Revisiting 1999: The Top 10 Films of the Year, #7 --- Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Here's what we've covered so far:

The Top 10 Films of 1999:

Intro: Introduction: The Best Films of 1999
10 - The Limey (Steven Soderbergh)
9 - Affliction (Paul Schrader)
8- American Movie (Chris Smith)


Rosetta is typical Dardenne’s where we spend the first ten minutes or so closely following the subject around, watching intently on the subjects face and how they react to what’s going on in their life. Usually the camera is hand-held and bouncing up and down, right in tow. The only sounds we hear are breathing or the natural sounds that surround the subject. It’s the invitation by the Dardenne’s to participate in something that is a compete 180 from the conventional dramatic experiences we’re used to seeing.


Rosetta (Emilie Duquenne) is a 17 year old girl who lives with her alcoholic mother in a trailer park. She has just been let go from her job and is desperately seeking work. Like most of the Dardenne’s films the feeling of urgency to get work, make money, or have a human connection is achingly palpable. Here we see Rosetta struggle to get through the days on her own, but she is as determined a protagonist as we’ve seen in a film, and she refuses to let her alcoholic mother, or the tests of the streets get her down as she repeats a touching mantra every night before she sleeps: “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.”

The mantra is poignant and crushing the first time we hear it. Rosetta is trying to convince herself of her worth and that she is different than her mother, and will not follow the same life pattern. We get the sense that Rosetta is working for her mother, too. Not that she necessarily wants to, but her wages help support a mother who “only likes to drink and fuck”. Rosetta’s determination to get away from the lifestyle her mother leads has an affect on her physically – there is a scene where she takes pills and runs a hair dryer over her stomach…perhaps she has an ulcer?

Rosetta meets a nice boy (Riquet) around her age who informs her that a job has opened up at his fathers waffle stand and he can get her a job. Despite Rosetta being is icy to him at first he continues to show her grace and compassion, and in typical Dardenne fashion nothing is spelled out for us; rather, we’re asked to watch as things unfold (gasp! What an idea!), and then put the pieces of Rosetta’s reasoning together.

As is the case with most of the Dardenne’s movies things unfold in a series of vignettes more or less that take us by surprise. They don’t take us by surprise because they’re aesthetically shocking or there’s some plot twist we weren’t suspecting; they take us by surprise because of how true the moments are. The characters in the Dardenne’s films are driven by need; whether that is the need to find a job (Rosetta), the need to atone for huge mistakes (L’Enfant), or the need for mentorship in order to fill a massive void (Le Fils).

There’s a telling scene in Rosetta where Riquet is drowning in a river. She waits a long time to do anything about it. She later admits to him that she didn’t want him to get out, because had he drowned she could have taken his hours at the waffle cart. Rosetta isn’t necessarily a sympathetic character because she isn’t driven by the conventional emotions we’re programmed to believe all protagonists must have (for instance a different film might have Rosetta save the boy, fall in love, start a family, and take over the waffle business with him); no, Rosetta is driven by economic necessity which has no emotion attached to it…it’s survival of the fittest, and there’s no time for superfluous things like love (she even rats out Riquet, who is selling homemade waffles under the counter, trying to usurp his position as head waffle salesman).

Here is a young woman who only wants a normal life. She is so determined to have that life that she will challenge any adult who is trying to take it away from her. In a powerful scene where her boss at the waffle stand (Olivier Gourme from Le Fils) tells her he must suspend her job for a few weeks, she is irate and saddened. She tells him that she only wants “a life like his” and she doesn’t understand why he is trying to take that away from her.

The ending is one of the strongest of any film in 1999. It’s a powerful moment we’ve come to except from the Dardenne’s. We’re asked to just stare at Rosetta’s face one last time. Despite her determinism to do this whole thing on her own, she needs to release herself of the burden. The ending is that moment of silent grace we come to expect from the Dardenne’s as she stares at Riquet who comes to her aide despite her wanting him to drown. They stare at each other (Riquet is wisely left out of frame) and we see a shattered Rosetta, who despite what she sees as her many flaws, realizing she has a friend. Maybe now she’ll start believing her mantra. Like in the Le Fils the scene is silent, the hard breathing from working hard and running around fills the silence, and the audience is left in a contemplative silence thinking about how in a mere 90 minutes we’ve learned about the character, and about ourselves.

Rosetta won the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival as well as the best actress prize for its star Duquenne. I don’t think it’s necessarily the strongest Dardenne Brothers film, but it shows a pair of filmmakers who know how to use the neo-realist/minimalist cinema to tell a story that is simultaneously heartbreaking and beautiful. It sounds cliché to say this, but…you learn a little more about yourself after watching a Dardenne Brothers film.