For all the ways Belgium’s Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are rightly hailed as masterful contemporary realists with an abiding compassion for society’s fringe strugglers — the poor, the undocumented, the criminal, the victimized — they’ve just as easily earned their place as some of the greatest suspense directors of all time.
Their street-level stories, frequent Cannes winners since 1999’s “Rosetta,” typically hinge on a central desperation tied to simple survival, but when played out with their trademark visual restlessness and character-driven purposefulness, they’re often as nail-biting as any genre exercise or melodrama.
Which makes “Young Ahmed,” the pair’s latest dispatch from the viewpoint of a troubled soul — in this case, a 13-year-old Belgian boy in the dangerous throes of religious fanaticism — both a typically unnerving entry in their canon, and a strangely distancing one, given the impenetrability of its lead’s self-destructiveness.
Also Read: In 'Young Ahmed,...
Their street-level stories, frequent Cannes winners since 1999’s “Rosetta,” typically hinge on a central desperation tied to simple survival, but when played out with their trademark visual restlessness and character-driven purposefulness, they’re often as nail-biting as any genre exercise or melodrama.
Which makes “Young Ahmed,” the pair’s latest dispatch from the viewpoint of a troubled soul — in this case, a 13-year-old Belgian boy in the dangerous throes of religious fanaticism — both a typically unnerving entry in their canon, and a strangely distancing one, given the impenetrability of its lead’s self-destructiveness.
Also Read: In 'Young Ahmed,...
- 3/5/2020
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Jean-Pierre Dardenne on Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed): “We're always very concerned with avoiding imagery …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
With Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), starring Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed, featuring Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck, Claire Bodson, Othmane Moumen, Olivier Bonnaud, and Cyra Lassman, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne enter a new realm of their oeuvre.
And yet their latest film, for which they won the top director prize at Cannes, is very much in line with what they do best. They illuminate seemingly impossible situations that are deeply grounded in social realities. Body language, quotidian objects, and a hesitant glance speak volumes.
Luc Dardenne on Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed: “We define the character not by his psychology, but by his accessories.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation at Ian Schrager's Hudson Hotel with the master filmmakers, I started out...
With Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), starring Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed, featuring Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck, Claire Bodson, Othmane Moumen, Olivier Bonnaud, and Cyra Lassman, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne enter a new realm of their oeuvre.
And yet their latest film, for which they won the top director prize at Cannes, is very much in line with what they do best. They illuminate seemingly impossible situations that are deeply grounded in social realities. Body language, quotidian objects, and a hesitant glance speak volumes.
Luc Dardenne on Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed: “We define the character not by his psychology, but by his accessories.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation at Ian Schrager's Hudson Hotel with the master filmmakers, I started out...
- 2/20/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Cannes Film Festival Best Director winners for Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne joined me for a conversation at Ian Schrager's Hudson Hotel the day after the North American Premiere of Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed) at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed with Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck, Claire Bodson, Othmane Moumen, Olivier Bonnaud, and Cyra Lassman.
Marion Cotillard's walk turned her into a reluctant Western hero in Two Days, One Night. Here, Young Ahmed (Idir Ben Addi), an adolescent boy, living in a small Belgian town, suddenly grows distant from his surroundings. His body is changing and out of control and so are his thoughts. The words of the local Imam (Othmane Moumen) and the video of a cousin who died a martyr's death inspire his radical thoughts.
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne joined me for a conversation at Ian Schrager's Hudson Hotel the day after the North American Premiere of Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed) at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed with Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck, Claire Bodson, Othmane Moumen, Olivier Bonnaud, and Cyra Lassman.
Marion Cotillard's walk turned her into a reluctant Western hero in Two Days, One Night. Here, Young Ahmed (Idir Ben Addi), an adolescent boy, living in a small Belgian town, suddenly grows distant from his surroundings. His body is changing and out of control and so are his thoughts. The words of the local Imam (Othmane Moumen) and the video of a cousin who died a martyr's death inspire his radical thoughts.
- 10/9/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Well, this is it, folks. Time to talk about one of the most important film events of the year — the Cannes Film Festival — and which buzzy titles are up for grabs this year.
There’s a hot package starring Chris Hemsworth and Tiffany Haddish titled “Down Under Cover.” Roland Emmerich directs a sci-fi project called “Moonfall.” Newly minted Oscar winner Olivia Colman stars with Anthony Hopkins in a drama called “The Father.” And Anthony Mackie reunites with “Avengers” co-star Samuel L. Jackson in “The Banker,” while the Russo Brothers reteam with Tom Holland for “Cherry.”
This year’s lineup features everything from space odysseys to WWII dramas to rom-coms to political dramas. Some directors are heading back to the Croisette for their sixth time to compete (“Oh Mercy!” director Arnaud Desplechin), while others, like Florian Zeller, are traveling to the French Riviera town for the first time.
Also Read: Chris...
