• Though not their debut, 1996’s La promesse was the artistic breakthrough film for Belgium realists Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.
  • It is certainly fitting that the first image in their first major film is Jérémie Renier – the most recognizable Dardenne actor (along with co-star Olivier Gourmet here). In true neorealist lineage tradition (Bicycle Thieves), Renier (playing Igor) steals a purse from a old nice lady.
  • Renier is 15-years old here, Roger (played by Gourmet) is his mentor and father. The are hustlers. Roger is a lout, criminal, and terrible influence. There is a bit of Dickens’ Oliver Twist here and Gourmet is Fagin- grooming the younger Igor for a life of crime and taking advantage of the immigrants (including Assita – the third major character in the film). Roger gets Igor a matching ring… he polishes it (in a key symbolic moment later Igor will sell it to help Assita). Roger asks Igor to call him “Roger” despite being his father.
  • Igor quits his apprenticeship as a mechanic to pursues his life of corruption—but the Dardennes show the pull of kindness in him along with his innocence (he really just wants to ride his go-cart with his friends).
  • Renier is the perfect young actor for the authenticity the Dardennes are going for—he is no beauty, he looks dirty constantly throughout the film.
  • In a tragic accident stemming from the fallout of Roger’s scam on the immigrants, Igor promises a dying man to take care of Assita. This is the moral mouse trap the Dardenne’s set up. Igor starts doing small favors for Assita and eventually he gets more and more involved in her struggle.
  • This is a cruel world—she gets urinated on by two men off the bridge.
  • Just slightly over 90-minutes long, the film ends with Igor’s honest but unsentimental confession to Assita and then the Dardenne’s hold the shot of the two of them walking in the train station together for a long duration.
  • There is a credit for the music but I don’t recall a score being used at all—this is not a melodrama, it is gritty realism.
  • The Dardenne’s utilize the cinema verité style—this is a grainy, unpretty 16mm, unfussy design, tight handheld camera — the Dardenne brothers made documentaries in the 1980s. Their camera is shaking in the back seat of the rickety van as Roger and Igor drive along
  • A Highly Recommend top 10 of the year quality film—the subsequent efforts of the Dardenne brothers over the next few decades help create a cohesive vision as well. It is better seen as part of the body of work.