In his astonishing 2012 film, “Our Children,” Belgian screenwriter and director Joachim Lafosse turned an unthinkable real-life tragedy: the story of a mentally ill mother who, on a previously normal afternoon, single-handedly murdered her five children, in a deeply compassionate film, which does not focus on the gruesome what of the event, but on its most intimate and least discussed whys.
That approach again serves Lafosse well in “A Silence,” another solemn and disturbing domestic chamber piece that lightly fictionalizes and foregrounds the thorny, hidden family tensions behind a headline-making scandal. In this case, it's one disturbing, high-profile court case that begets another, both connected by different forms of patriarchal abuse, but Lafosse's interests lie, as always, less in procedural formalities than in unruly domestic turmoil.
Director: Joachim Lafosse
Writers: Chloé Duponchelle, Paul Ismael, Joachim Lafosse
Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Laurent Bozzi, Emmanuelle Devos
Outside Belgium, the public is less likely to be familiar with the case of serial killer Marc Dutroux, convicted in 2004 of the kidnapping, rape and murder of several girls, or that of Victor Hissel, lawyer for two of Dutroux's victims. , who was later jailed for possession of child pornography. Changing the names of everyone involved but otherwise staying recognisably close to the facts, "A Silence" will likely have a very different effect on those familiar with this news than on those uninformed. Which is not to say that the film works against viewers in the latter camp: various structural complexities and dramatic concealments frame it as a mystery, with considerable intrigue in the secrets and complicit silences of a tortured bourgeois family. That suspense factor will fuel the interest of distributors in Lafosse's latest novelty after its premiere in competition in San Sebastián.
Meanwhile, those already in the know may find themselves drawn into the drama by the considerable intensity of the performances, particularly those of stalwarts Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos, as a well-to-do couple whose marital front strains over years of compact betrayal and denial. can no longer be sustained. Visible only as a pair of devastated, bloodshot eyes in a rearview mirror, Devos receives a startling sustained opening shot, while her character Astrid Schaar drives in a panic to the police station, where she is told that her teenage son Raphael (Matthieu Galoux) has been charged with attempted murder.
She cue an extended flashback to, well, not happier times, but slightly less seemingly tragic Greek times. Together with Raphael, Astrid and her husband, the high-profile lawyer François (Auteuil), share a life of fragile privilege in a palatial walled estate, whose immensity, with its tennis court, its swimming pool and its corridor-like rooms, allows them keep each other at an icy distance. Still, his peace is persistently disturbed by the reporters and cameramen who have hovered outside his home since François represents the parents of young murder victims in a protracted trial of the century, clearly inspired by the Dutroux case.
The grim demands of François' job do nothing to lighten an already heavy mood at home, where an assortment of skeletons have shared generous closet space with the Schaars' designer threads for most of their 30-plus years. years of marriage. His adult daughter, Caroline (Louise Chevillotte), is aware of the nasty accusations against François by another family member, while her younger brother has remained in the dark, but said relative threatens to speak out, and the authorities They are increasingly interested in the content of François's story. hard drive, Raphael cannot remain innocent for much longer.
A terse, meandering script, written primarily by Lafosse and his frequent creative partner Thomas Van Zuylen, but with separate credits for five other contributing writers, is perhaps more elliptical than necessary when it comes to unpacking all this baggage. Certainly, the film's first half hour keeps our emotional investment in check as we work out the precise geometry of the characters and their unhappy histories. But there's a breathless power in its staggered revelations and a searching sadness in the emerging family portrait that overcomes the film's shock factor.
Auteuil, increasingly rakish and gray as François's cover is unraveled, portrays a potential monster with cautious control; With every ugly detail that is revealed about him, he recedes further from view. It is Astrid's conscience that the film exposes, and Devos investigates it.
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