Private Property (2006)

Good concept, poorly executed.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

In his first film "Nue Propriété"/"Private Property" Belgian director Joachim Lafosse films the progressive disintegration of a discontented middle class family.His film is a tragic tale of fragile relationships wherein all characters are weak and easily subdued due to their inseparable internal weaknesses.One can expect that a film with family breakdown would be incendiary.However,in "Private Property" rabble rousing is confined to a bare minimum level in order to make this film a veritable low key affair.This is done by quietly filming many scenes in which cinematically speaking nothing much happens.It is in these scenes that audiences are able to witness simple human activities such as family members eating their meals and two brothers playing an amusing Ping Pong game.As usual grand dame of French cinema Isabelle Huppert is brilliant in her role of a mother who has to deal with many different men in her life.Her character is developed in such a manner that it hangs between three different extremes.However,"Nue Propriete" appears credible due to strong acting performances by actors Jérémie Renier and Yannick Rénier who are brothers in real life.This is a film to watch in case if somebody is interested in witnessing how families are ruined.PS : Film critic Lalit Rao would like to thank a good friend Mr.Philippe Pham for having gifted a DVD of this film for detailed analysis.

In my opinion, "Nue propriete" contains universal images which create a dramatic tension that is never absent from the film. There is, thank goodness, no comic relief to detract from the dire positions of the characters. Also, there are no mindless subplots which cause the characters to wander off in aimless directions. The most obvious classical theme, some would say biblical theme, is that of Cain and Abel, with Thierry as Cain. A modern reflection of OEDIPIUS REX is very obvious. Alas, poor Thierry is also somewhat like Hamlet, especially with Hamlet's insult of Gertrude in Shakespeare's bedroom scene, where the female parent is accosted by a barrage of language befitting a brothel. The Thierry-Hamlet image is manifest in the relation between Thierry and his girl friend, as with Hamlet and Ophelia. Thierry's hatred is also aimed toward Jan, his mother's new partner, much like Hamlet's dislike for his new father Claudius. Pascale, the mother in the film, reminds one of Nora in Ibsen's A DOLL HOUSE. Both women want out. The acting in "Nue propriete" is very good, the direction is a above average. This film is well worth seeing.

What a boring, pointless and annoying little film! How was Huppert ever talked into participating in it?A middle-aged divorcée resides with her grown sons somewhere in the dreariest reaches of Belgium. Every day that is chronicled features an overcast sky, morose characters and a setting outdone in gloominess only by that day's script. When the closing credits mercifully make their appearance, they're accompanied by the only music in the soundtrack: a fittingly macabre violin piece that adds one last, large dollop of annoyance to the viewer's experience.I didn't feel any urge to discover whether the director is a Belgium-hating Frenchman -- or a self-hating Walloon. Does it matter?Avoid his product.

This movie is an example of perfect psychological drama that only the French (actually the director is Belgian) can write and direct in such an essential and powerful way.SPOILERS FOLLOWING Focusing on two twin brothers conceived by a divorced couple, the film is a very serious study on the dynamics between a mother (Isabelle Huppert) and her two bi-ovular twin sons (Renier twins). The threesome, since the moment of the divorce, lives intimately isolated in a great house in the middle of the country in Luxembourg. The two brothers are complete adults but unemployed. The quiet one is good at fixing things in the house, the loud one is good at doing nothing but kissing and having sex with a girlfriend he sees instead of going to the university classes. Mother is distressed because she's run out of money and, encouraged by her new lover, she wants to sell the family house her ex-husband offered as a precaution for the kids to invest on a green house. Of course, the troubled son makes a violent stand and starts treating her mother really badly until she decides to go away for a period and leave the guys alone in order to make them realize they're not little boys anymore. The ex-husband is a quiet and loving man who chose to marry a second time and had a third children with an other woman after Pascale (Isabelle Huppert) left him. For she is a woman, she is not able to confront her two male grown-up children (there is sexual tension between them also) and the ghost of her ex-husband. Her new lover doesn't want to interfere and draws back, leaving her alone. Pascale doesn't want her ex-husband to show his face and interfere in her personal relationship with the boys, but when she elopes she announces him that it's time that he takes care of them because she is exhausted and wants a new life. The father avenges and refuses to go and keep an eye on them because he thinks they're mature enough. He couldn't be more wrong! As the boys are home alone, their relationship suddenly cracks and in a moment of foolish and immature rage, the blond one fights him until leaving him unconscious. As soon as he realizes what he's done, he calls their father but he prefers escaping instead of confronting the family. When the family is reunited, in the end, we are left unable to know what are the conditions of the hospitalized brother (he could be dead or alive, we are not given any clue for this) and mother/father/child have their violent climax moment where the troubled son blames her mother for divorcing and ruining his family life. The father simply explains that things were not meant to keep them together and Thierry eventually moves on and grows. The last sequence is a series of shots in the house as it is emptied and sold to new owners. We move on the country roads near the house backwards as if Thierry's family history was to be removed necessarily.The movie is very dramatic although the real dramatic moment comes in the end as a truly unexpected punch in your stomach. Some may find it too educational and deprived of visual and inventive power, but that's not the intention. Frnech movies are usually quite simple and classic and focusing on psychology and more thoughtful themes. Each performance is worthy of applause, especially Jeremie Renier (already seen in another great performance a few years ago in CRIMINAL LOVERS by Francois Ozon) and the evergreen Isabelle Huppert.