There’s a hot package starring Chris Hemsworth and Tiffany Haddish titled “Down Under Cover.” Roland Emmerich directs a sci-fi project called “Moonfall.” Newly minted Oscar winner Olivia Colman stars with Anthony Hopkins in a drama called “The Father.” And Anthony Mackie reunites with “Avengers” co-star Samuel L. Jackson in “The Banker,” while the Russo Brothers reteam with Tom Holland for “Cherry.”
This year’s lineup features everything from space odysseys to WWII dramas to rom-coms to political dramas. Some directors are heading back to the Croisette for their sixth time to compete (“Oh Mercy!” director Arnaud Desplechin), while others, like Florian Zeller, are traveling to the French Riviera town for the first time.
Also Read: Chris...
- 5/13/2019
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Few directors are as synonymous with Cannes Film Festival as the Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. After their last film, The Unknown Girl, premiered in an early cut at the festival to a tepid response that was later reworked for an eventual theatrically release, hopefully things fare better for their next drama, Young Ahmed.
As the synopsis reads, “In Belgium, today, the destiny of young Ahmed, 13, caught between his imam’s ideals of purity and life’s temptations. How can love of life win out over his desire to put someone to death?” Ahead of the Cannes premiere, the first trailer has now arrived albeit without English subtitles for the story of a teenager wrestling with ideas of killing his teacher.
Sure to stir up some controversy on the Croisette, see the trailer below via Cinemaldito for the film starring Idir Ben Addi, Olivier Bonnaud, Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck,...
As the synopsis reads, “In Belgium, today, the destiny of young Ahmed, 13, caught between his imam’s ideals of purity and life’s temptations. How can love of life win out over his desire to put someone to death?” Ahead of the Cannes premiere, the first trailer has now arrived albeit without English subtitles for the story of a teenager wrestling with ideas of killing his teacher.
Sure to stir up some controversy on the Croisette, see the trailer below via Cinemaldito for the film starring Idir Ben Addi, Olivier Bonnaud, Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck,...
- 4/26/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Unknown Girl The Un(La fille inconnue) Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Written by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Cast: Adèle Haenel, Olivier Bonnaud, Jérémie Renier, Louka Minella Christelle Cornil Screened at:Critics’ link, NYC, 9/1/17 Opens: September 8, 2017 At a time that the American people are faced with both threats and exhortations by our president […]
The post The Unknown Girl Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Unknown Girl Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 9/7/2017
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Photo by Darren HughesThe Unknown Girl opens with a handheld close up of Dr. Jenny (Adèle Haenel) examining a patient. “Listen,” she says, handing her stethoscope to Julien (Olivier Bonnaud), a medical student who is interning at her clinic. Never ones to shy away from a glaring metaphor, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne announce in that brief exchange their film’s driving thematic and formal concerns. When Jenny later learns that her decision to not allow a late-night visitor into the clinic might have contributed to the young woman’s death, she puts her skills and training to new purpose: listening for clues that might help solve the murder.The Unknown Girl differs from the Dardennes’ previous fiction films only in its more obviously generic plotting. This seems to have contributed to the uncharacteristically mixed reviews that greeted the film at its 2016 Cannes premiere, where it was faulted for failing to...
- 8/29/2017
- MUBI
It’s been a long wait for the latest drama from Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, but now after some re-tooling, The Unknown Girl, which premiered at Cannes to mixed reviews (including our own), will get a release this fall. Following a young doctor (Adèle Haenel) who is propelled to uncover the identity of a patient who died after refusing treatment, Sundance Selects have now debuted a new trailer.
In our review, we said, “The plot is entirely predicated on the kind of contrived coincidences that any screenwriting 101 professor would urge against, persistently dispelling the film’s realism.” Starring Adèle Haenel, Olivier Bonnaud, Jérémie Renier, and Louka Minnella, check out the trailer below.
The new film from acclaimed directors the Dardenne brothers (Two Days, One Night) is a searing saga of guilt and redemption. One evening after work hours, Jenny (Adèle Haenel), a young doctor, allows the door buzzer at...
In our review, we said, “The plot is entirely predicated on the kind of contrived coincidences that any screenwriting 101 professor would urge against, persistently dispelling the film’s realism.” Starring Adèle Haenel, Olivier Bonnaud, Jérémie Renier, and Louka Minnella, check out the trailer below.
The new film from acclaimed directors the Dardenne brothers (Two Days, One Night) is a searing saga of guilt and redemption. One evening after work hours, Jenny (Adèle Haenel), a young doctor, allows the door buzzer at...
- 8/14/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"Think it over before giving up your career." Sundance Selects has revealed an official Us trailer for the film The Unknown Girl, the latest from French filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne. This premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, to mixed reviews from critics, and is just now finally getting a release in the Us (after already opening in every other country). Adèle Haenel stars in The Unknown Girl as a young doctor at a clinic. After refusing to open the door after hours, the next morning the police come to question her about a person found dead nearby. She also starts her own obsessive investigation, attempting to figure out the woman's identity. The cast includes Olivier Bonnaud, Jérémie Renier, and Louka Minnella. If you're into the Dardennes' films, it's worth a watch, otherwise it's hard to recommend. Here's the official Us trailer (+ intl. poster) for the Dardennes' The Unknown Girl,...
