It is hardly surprising that the Dardennes put together their naturalist fable with such a fanatical, self-effacing sense of craft. They are obsessed with work in the way that some of their European counterparts are obsessed with sex: the textures and rhythms of manual labor are, for them, at once irreducibly physical and saturated with an almost spiritual significance. ''The Son'' is a story steeped in the disciplines of handicraft. Olivier's most notable trait is his honesty every time he tries to tell Magali a comforting, transparent lie, he looks almost physically ill, which is, in a way, a professional requirement. For a good carpenter, every measurement must be exact, every angle true.

Olivier is brusque with his students, but they trust him because they know he will always be objective and fair, judging them by their work and making them do it again until they get it right. That he treats Francis no differently from the rest is at once the surest sign of his integrity and, paradoxically, a form of deceit, and the film's deep and painful internal drama, as well as its nerve-wracking suspense, grows out of this contradiction. The unblinking realism of ''The Son'' is itself a bit deceptive, since it turns out to be the raw material for a religious parable. The title is a giveaway, as is Olivier's profession, but rather than throwing around symbols, the Dardennes locate the possibility of grace in the rough textures and homely sounds of the world as it is. (Instead of a musical score, there is the whine of a power saw and the clatter of hammers). To call ''The Son'' a masterpiece would be to insult its modesty. Like the homely, useful boxes Olivier teaches his prodigals to build, it is sturdy, durable and, in its downcast, unobtrusive way, miraculous.







El hijo
Un film con un guión férreo, sin concesiones fáciles al espectador, quien no puede sino entregarse a la intriga y a su profundo planteo moral. Olivier (el gran Olivier Gourmet, actor fetiche de los hermanos Dardenne) es un carpintero a cargo de una escuela de aprendices en una suerte de centro de orientación vocacional y reinserción social, un solitario, un perfeccionista que pone igual cuidado en la construcción de un banco de madera que en la atención a su cuerpo, algo excedido de peso y con problemas de espalda. Un día, se ve sorprendido y extremadamente perturbado por la llegada de un nuevo alumno. Obsesivamente lo persigue, lo espía, busca saber de él, quiere y no quiere acercársele. La información nos va siendo sugerida, insinuada a través de las acciones y de pocas líneas de diálogo, y habrán de transcurrir unos cuarenta minutos del film hasta que comprendamos la dimensión del conflicto moral del protagonista.





Olivier est formateur en menuiserie dans un centre de réinsertion sociale. Un jour, la directrice lui demande d'accueillir Francis, un adolescent désireux d'apprendre les métiers du bois. Olivier refuse, prétextant qu'il a déjà trop d'apprentis. Le jeune garçon est alors placé dans l'atelier de soudure. Qui est Francis ? Pourquoi Olivier se met-il à le suivre dans les couloirs de l'établissement, dans les rues de la ville, jusqu'à son immeuble ? Pourquoi est-il ainsi attiré par lui ? Et pourquoi semble-t-il le craindre à ce point ?





2C