Rosetta (1999)

Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.

Directors:

Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Writers:

Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Stars:

Émilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne Yernaux

9 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Émilie Dequenne	...	Rosetta
Fabrizio Rongione	...	Riquet
Anne Yernaux	...	The Mother
Olivier Gourmet	...	The Boss
Bernard Marbaix	...	The Campgrounds Manager
Frédéric Bodson	...	The Head of Personnel
Florian Delain	...	The Boss's Son
Christiane Dorval	...	First Saleswoman
Mireille Bailly	...	Second Saleswoman
Thomas Gollas	...	The Mother's Boyfriend
Leon Michaux	...	First Policeman (as Léon Michaux)
Victor Marit	...	Second Policeman
Colette Regibeau	...	Madame Riga
Claire Tefnin	...	Girl in Locker Room
Sophia Leboutte	...	Fired Woman

Storyline

The first scene, like almost all others, is a fighting scene. A girl, about 18, is sacked from her factory work because her trial period is over. The girl, Rosetta, is quite upset and the cops will have to arrive to get her out. She has her reasons: she lives in a caravan, with her alcoholic mother. She goes looking for work as some go to the war. Treasons, murders are in her mind, if not in her acts.

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Plot Keywords:

teenage girl | selfishness | fishing | attempted suicide | alcoholic mother | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Official Sites:

fsk Kino & Peripher Filmverleih GmbH (distributor) (german) [Germany]

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French

Release Date:

22 September 1999 (Belgium)

Also Known As:

Rozeta

Filming Locations:

Liège, Wallonia, Belgium

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,187, 7 November 1999, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$261,475, 30 January 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

ARP Sélection, Canal+, Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Quotes

Rosetta: 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.

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Connections

Referenced in Chaplin Today: Modern Times (2003)

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Soundtracks

Something New

User Reviews

Better than "La Promesse"

Social realism with an edge. One camera, one actress, everything stripped to the bone, down to the rules of survival. Verité to the max, the single hand-held eye of the film follows a teenage girl (Emilie DeQueene) on the fringe of extinction, poor almost to the point of homelessness, saddled with an alcoholic quasi-prostitute mother, desperate for work, for some semblance, any semblance of "normality," doing everything humanly possible to keep her head above water, at one point quite literally almost drowned by her mother.

Life at the razor's edge, reduced to the basics, shows us what we are, what we are made of and need most but take for granted, forget as soon as we can. None of us want to think of what we might turn into if trapped like an animal. This is a proletarian lesson, a lesson in the dignifying value of work, of belonging, of one's right to selfhood in society. As materialistic as the USA is, one will never find an American film this brutally honest about our relation to our means of survival.

All alone in the world, Rosetta jettisons everything, all attachments, any superfluous connection to humanity, coldly focusing what little remains on ol' numero uno. What would you? The film details every little exigency she must overcome just to move and breathe with the rest of us, follows her every stratagem to eke out a bare existence, down to every single small possession essential to her urban expeditions, down to the mud she digs her hands into to find worms for bait.

The underlying conflict, the real theme of it all becomes clear only in fragments: What's the point of living for oneself, by oneself, reduced to a jungle animal? She finds the answer in the most stark and extreme of terms, having been to hell and back.