Rosetta is a dour; uncompromising girl living on the outskirts of society with her alcoholic mother, desperate for normality. She is fixated on gaining employment, believing that this defines a 'normal existence' and there is little she won't do in pursuit of this 'grail'.
We follow on her shoulder, via a hand held camera, as she resolutely stampedes through her pain and anger, never allowing fear, need or sadness to intrude; closed-off to offers of help, friendship, almost to the world.
Only once she attains her goal, at the expense of another and some cost to her, does she realise that it doesn't bring the happiness or contentment she envisaged. Everything is still the same. With that realisation, perhaps she can finally accept a proferred hand and open herself to people.. maybe, to life.
We who live in Western democratic, industrialised society don't spend much thought on those on the outskirts of it, and yet in all societies they are there on the outside looking in and often desperate to get in, and here is what Rosetta is, a bundle of nerves who has been dealt a bad hand (we see only the alcoholic mother and trailer and are left to only guess at what kind of childhood she must have had...) but is entirely determined even obsessed to break into this elite fortress called Society/Normality/Normal Life (whatever you wish to call it)... and thus it makes perfect sense for the camera to follow her so intensely (for many reasons), since we are following the unpredictable life-journey of someone so poor they can only live on a hand-to-mouth day by day basis.
The film is a great example of content matching form, but also of how, without explaining things explicitly, a film can leave such a deep and fascinating portrait of someone... Rosetta is a completely fictional made up character, yet, as if she was real, I cannot stop thinking about her and analysing each of her rituals, her determination, her stubborn pride, her own defence-mechanism shell which prevents her opening up to friendship, and the fact she has been turned into a feral creature by a society that has left her with a distorted sense of values (the lack of parents is equally to blame, she is still a kid but what role models to impart wisdom to her does she have or did she ever have?)... And to those who think films don't make a difference, this film brought about a new Belgian law, the so called "Plan Rosetta", giving new rights to teenage workers in Belgium. All in all Rosetta is a significant film on many levels.
I really liked this film. I thought it had a lot of potential before I watched it, and that it would be similar to Pixote, Maria full of Grace and Lilya 4-Ever, which we watched before on efas. Also Fat Girl. That kind of raw, gritty film, appeals to me a lot. Like everyone has said, I did enjoy the hand held camera feel, it felt like I was right there with her, as a ghost, following her all the way through.
She does not react well to kindness because she is not used to it, she even says in the film that she does not like people giving her and her mother things. I would guess quite strongly that her mother didn't give her a lot of love and care even as a child (the mother looked young so she might have had rosetta as a teenager) Therefore, she may appear cold hearted on the outside in the film. Inside she is aching; she watches other people perform their jobs, longing for one, any one, just so she has something to aim at in life.
On the issue of taking her friend's job in the way she did, many other people do this, ''stab'' people in the back I mean but the difference here is she didn't intend to hurt him or even thought that he would then be out of a job, it's like she just had a recording in her head that played over and over again, saying ''I need a job''. This would link to the scene when she is trying to sleep and talks to her herself, repeating what she is saying in first person.
Also on the issue of her pain, to me it was quite clear that it was period pain, due to the conversation she had with her mother and also due to the film's time span, which imo does not last more than a week. I looked up the heat treatment she gives in relation to period pain and I found that it is an effective way of reducing menstrual cramp pains (this is also why some girls use a hot water bottle around that area)
To me this film also shows the audience what they take granted, in ''normal'' life, 1) Having a job; how many millions of people around the world moan about their job? 2) Having a caring, loving and supportive family; how many millions of people around the world treat their family, namely their parents in a horrible and selfish way? Other things include having food (Rosetta has to fish in that contaminated pool just to get something to eat), having a home, having friends. All of which are also taken for granted every day.
I found Rosetta's character very realistic, and despite some wrong choices she made, quite likable. Of course, it's easy to say she shouldn't have done this or that, but who are we to judge her? Desperate people do desperate things! It's hard to even imagine what it would be like to be her :(. And given the situation she was in, struggling to survive, having to care for an alcoholic mother who couldn't care less about her, we should admire her rather than judge her, cause even the bad stuff she does, she regrets doing them afterwards.
