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The Dardenne Brothers Collection - 6 Disc Set

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/dardenne.htm

La Promesse (1996)     Rosetta (1999)    The Son (2002)

The Child (2005)     The Silence of Lorna (2008)    The Kid With a Bike (2011)

Artificial Eye's THE DARDENNE COLLECTION compiles six award-winning films by the brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne in an economically-priced and packaged box set. Most of the discs appear to be direct ports of AE's individual disc releases, but THE SON was released as a 2-disc set and only the first disc is included here. Owners of the individual discs or with Blu-ray capability (AE released KID WITH A BIKE on Region B, and ROSETTA and LA PROMESSE are on Criterion Region A) may want to give the set a pass; however, AE's double disc of ROSETTA and LA PROMESSE is out-of-print, so the set may be the only way to get them.

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DVD Review: Artificial Eye (6-discs) - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

The 6 DVDs are also separately (La Promesse and Rosetta are packaged together)
La Promesse (packaged with Rosetta) Rosetta The Son The Child The Silence of Lorna The Kid With a Bike

Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 2 - PAL

Audio Dolby Digital Mono (French)
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Artificial Eye

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Promesse, Rosetta, Son, Child) + 1.85:1(Lorna and Bike)

Edition Details:
La Promesse

• Interview With Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
• Cannes Award Ceremony Footage (other disc)
• Theatrical Trailer ( 1:10 min )
• Stills Galleries ( 20 Photos )
• Director Biographies and Filmographies
• Cast Biographies : On Other Disc included, the feature film "Rosetta"

Rosetta

• Interview With Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
• Cannes Award Ceremony Footage
• Theatrical Trailer
• Stills Galleries
• Director Biographies and Filmographies
• Cast Biographies : On Other Disc, the feature film "La Promesse"

The Son

• None

The Child

• Interview with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (29:44 / 16x9)
• Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Biography
• Trailers

The Silence of Lorna

• Interview with Arta Dobroshi (14:57)
• Interview with Dardenne brothers (36:52 French with optional English subtitles)
• Theatrical trailer (1:29)

The Kid With a Bike

• Featurette: Return to Seraing with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (31:54)
• Interview with Cecile de France (18:06)
• Trailer (1:47)



DVD Release Date: December 10th, 2012
6 discs in a Custom Case 

 

Comments:

Fans of the Dardenne's have been the fortunate beneficiary of all of their feature films rendered with very acceptable digital transfers (in every region they exist). Artificial Eye in the UK are almost always first out of the gate with all six feature titles.

All transfers are the exact same as the original PAL DVD editions - except for The Son which has a slightly different bitrate - possibly because it doesn't include the package supplements - which were on a 2nd disc. The Silence of Lorna was put out by Drakes Avenue - but is also the same transfer.

I see no evidence of digital manipulations of any kind. The subtitles and audio are excellent or the SD format.  The handi-cam modulations create intended haze (on occasion) and the colors look perfectly balanced and bright. There are no glaring artifacts. Audio is in the original French.

Extras are all duplicated (except for The Son) and include multiple interviews with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, an interview with Arta Dobroshi (Lorna) and Cecile de France (Kid on a Bike). Included is the 1/2 featurette entitled Return to Seraing with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and there are trailers.

These are ALL exceptional cinema and I consider three of them (La Promesse, Rosetta and The Silence of Lorna) absolute masterpieces in their own right. We give this package a very strong recommendation.    

Gary W. Tooze


DVD Menus
 

 


http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/dardenne.htm
Belgium 1996

La promesse is the breakthrough feature from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, who would go on to become a force in world filmmaking. The brothers brought the unerring eye for detail and the compassion for those on society’s lowest rungs developed in their earlier documentary work to this absorbing drama about a teenager (Jérémie Renier) gradually coming to understand the implications of his father’s making a living through the exploitation of undocumented workers. Filmed in the Dardennes’ industrial hometown of Seraing, Belgium, La promesse is a brilliantly economical and observant tale of a boy’s troubled moral awakening.

 

Screen Captures

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/dardenne.htm 
Belgium 1999

'Rosetta' proves a very appropriate title for the movie as the camera never strays from her throughout the entire film. Her face, in constant close-ups, is a series of telling expressions worthy of comparisons to Falconetti or Masina. 

For a paltry two million dollars Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne shot and continuously edited 60 hours of film footage to parse down and create a 95 minute cinema verité masterpiece. The true artistic crime-of-the-century is that its exposure to the mass audiences has been very limited. It is this audience that might benefit the most from its viewing. The political and moral message it sends is one inherent to all sentient beings who are concerned with their fellow humankind. It is heartfelt on a raw, exposed gut-level.

