De bruit et de fureur

Being the older brother of a Down's Syndrome mongloid, now passed his prime, I see what the future holds for the hearing impaired in this country. Understand, I'm not comparing the two disabilities, just the technology being used to eradicate the disability.

When my brother was born there was no genetics chromosomal testing and doctors couldn't determine if a child would be born with Down's until it came to full term. But at present these tests can be done with a fetus in the 1st trimester and parents can make a decision to abort the child or not. At least they could until Rowe vs Wade was overturned by the SCOTUS. I today's world the percentage of Down's baby's is near to none, except for the brave parents who decide to have the child regardless of its disability. The majority of Down's Syndrome population are senior and late middle aged.

The cochlear device technology is doing the same to the deaf population. More and more parents are electing their young children for the surgery. The deaf community is being chased out as the pre-cochlear population ages. Is this a good thing? Does making everyone the same make the world a better place? No, it doesn't and the consequences for it will be devastating on our society.

It must be like 5 years or so since I saw this movie and I think I will never be able to forget some of the scenes of this film . Its the story of a quiet young boy , going to school , having a quiet life , but lonely life because he have no friends and his mother is never there . His life begins to be more and more disturbed by the neighbourhood , and he'll slowly enter this violence , rubbing shoulders with a hoodlum and his gang. This movie is like CLOCKWORK ORANGE without the science fiction , it is truly crude, the raping scenes really put uncomfortable .Brisseau could direct scenes as unforgettable as the Russian roulette scenes in DEER HUNTER ; He's got the same dark , ultra realistic way of filming things that are beautiful or horrible . The actors are great , the story never slow neither exaggerates , is it one of my favorite French movies .And the end of this movie makes it a movie which may haunt you for many years .

It's been about 5 years since I saw this film, but it was so powerful that many images are still strong in my mind. Ostensibly based around a withdrawn, neglected young boy living with his mother (absent throughout the film) in a French sink estate, De Bruit et de Fureur soon departs from social realism to become something truly unique. It is, by turns, funny, grotesque, harsh and lyrical, and one of the most affecting pieces of cinema I have ever seen.

In Brisseau's precedent work "un jeu brutal" ,we made acquaintance with a scientist/serial killer and his disabled daughter ,who had no hope and were trying to nullify their life in the sound and the fury.

"De bruit et de fureur" is Loach 's "Kes" in the harsh realities of the late eighties.The hero,like Loach's is a young misfit ,whose only friend is a bird and whose mother is also absent (we never see her,we only read the notes she puts in the kitchen).And again,like in "Kes" a teacher tries to help him.The world around him is bleak,nightmarish and rough,epitomized by Cremer's -the serial killer in "un jeu brutal- character who turns his apartment into a shooting gallery.

The ending might repel some .An intense poetry emanates from the last picture .Maybe up there someone likes him...maybe...

The Nick Ray's movie spirit is not so far from this film directed by Jean Claude Brisseau. This is a beautiful, gloomy, sad story with some sequences that may puzzle you. Some dream world meanings that have nothing to do in such a movie. There is also some social elements in this French parisian suburb tale, in the middle and surrounding of those huge towers. Bruno Cremer is the only actor that I know and he is superb as a war vet who has problems with his kid; and for once the father wants to convince his son that living outside the law is the best way to do, and not the contrary...Very unusual. Cremer tries to convince his son not to have a normal life, not to become a slave.