I picked this movie up from the library because someone (don't remember who) in a Criterion Closet clip recommended it. It's a French film about a girl who is just trying to find a job...because her alcoholic mother has deserted her in every sense except physical.
It's a great movie. One of the greatest things about it is that there are several times when you can't figure out why a character is doing something. Which means that (1) the director is assuming you will work it out, (2) that this is not a movie which accepts superficial motivations, because (3) the director respects the complexity of human beings.
Émilie Dequenne is quite stunning as Rosetta. She's a tough girl, for sure, but there are key moments when she reveals the frightened child that is also a part of her. When she calls out for her mom to help her. (She doesn't.) When she is carrying a heavy canister and stumbles and falls and begins to cry.
And she was only 18 when she made this movie. She died very young, in her early 40s, but she made quite a few movies in her 25 year career, and I'm hoping I can find some of them Out There.
Addendum: And what do you know, Rosetta is available on HBO Max, and Émilie's second movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf, is on Amazon Prime. More news as it happens.
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