- 8/10/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
A modern morality tale told with meticulous suspense, “The Unknown Girl” is the latest film from Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Known for realist stories grounded in themes of economic and social justice, the Dardennes play with genre and mystery for their tenth feature. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, where it received mixed reviews, “The Unknown Girl” has been described as “social-realist film noir.” The film released its official U.S. trailer today.
Read More:‘The Unknown Girl’ Directors The Dardenne Brothers Say They’re Really Just One Person
After refusing after-hours care to a mystery woman found dead outside her clinic, a young doctor (Adele Haenel) becomes obsessed with discovering the fate of the unidentified caller. Plagues by guilt, she begins a methodical search to learn more about the young woman’s life and death. The film also stars Jeremie Renier, Olivier Bonnaud, and Louka Minnella.
Read More:‘The Unknown Girl’ Directors The Dardenne Brothers Say They’re Really Just One Person
After refusing after-hours care to a mystery woman found dead outside her clinic, a young doctor (Adele Haenel) becomes obsessed with discovering the fate of the unidentified caller. Plagues by guilt, she begins a methodical search to learn more about the young woman’s life and death. The film also stars Jeremie Renier, Olivier Bonnaud, and Louka Minnella.
- 8/10/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Any film from sibling directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne is cause for celebration. The filmmakers, known for their intimate stories that carry a big emotional impact, have carved out their own, highly satisfying niche in the arthouse world, and fans will soon have another reason get excited. Their latest film, “The Unknown Girl,” is headed to U.S. cinemas and today we have the exclusive trailer.
Starring Adele Haenel, Jeremie Renier, Olivier Bonnaud, and Louka Minnella, the story follows a young doctor who embarks on a journey to learn the identity of a woman she turned away, and who later wound up dead.
Continue reading Exclusive: U.S. Trailer For Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s ‘The Unknown Girl’ at The Playlist.
Starring Adele Haenel, Jeremie Renier, Olivier Bonnaud, and Louka Minnella, the story follows a young doctor who embarks on a journey to learn the identity of a woman she turned away, and who later wound up dead.
Continue reading Exclusive: U.S. Trailer For Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s ‘The Unknown Girl’ at The Playlist.
- 8/10/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
A new edit of the Belgian auteurs’ oddball detective story can’t help its fundamentally baffling tone and form
The Dardenne brothers’ new film, The Unknown Girl (unveiled at Cannes earlier this year), makes its UK appearance in a new edit, with six minutes cut from the running time. The new version can make no real difference to its fundamental problems: a bafflingly inert, undirected performance from Adèle Haenel and a borderline ridiculous detective story narrative, in which minor characters are laboriously wrangled on and off screen to tell Haenel important things. The movie is at its most effective in the opening five minutes: stressed Gp Dr Jenny Gavin (Haenel) is giving her intern, Julien (Olivier Bonnaud), a harsh telling-off at the end of a long day, after surgery hours, and so ignores a door buzzer going off. Later, she is told by the police that this was a young...
The Dardenne brothers’ new film, The Unknown Girl (unveiled at Cannes earlier this year), makes its UK appearance in a new edit, with six minutes cut from the running time. The new version can make no real difference to its fundamental problems: a bafflingly inert, undirected performance from Adèle Haenel and a borderline ridiculous detective story narrative, in which minor characters are laboriously wrangled on and off screen to tell Haenel important things. The movie is at its most effective in the opening five minutes: stressed Gp Dr Jenny Gavin (Haenel) is giving her intern, Julien (Olivier Bonnaud), a harsh telling-off at the end of a long day, after surgery hours, and so ignores a door buzzer going off. Later, she is told by the police that this was a young...
- 12/1/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Here's Manuel reporting from the New York Film Festival with the latest from the Dardenne brothers.
The nameless girl at the center of the Dardenne brothers’ latest film is a black girl who, one Friday night near an expressway in Seraing, Belgium, rings the buzzer of a medical clinic. Doctor Jenny Davin (Adèle Haenel) is both too tired to see yet another patient and too riled up from a disagreement with her intern Julien (Olivier Bonnaud) to let either of them respond to see why anyone would be buzzing at such a late hour. Neither thinks twice of it. “If it’d been an emergency they’d have rung twice,” she rationalizes. But the next day a police officer informs Dr. Davin that the girl has been found dead not too far from the clinic with no ID on her—her image on the clinic’s surveillance system the only...
The nameless girl at the center of the Dardenne brothers’ latest film is a black girl who, one Friday night near an expressway in Seraing, Belgium, rings the buzzer of a medical clinic. Doctor Jenny Davin (Adèle Haenel) is both too tired to see yet another patient and too riled up from a disagreement with her intern Julien (Olivier Bonnaud) to let either of them respond to see why anyone would be buzzing at such a late hour. Neither thinks twice of it. “If it’d been an emergency they’d have rung twice,” she rationalizes. But the next day a police officer informs Dr. Davin that the girl has been found dead not too far from the clinic with no ID on her—her image on the clinic’s surveillance system the only...
- 9/27/2016
- by Manuel Betancourt
- FilmExperience
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