For years now, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have been making crime films . . . but no one seems to have noticed.
This is because the writer-director duo concern themselves primarily with character interiority and psychological development—the kind of thing that wins them Palme D’Or awards—not with guns or heists, nor with cops or tough guys. Their films are typically quiet affairs, stories about people on the fringes, often at odds with larger social structures. But make no mistake, the catalog of films the brothers have helmed are full of crimes and transgressions, illegal acts that figure crucially in the narratives and in the evocation of the larger themes they explore: redemption, grace, and sacrifice. Below I look at five films typical of the Belgian brothers. There are others, of course, but this selection is a good place to start to get a sense of the unique and important work of the Dardenne brothers.
La Promesse (The Promise, 1996) first brought the Dardennes some true critical attention. Like so many of their stories, it involves small time crooks, losers really. Here the criminals are not interested in big scores, but in simply getting by. They perpetrate scams in order to keep their heads above water, to earn just enough to make it to the next scam. Roger (Olivier Gourmet) and his adolescent boy, Igor (Jérémie Renier), are a father and son team who run a construction operation. They employ illegal immigrants whom they secretly ferry into…
