A coming of age story occurring under some very unusual circumstances, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s La promesse features a savvy, street-wise take on a father-son relationship that’s about as far removed from a traditional model as one can get. With terrific central performances from two (then) newcomers to cinema and a grittily real feel for the ghettos of a bustling Belgian port town, La promesse focuses on the growing conscience of a boy being brought up by his father to have no conscience.
La promesse (Blu-ray)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1996
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 94 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 French
Subtitles: English
Region: A
MSRP: $ 39.95
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Review Date: August 7, 2012
The Film
3.5/5
Roger (Olivier Gourmet) and his teenaged son Igor (Jeremie Renier) make a living by bringing illegal immigrants into Belgium (for money), setting them up in squalid living conditions (for money), and getting them fake identification papers (for money). They also employ the men in construction work for pennies on the dollar. One of the immigrants from Ghana, Hamidou (Rasmane Ouedraogo), falls off a scaffold during a police raid and is critically injured, but Roger won’t allow Igor to take him to the hospital. Before the father and son bury the dead man in concrete, Hamidou has made Igor promise to watch after his wife Assita (Assita Ouedraogo) and baby son. Assita knows nothing of her husband’s death, and because she’s concerned about his disappearance, she wants to go to the police risking her own immigration status. Fearful that his enterprise might be discovered, Roger arranges to have Assita sold on the black market for prostitution, but before she can be taken, Assita and Igor go on the lam with Igor’s conscience bothering him more and more about telling Assita the truth about her husband’s whereabouts.
The father son relationship is paramount to this story’s effectiveness, and we see their camaraderie grow (more like best buddies than father and son: the dad tries to get his son laid and marks him with his first tattoo) and then deteriorate over the course of the film’s relatively brief running time holding us continually in its thrall. The Dardenne brothers film the movie without regard to cinematic formalities. The camera jumps back and forth between speakers in a scene with minimal set-ups and precious little editing, and yet there’s real, raw power to the gritty images as Igor zips around the streets of Seraing on his moped or the father collects his weekly rents with no regard whatsoever to the immigrants’ financial dilemmas. As Igor’s guilt begins to get the better of him, the Dardennes are relentless in keeping the camera close to Igor’s face, watching his wrestling with his knowledge and not knowing how much to tell Assita and still keep her trust so he can fulfill his promise to her husband and not wanting to incur any further wrath from his father. And the directors have staged a wonderfully tense final confrontation between father and son in a garage that is both funny, scary, and tragic simultaneously.
It’s hard to believe that this was the first film for both Jeremie Renier and Olivier Gourmet (though Gourmet had done some stage work). Renier is completely natural and unselfconscious before the camera, and Gourmet’s monster father is a fascinating contradiction of warring sensibilities: love, envy, mistrust, fury. Assita Ouedraogo’s fiery temperament and spirited determination is firmly on display throughout the movie as she fights to protect her son and scrambles for information about her missing husband without regard for her own safety. These three performances make the movie something unique.
Video Quality
4/5
The film’s 1.66:1 theatrical aspect ratio is faithfully reproduced in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Shot in Super 16mm, the image appears just a touch too bright in the early going. Sharpness is always above average except in a couple of scenes filmed in lower light levels where details get lost in the shadows. Flesh tones are very realistic, and color quality overall is certainly satisfactory. The white English subtitles are easy to read. The film has been divided into 23 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is not surprisingly deficient in the rear channels. Filmed on a small budget and originally encoded in Dolby 2.0, this 5.1 surround mix is almost completely frontcentric. Dialogue has been nicely recorded and has been placed in the center channel, but apart from a sojourn into a karaoke bar and later in another bar with music, there is little in the way of even stereo sound in this mix.
Special Features
3/5
All of the bonus material is presented in 1080p.
An extensive interview with directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne was recorded in 2012 and runs for 60 ½ minutes. The brothers talk about their technique toward narrative filmmaking as opposed to documentaries where they got their start, the thematic connections that exist between their films, the importance of casting the roles in the movie, their use of multiple takes, their reason for using both a director of photography and a camera operator, their tributes to the production designer and costume designer for the film, and the use of guilt-based themes in their work. The interview is conducted by Scott Foundas in English though the brothers reply in French.
Separate interviews with Jeremie Renier and Olivier Gourmet have both actors speaking of their audition processes, the excitement and wonderment of working on their first film, and their opinions on the Dardenne brothers. This runs 18 ½ minutes.
The film’s theatrical trailer runs 1 ¼ minutes.
The enclosed 14-page booklet contains a cast and crew list, some color stills from the movie, and film historian and author Ken Jones’ overview of the career of the Dardennes and a critical appraisal of La promesse.
The Criterion Blu-rays include a maneuvering tool called “Timeline” which can be pulled up from the menu or by pushing the red button on the remote. It shows you your progress on the disc and the title of the chapter you’re now in. Additionally, two other buttons on the remote can place or remove bookmarks if you decide to stop viewing before reaching the end of the film or want to mark specific places for later reference.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
The first of two films by the Dardenne brothers to be released by Criterion in August, La promesse is a keeper, a relatively haunting character study of one of the most unusual father-son duos you’ll ever see. The interesting bonus material extends nicely the effectiveness of this fine Blu-ray release.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