The character Rosetta, at times, exhibits herself as a savage, tortured soul, ready to defend her non-existent rights with ferocious determination. She is also a closed-off, obsessed survivor, fighting to find her place in society. This, while also shouldering the weight of ulcer-pained responsibilities for the maternal-like care required to oversee to her own flawed mother. Her struggles are even more pitiful and real to us since they are primarily for the most basic elements of living. Things perhaps we quite often take for granted and, in HER own mind can be satisfied by obtaining employment. Has society manifested the impression that this will make her a "normal person?" Perhaps her mother will cease her alcoholism and sexual promiscuity. She might establish friendships... even get a boyfriend if she could only get a steady job.out of

Excerpt from Gary Tooze's Review found HERE





(aka "the Son")

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/dardenne.htm
Belgium 2002

 

It was with great anticipation that I prepared my viewing of "The Son" in my Home Theatre. I had considered the Dardenne Brothers two previous efforts as masterpieces of modern cinema. I soon settled into a cerebral mindset with my infant son playing on the floor at my feet. The film started, ran and floated to its eventual conclusion. My initial impressions were that I enjoyed it in the same manner that I had "Rosetta" and "La Promesse". The structure was complimentary: details brought to our attention through inference and action rather than blatant repetitive dialogue. The focus was on the actions, often mundane, of one character who we were to bond, learn about, and voyeuristically view with his simple day-to-day mannerisms of existence. The film climaxed late with a blurted-out confession (much less eviscerating than "La Promesse"). Yes, many areas were duplicated in the Dardenne's previous work... but saying that I was only moderately disappointed in this lack of divergence for "The Son". In the overall acceptance of the film, it did however lack something for me. Whether it was the ability of Olivier Gourmet to carry the film or, what I would more likely surmise, that each piece of the formulated puzzle did not progress in the same manner as I was anticipating. Each scene in "Rosetta", for example, was an important lynchpin in the entire feel of the story. In The Son, I did not find this was the case. Perhaps, like many great cinema achievements this film will grow on me. In fact, I am certain it will. I still recommend it as a great work by two studious and highly detailed auteurs. It did hit me, but perhaps not as hard as I was hoping. I could have had my expectations too stratospheric, but regardless I had about 80% enjoyment and 20% "withdrawal", if that term makes any sense here. Others will surely disagree but I give this film  out of , which only goes to show my extremely high praise for their other two films.

Gary W. Tooze

 

 

 

 



(aka 'The Child')

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/dardenne.htm
France / Belgium
2005

 

Twice garlanded by the Cannes Film Festival, the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have a style and set of interests that are as instantly recognizable as those of any filmmakers in the world. Cine Dardenne is characterized by its hectic, rough-and-ready camerawork, impeccable performances, a concern with the urban dispossessed (specifically those living in the small industrial city of Seraing), and an unlikely affinity for Robert Bresson; the mode might be described as spiritually infused social realism.

As the brothers' 1999 come-from-nowhere Cannes laureate Rosetta suggested a Marxist remake of Bresson's Mouchette, so their second Palme d'Or triumph, L'Enfant, revisits Bresson's more abstract Pickpocket in its saga of crime, punishment, and redemption. The remarkable thing about the Dardennes—who made documentaries for two decades, years before going fictional—is their visceral single-mindedness. Each of their movies is an odyssey (toward grace?) through a world that could hardly seem more drably material.

Excerpt of J. Hoberman's review at the Village Voice located HERE

 



(aka 'The Silence of Lorna')

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/dardenne.htm
France / Belgium / Italy / Germany 2008

 

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (THE CHILD) direct this drama about an Albanian woman torn between connections to three men and her own dreams. Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is an immigrant living in Belgium. Though she has a boyfriend, her involvement with the Mafia leads her to marry Claudy (Jeremy Renier) so she can get citizenship. But her life is further complicated when she is told to marry a Russian criminal, putting Claudy's life in danger.

***

Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, has her sights set on opening a snack bar with her boyfriend, Sokol. In order to do so, she becomes an accomplice in a diabolical plan devised by mobster Fabio. Fabio has set up a false marriage between Lorna and Claudy allowing Lorna to get her Belgian citizenship. However, she is then asked to marry a Russian mafioso who's ready to pay hard cash to also get his hands on those vital Belgian identity papers. Fabio intends to kill Claudy in order to speed up the second marriage. But will Lorna remain silent?


 


 

A boy who longs to be reunited with his family refuses to accept the reality of his circumstances in this drama from... the sibling writing/directing team of Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. Cyril (Thomas Doret) is an 11-year-old boy who loves his father and believes in him. The trouble is, Cyril's dad Guy (Jeremie Renier) is a bum who doesn't care about his son, doesn't want to spend his money caring for him, and has left the boy at an orphanage rather than keep him. While these facts are clear to everyone else, Cyril refuses to believe them, and his determination to be reunited with Guy, coupled with his discipline problems, makes him a chore to look after. Samantha (Cecile de France), who works in a beauty shop, offers to take Cyril on weekends so he can have some kind of a home life, but her determined compassion makes only so much of an impact on the youngster, who is still convinced he can find his father. As Samantha struggles to bond with Cyril, the boy finds an unfortunate father figure in Wes (Egon Di Mateo), a small-time crook who drafts Cyril into his latest criminal scheme. Jeremie Renier, who plays Guy in Le Gamin Au Velo (aka The Kid With a Bike), made his screen debut in an earlier film by the Dardenne Brothers, 1996's La Promesse, in which he fittingly played a troubled youth.

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

 

Screen Captures

 

 


 

 


 

 


 


DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

The 6 DVDs are also separately (La Promesse and Rosetta are packaged together)
La Promesse (packaged with Rosetta) Rosetta The Son The Child The Silence of Lorna The Kid With a Bike

Distribution

Artificial Eye

Region 0 - PAL

 

 




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