Realism, tension and morality in the films of the Dardenne brothers

This book proceeds to illuminate the highlights of the films of Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne who are internationally renowned filmmakers with several awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Their films engage the viewer and leave them with an intense emotional experience. This will be demonstrated through the textual and intertextual reading of a corpus of four selected films which are Rosetta (1999), The Son (2002), The Child (2005) and Two Days, One Night (2014). We also demonstrate through the analysis of the films that the Dardenne brothers are directors who do not only make social films as critics say, but also films that question morality where they put their characters in front of difficult moral choices between good and evil, they push them to question the duty and sacrifice and put them in front of doubt and guilt. The Dardenne brothers' work is united by several common points. This comes down to their desire to defend points of view that they hold dear, a philosophy about life.

Autorentext

Farah Ben Jaballah, Doktorandin in Filmstudien an der Ecole Supérieure de l'Audiovisuel et du Cinéma in Gammarth (ESAC), Regisseurin, Drehbuchautorin und Schauspielerin. Sie hat bei mehreren Filmen Regie geführt, mehrere Drehbücher geschrieben und in mehreren Theaterstücken mitgespielt.