She's a proud girl who doesn't want help from anyone, and who doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. That's why she may appear cold, but that's only because she wants to hide what's going on inside her. She doesn't make any friends, because eventually they would see through her, and she couldn't bare that. All she wants from life is to be able to make her own living and start living a decent life. Finding a job for her means survival, physical and emotional, that is why she fights so hard for it, even humiliates herself sometimes. That is her only way out. The only way she was able to achieve that was by betraying a friend, but she couldn't live with that. Realising that society won't let her stay a decent person, she finally makes a decision to give up.
It's only at the end of the film that she shows her pain and opens up in front of someone else. He forgives her and helps her up, unaware that he probably saved her life by doing so...
I was touched by the film only on rational level. Somehow film didn't do anything for me emotionally. Don't know why. In spite of all the anger and unhappiness in it I didn't feel a thing.
A wonderful, atmospheric tale of a forbidden dalliance in post war Britain.
Opening with the end of the affair is a touch of brilliance, enabling the final scene to really resonate when we see it again. The use of the trains throughout the film is beautifully symbolic; the screaming, jarring whistles coincide with intense emotion; the two main character's trains perfectly timed to cross paths, like their passengers; the trains flying past at the opening and closing credits, underlining the 'brief encounter'...
The use of narrative adds much to this film. Celia Johnson's gentle voice, silently confessing to her husband her guilt, tempered with little emotion; but then countered by the pure desperation emanating from her eyes, a repressed woman longing to love and be loved, passionately, but equally terrified of the consequences. An amazing performance.
The camera work too is beautiful, use of shadows signifying the secrecy, hiding from the world; extreme close-ups used to convey intense psychological states; never panning back as if to give them freedom...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRosetta:
ReplyDeleteRosetta is a dour; uncompromising girl living on the outskirts of society with her alcoholic mother, desperate for normality. She is fixated on gaining employment, believing that this defines a 'normal existence' and there is little she won't do in pursuit of this 'grail'.
We follow on her shoulder, via a hand held camera, as she resolutely stampedes through her pain and anger, never allowing fear, need or sadness to intrude; closed-off to offers of help, friendship, almost to the world.
Only once she attains her goal, at the expense of another and some cost to her, does she realise that it doesn't bring the happiness or contentment she envisaged. Everything is still the same. With that realisation, perhaps she can finally accept a proferred hand and open herself to people.. maybe, to life.
We who live in Western democratic, industrialised society don't spend much thought on those on the outskirts of it, and yet in all societies they are there on the outside looking in and often desperate to get in, and here is what Rosetta is, a bundle of nerves who has been dealt a bad hand (we see only the alcoholic mother and trailer and are left to only guess at what kind of childhood she must have had...) but is entirely determined even obsessed to break into this elite fortress called Society/Normality/Normal Life (whatever you wish to call it)... and thus it makes perfect sense for the camera to follow her so intensely (for many reasons), since we are following the unpredictable life-journey of someone so poor they can only live on a hand-to-mouth day by day basis.
ReplyDeleteThe film is a great example of content matching form, but also of how, without explaining things explicitly, a film can leave such a deep and fascinating portrait of someone... Rosetta is a completely fictional made up character, yet, as if she was real, I cannot stop thinking about her and analysing each of her rituals, her determination, her stubborn pride, her own defence-mechanism shell which prevents her opening up to friendship, and the fact she has been turned into a feral creature by a society that has left her with a distorted sense of values (the lack of parents is equally to blame, she is still a kid but what role models to impart wisdom to her does she have or did she ever have?)... And to those who think films don't make a difference, this film brought about a new Belgian law, the so called "Plan Rosetta", giving new rights to teenage workers in Belgium. All in all Rosetta is a significant film on many levels.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this film. I thought it had a lot of potential before I watched it, and that it would be similar to Pixote, Maria full of Grace and Lilya 4-Ever, which we watched before on efas. Also Fat Girl. That kind of raw, gritty film, appeals to me a lot. Like everyone has said, I did enjoy the hand held camera feel, it felt like I was right there with her, as a ghost, following her all the way through.
