Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Rosetta (1999), directed and written by the now critically acclaimed Dardenne brothers , is a film with a simple premise, a young and impulsive girl, looking for a job. Nevertheless it was this film that won the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the best actress prize for its portraying of the title character, played by Emilie Dequenne. Rosetta is the ultimate prove that these two brothers of cinema are masters in creating intensely naturalistic films about lower class life in Belgium. Rosetta tells the story about a young woman that wants to find a job at all costs. She knows that her own life is falling apart before her eyes and tries to avoid this by any means necessary. In her search for a job Rosetta has to deal with an alcoholic mother, with whom she lives together in a rickety trailer. The search for work becomes almost as a metaphor for going to war, she won't stop until she has the stable life she is longing for. Along the way she makes a friend, Riquet, with whom the relationship is one of an awkward and weird nature. As mentioned earlier Emilie Dequenne received the best actress prize for her portrayal of the title character. Leave aside that this was deserved or not she convinces us as a girl with a grim determination who's mainly relying on her instincts. Although the Dardenne brothers know how to perfectly blend a good casting with an effective use of camera. The film never makes any effort in portraying Rosetta as a heroine, she isn't winning neither sympathetic. It's in these aspects that lies the true subversive power that this film possesses. Upon watching this film you'll learn that the title is kind of misleading. This film is about the determinism of being employed, which is synonymous for Rosetta with happiness. The only problem is that it's her point of view because as soon as she gets a job she still isn't happier than before. It leaves us, as the viewer, wonder: 'Has this girl ever learned to have happiness and can employment alone make our lives more stable?'Rosetta feels at times very claustrophobic, although it has an universal theme. This is due the stylistically straightforwardness of Alain Marcoen's cinematography helped with a handheldcamera style. It gives the film the feel of a small European art movie, which it is to some degree, if not in its totality. It's thanks to this style of filming that the movie is so exceptional at maintaining an objective view into the world of Rosetta. In the end Rosetta proved to be the big breakthrough of the Dardenne Brothers and a breakthrough that was well deserved. It even inspired new laws surrounding the labor of teenagers in Belgium such as preventing employers from paying teenagers less than the minimum wage. This is a fine example of the influence of filmmaking on society, especially if it is as good as Rosetta. Instead of resting on their laurels the Dardenne brothers made a notable selection of critically acclaimed films such as Le fils (2002) or L'infant (2005). Although, personally, Rosetta is a grand introduction into their amazing body of work and style.

Rosetta is worth seeing because of the excellent turn in the lead role by Emilie Dequenne, an interesting plot twist and the focus on characters who represent the fringes of society. However, the Dogma approach to filmmaking nearly ruins Rosetta; and certainly weakens it (probably by design).I agree with the views on the relentless camera movement that has already been expressed by bluetunehead (from Chicago) and Roland E. Zwick. I've often thought that Dogma's twitchy, relentlessly moving hand-held camera is like putting training wheels on an otherwise fast bicycle. It is designed to lessen your experience of sitting and the dark and trying to follow a story.If the moving camera was confined to the conflict on the bridge at the end of the film then critics would hail its use as innovative; and the Dardenne brothers might be compared to a clever filmmaker such as Truffaut. Instead, the effect is used so much that the bridge scene is compromised.In Rosetta, a character does something that changes our perception of that person. In a film that didn't have the Dogma Training Wheels applied to it, we'd be made to feel very strongly about it. However, the Dardenne brothers don't wish us to terribly concerned about the decision the character made.Another word the role the Dogma camera plays in Rosetta is 'indoctrination'. This isn't a left-wing view on economic inequality. The Dardennes have made a film with concealed right-wing sentiments that detaches us from concern over the conditions of the lower class.Rosetta is worth seeing once. With additional viewings the feeling will be like having someone continuously hit you in the head with a block of wood as you are made to accept the idea of screwing the poor where there is benefit to doing so.

To say that Emilie Dequenne. the young actress playing Rosetta - and who won the Golden Palm at Cannes for her efforts here, is 'plucky', would sound patronising, to say the least.This is structured documentary film-making at its most urgent - and poignant. The premise for most could hardly be less appealing - an independent film, filmed at a moderately sized Belgian industrial town, with an actress who wears no make-up (yes, the odd pimple, too) has an alcoholic mother who gets more booze by offering herself for sex and they both 'inhabit' a tiny, leaky caravan on a caravan park.By plucky, I mean that Rosetta is almost always running - from someone, after someone - including her own mother - to a job, from a job. When not doing that, she gets thrown in a lake (by same person as above), catching fish in said very muddy lake, using a broken glass jar. She is always trying to either get work, keep her job or survive, somehow.This all sounds quite frantic - and it is, when the hand-held camera follows her, is glued to her, almost, as she goes past so close, she briefly goes out of focus. But often, it is meditative, thought- provoking and downright very ordinary. Which, oddly, is extremely compelling, never more so during the gaps in dialogue.Underneath this hardened facade - she only swears and fights when really pressed, then she's like a terrier dog - we hope to see a normal young lady, who can do things that she enjoys. We only see this once, when the young man at the new waffle-van where she finally gets a casual job, takes her after the first day, back to his, for food and playing of some music.If this is SO mundanely glum, why am I watching it for the second time? Well, my Halliwells Film Guide (bible, to me) rated it highly and I got a copy cheap as a Korean import and secondly, you just know that there is a message here. Not necessarily a very important one, but one that we need to reminded of, when we all (and our Governments) continually moan about the youth of today and how they never want to work - and about caring for those unable to care for themselves.It's also very sobering (definitely no pun intended) and one with an ending that you'll remember.

Rosetta is one of the most greatest productions about fighting to live in the cinema industry."life is a valuable gift so you should protect it by being as strong as you can."I think this is the main message of the film.Emilie Dequenne in the role of Rosetta would remain in the memory of cinema forever.She didn't speak that much but she was such a professional actress that showed all her feelings in her face.The scene that Rosetta spoke with herself before sleeping was fantastic.Technical features such as carrying camera on hand and using no music even at the end of the film,make us to believe that this is going to be a special documentary.