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[REVIEWS
> PETITS FRERES]
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| 05/04/2001 |
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Simple,
Spontaneous and Moving, Jacques Doillon's "Petits Freres" is
a mini-masterpiece on its own. Remember that overblown and over-hyped
"Kids" from Larry Clark? "Petits Freres" is what "Kids" should
have been—an uncompromising yet heartfelt portrayal of young
kids living on the fringe of society. |
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Reviewed by Quentin Lee
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| Simple, Spontaneous and Moving, Jacques
Doillon's "Petits Freres" is a mini-masterpiece on its
own. Remember that overblown and over-hyped "Kids" from
Larry Clark? "Petits Freres" is what "Kids" should have
been—an uncompromising yet heartfelt portrayal of young
kids living on the fringe of society. In pale comparison
to "Petits Freres," "Kids" is no more than a dirty old
man's wet dream pretending to shed insights on a generation
foreign to Clark. Unlike Clark who objectifies and sentimentalizes
kids in his own banal sexual fantasy, French veteran and
maverick filmmaker Jacques Doillon successfully portrays
a truthful emotional reality of being kids in a less-than-ideal
environment which feels universal and specific at the
same time. |
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| The
girl and her dog |
Our protagonist, Talia (Stéphanie Touly), a 13-year-old,
runs away from home after fighting with her mean stepfather.
She takes her beloved dog Kim and heads out to find a
friend living in the projects near Paris. As she finds
out that her friend has moved to a foster home, she meets
up with a group of four boys more-or-less her age. The
boys end up secretly stealing Talia's dog and selling
it. Determined to rescue her dog, Talia strikes up an
uneasy alliance with the boys, whose seeming leader Illiès
(Iliès Sefraoui) takes a liking to Talia and eventually
promises to help her to get Kim back. |
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| Les
petits freres |
As much as it's a simple story about a girl trying to
find her dog, the movie is set against a complex backdrop
of emotional, generational, racial and economical conflicts.
Yet none of it really matters at the end of the movie,
because we realize that kids are kids. Kids identify with
each other because they are kids. As much as there are
differences and conflicts, there is a common bond and
humanity between them. It's precisely this oxymoronic
emotional truth, successfully evoked by Doillon, that
moves me. |
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| Talia
and the friends she stays with |
I keep coming back to Larry Clark because, like "Kids,"
Doillon also uses amateur young actors. While Clark's
kids feel forced and objectified, Doillon's kids feel
flawlessly real. Clark's subjects, who are kids on the
brink of society like Doillon's, represent the oppositional
stereotypes to mainstream Hollywood's kids who are suburbanized
and sanitized. Nevertheless, both Clark's kids and mainstream
Hollywood's kids fail to capture a truthful portrayal
of kids that is so perfectly captured in "Petits Freres."
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| La
Femme Talia |
The young protagonists, include Talia, in "Petits Freres"
steal, rob and sometimes even wave a gun around and threaten
to blow people's heads off. But they never lose their
innocence or emotions as kids, and we understand how they
feel and where they come from. One of the best scenes
in the film is when Talia robs a young couple in an apartment
with a gun. She asks them to give her a thousand francs
and tells them that she needs the money to get her dog
back. Talia certainly knows what she's doing, and she's
acting as tough as she can, yet I don't feel she's wrong.
It's just what she has to do within her circumstances.
The filmmaker neither milks us for sympathy nor exploits
the violence. Such a scene, so organically and emotionally
truthful, proves the mastery of Doillon's craft as a filmmaker.
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| First
Love? |
When Talia finds out that her dog has died, she sits on
the ground and cries, pushing away Illìes who is indirectly
the cause of her dog's death and yet who is the one trying
to save her dog and comfort her. That moment is so moving,
because it reminds you of precisely the moment that you
feel so incredibly and irreversibly wronged as a kid,
yet you're so helpless against the world. Simultaneously
as an adult viewer, you realize the sad irony of reality
where good and bad intentions are often intermingled,
and the person who wrongs you is also the person who can
comfort you. |
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It is unfortunate that "Petits Freres" is receiving
such a limited release, even though it's understandable
because it's certainly a difficult film to market. "Petits
Freres" is successful in what it has set out to do, as
Philologist Pierre Encrevé writes in the press
kit, "Cinema-verité? Docu-fiction? Just a work
of art that reconfigures reality to allow us in." Yes,
"Petits Freres" is a work of art, as simple, spontaneous
and real as it may seem. It's one of the handful of films
that moves me, and will stick with me. .jpg) |
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Now
in theatrical release
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FESTIVALS
& AWARDS
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19th International Film Festival Rotterdam
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| Director
Jacques Doillon |
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| Jacques Doillon is a veteran French maverick filmmaker
who has made over 50 theatrical and TV films. His last film,
"Ponette," was released to critical acclaim in the
U.S. by Arrow Releasing. |
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Partial
Filmography
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TROP (PEU) D'AMOUR ("Too
Much (Little) Love")
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PONETTE
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DU FOND DU COEUR
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GERMAINE ET BENJAMIN ("Germaine
and Benjamin" - TV)
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LE JEUNE WERTHER ("Young
Werther")
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AMOUREUSE LE PETIT CRIMINEL
("The Little Gangster")
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LA VENGEANCE D'UNE FEMME
("A Woman's Revenge")
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POUR UN OUI, POUR UN NON
(TV) (Based on a play by Nathalie Sarraute)
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LA FILLE DE QUINZE ANS
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L'AMOUREUSE COMEDIE! ("Comedy!")
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LA PURITAINE ("The Prude")
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MANGUY, ONZE ANS PEUT-ETRE
(TV)
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LA TENTATION D'ISABELLE
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LA VIE DE FAMILLE ("Family
Life")
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LA PIRATE ("The Pirate")
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MONSIEUR ABEL (TV)
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L'ARBRE (TV)
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LA FILLE PRODIGUE
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LA DROLESSE
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LA FEMME QUI PLEURE
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UN SAC DE BILLES
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LES DOIGTS DANS LA TETE
("Touched in the Head")
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L'AN 01
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| OFFICIAL
WEBSITE |
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The film's official website is both in French
and English, hosted under its sales company MK2. It's fabulously
complete with photos and other meda...
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| www.mk2.com/petitsfreres |
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US
DISTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
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| firstrunfeatures.com |
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