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Following in the footsteps of the Dardenne Brothers, director Joachim Lafosse tells a story of the disintegration of a family, where an unseolved parental rivalry brings painful consequences. World -renowned actress Isabelle Huppert plays a woman struggling to rebuild her life against her sons' will. Also starring Jérémie Renier (L'Enfant) and Yannick Renier (Les Chansons D'Amour)
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Huppert is magnificent. --Sight & Sound
Superb...shades of early Polanski. --Time Out
Superb...shades of early Polanski. --Time Out
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Bart
Format:DVD
'Private Property' features no false sentiments, overdone emotions or any other frills in order to take away rough edges. Rough edges galore in PP. It is a straightforward, rather raw portayal of a disfunctional family. Mum lives with her two almost adult sons in a farmhouse in the French-speaking region of Belgium. Although divorced for over 10 years, she still bickers with her ex, who occasionally drops by to see his sons. Both sons mock mum whenever they have the chance. Meals are silent affairs, apart from the odd shallow remark. The brothers seem to get along fine, until mum rocks the boat by announcing she wants to sell up. The weak links which had managed to keep the family together snapped and all hell broke loose. Director Joachim LaFosse certainly got the cold and empty atmosphere in the household across. Mum (Isabelle Huppert) and sons (real life brothers Jérémie and Yannick Renier) were excellent at repressing emotions by shouting the odds at one another. I consider PP a gem in its own right. It investigates the motivation of members of a broken home and explores their boundaries. A very intriguing concept!
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Private Property" (Nue propriété ) primly begins with the dedication: "To Our Boundaries," which I assume, after seeing this film, is written tongue-in-cheek for this film smashes any logical/accepted boundaries between a Mother and her sons for starters.
Pascale (a blowsy, de-glamorized Isabelle Huppert) lives with her two sons, Thierry (a mean, feral Jeremie Renier) and Francois (the opposite of Thierry yet in real life the brother of Jeremie, Yannick Renier) in a country home filled with memories of a brutal divorce, the events leading up to the divorce and the detritus of hate, longing and betrayal that a bitter divorce leaves in it's wake. You know the scenario: the sons basically blame Pascale for the divorce and she blames her ex.
Pascale also feels strangled about her lot in life: her boys, really men roughly 23 or so treat her like a maid, mostly spend their days shooting rats on the river bank and only briefly look for work. The house is a heady cauldron of stew boiling over from all the deceit, yearning, sexual impropriety and parental wantonness. In many ways we could be in 1919 New England and watching Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms," what with all the heady, musty, suppressed sexuality on view here.
Director Joachim LaFosse has an excellent eye and the film is shot in the muted colors of a Renoir painting which proves to be an alluring counterpoint to the less than glamorous goings on in Chez Pascale.
Isabelle Huppert plays Pascale from the inside: on the one hand concerned, loving, maternal and on the other searching for ways to rid herself of her burdens and escape with her lover.... Read more ›
Pascale (a blowsy, de-glamorized Isabelle Huppert) lives with her two sons, Thierry (a mean, feral Jeremie Renier) and Francois (the opposite of Thierry yet in real life the brother of Jeremie, Yannick Renier) in a country home filled with memories of a brutal divorce, the events leading up to the divorce and the detritus of hate, longing and betrayal that a bitter divorce leaves in it's wake. You know the scenario: the sons basically blame Pascale for the divorce and she blames her ex.
Pascale also feels strangled about her lot in life: her boys, really men roughly 23 or so treat her like a maid, mostly spend their days shooting rats on the river bank and only briefly look for work. The house is a heady cauldron of stew boiling over from all the deceit, yearning, sexual impropriety and parental wantonness. In many ways we could be in 1919 New England and watching Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms," what with all the heady, musty, suppressed sexuality on view here.
Director Joachim LaFosse has an excellent eye and the film is shot in the muted colors of a Renoir painting which proves to be an alluring counterpoint to the less than glamorous goings on in Chez Pascale.
Isabelle Huppert plays Pascale from the inside: on the one hand concerned, loving, maternal and on the other searching for ways to rid herself of her burdens and escape with her lover.... Read more ›
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By David Harris
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Four stars rather than five because it takes time for a film to make its greatness felt. What this movie does offer, though, is a fine example of the standard of work coming out of Belgium at the moment. The films of the Dardenne brothers, with their emphasis on gritty social realism, fine though that is, has become perhaps a little too synonymous with Belgian cimema as a whole. This film by Joachim Lafosse, in contrast,depicts an intimate family drama involving characters whose problems are all of their own making. They could be very unsympathetic, but he manages to make you care about them. The acting is superb throughout - particulary from the ever reliable Isabelle Huppert as the mother of two selfish twenty-something brothers who will not let her move on and lead a life of her own.
This movie fulfils an important criteria when purchasing a dvd: re-watchability. The manner in which Lafosse eschews the Hollywood fixation with unnessarily convoluted plotting, overheated drama and intrusive music (always a sure sign that a film is lacking in any true drama) is exemplary. It is definately a film that will reward further viewings. So, four stars for now, but I have a feeling that in a year or two I might well upgrade it to five. Very highly recommended.
This movie fulfils an important criteria when purchasing a dvd: re-watchability. The manner in which Lafosse eschews the Hollywood fixation with unnessarily convoluted plotting, overheated drama and intrusive music (always a sure sign that a film is lacking in any true drama) is exemplary. It is definately a film that will reward further viewings. So, four stars for now, but I have a feeling that in a year or two I might well upgrade it to five. Very highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By schumann_bg
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
The theme of family breakdown and its long-term effects on children - here well into adulthood yet caught in a kind of adolescent funk - is given a realistic but also oddly sparky treatment in this memorable film. It is unusual in that it has two real-life brothers playing brothers in the film - both excellent, and their performances can always be relied upon to give pleasure. At the same time, the sight of Jeremie Renier hiding in a ditch near the end in a state of utter despair is not easily forgotten, he conveys the pain and confusion of the character with such force. He is the more troubled of the two, but there are also lighter moments and the film taps into a vein of humour in their banter and also in physical comedy in a game of ping pong, for instance. Isabelle Huppert is superb as the mother who is somehow impossible to categorise or judge, she evokes such a complex response. In fact we don't feel we can really judge any of the characters, which is one of the film's strengths. It deserves to be widely seen for tackling an unusual subject and somehow achieving an original, ambiguous tone.
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3.2 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
uncompromising realism
A long-suffering divorcee and her lay-about juvenile twin sons are leading an acrimonious and monotonous existance in an isolated farm in Belgium somewhere. Read more
Published 11 months ago by dupris56
5.0 out of 5 stars
Family Dysfunction Without Boundaries
A film about family dysfunction. A film about boundaries, or rather the lack of them.
Belgian writer/director Joachim Lafosse creates a simmering tension via the use of... Read more
Belgian writer/director Joachim Lafosse creates a simmering tension via the use of... Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2011 by oooo Candy Davis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Huppert
Huppert is, as always, remarkable. Most of what she achieves in this role is done
simply by expression rather than speech. Read more
simply by expression rather than speech. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2011 by pip
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