ReplyDeleteShe does not react well to kindness because she is not used to it, she even says in the film that she does not like people giving her and her mother things. I would guess quite strongly that her mother didn't give her a lot of love and care even as a child (the mother looked young so she might have had rosetta as a teenager) Therefore, she may appear cold hearted on the outside in the film. Inside she is aching; she watches other people perform their jobs, longing for one, any one, just so she has something to aim at in life.
On the issue of taking her friend's job in the way she did, many other people do this, ''stab'' people in the back I mean but the difference here is she didn't intend to hurt him or even thought that he would then be out of a job, it's like she just had a recording in her head that played over and over again, saying ''I need a job''. This would link to the scene when she is trying to sleep and talks to her herself, repeating what she is saying in first person.
Also on the issue of her pain, to me it was quite clear that it was period pain, due to the conversation she had with her mother and also due to the film's time span, which imo does not last more than a week. I looked up the heat treatment she gives in relation to period pain and I found that it is an effective way of reducing menstrual cramp pains (this is also why some girls use a hot water bottle around that area)
To me this film also shows the audience what they take granted, in ''normal'' life, 1) Having a job; how many millions of people around the world moan about their job? 2) Having a caring, loving and supportive family; how many millions of people around the world treat their family, namely their parents in a horrible and selfish way? Other things include having food (Rosetta has to fish in that contaminated pool just to get something to eat), having a home, having friends. All of which are also taken for granted every day.
I found Rosetta's character very realistic, and despite some wrong choices she made, quite likable. Of course, it's easy to say she shouldn't have done this or that, but who are we to judge her? Desperate people do desperate things! It's hard to even imagine what it would be like to be her :(. And given the situation she was in, struggling to survive, having to care for an alcoholic mother who couldn't care less about her, we should admire her rather than judge her, cause even the bad stuff she does, she regrets doing them afterwards.
ReplyDeleteShe's a proud girl who doesn't want help from anyone, and who doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. That's why she may appear cold, but that's only because she wants to hide what's going on inside her. She doesn't make any friends, because eventually they would see through her, and she couldn't bare that.
All she wants from life is to be able to make her own living and start living a decent life. Finding a job for her means survival, physical and emotional, that is why she fights so hard for it, even humiliates herself sometimes. That is her only way out. The only way she was able to achieve that was by betraying a friend, but she couldn't live with that. Realising that society won't let her stay a decent person, she finally makes a decision to give up.
It's only at the end of the film that she shows her pain and opens up in front of someone else. He forgives her and helps her up, unaware that he probably saved her life by doing so...
Truly amazing film :hatoff:
Rosetta
ReplyDeleteI was touched by the film only on rational level. Somehow film didn't do anything for me emotionally. Don't know why. In spite of all the anger and unhappiness in it I didn't feel a thing.
Brief Encounter:
ReplyDeleteA wonderful, atmospheric tale of a forbidden dalliance in post war Britain.
Opening with the end of the affair is a touch of brilliance, enabling the final scene to really resonate when we see it again. The use of the trains throughout the film is beautifully symbolic; the screaming, jarring whistles coincide with intense emotion; the two main character's trains perfectly timed to cross paths, like their passengers; the trains flying past at the opening and closing credits, underlining the 'brief encounter'...
The use of narrative adds much to this film. Celia Johnson's gentle voice, silently confessing to her husband her guilt, tempered with little emotion; but then countered by the pure desperation emanating from her eyes, a repressed woman longing to love and be loved, passionately, but equally terrified of the consequences. An amazing performance.
The camera work too is beautiful, use of shadows signifying the secrecy, hiding from the world; extreme close-ups used to convey intense psychological states; never panning back as if to give them freedom...
What a joy.