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Rosetta
USA Films


9.0

based on 19 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 6 votes
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FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Emilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne Yernaux, and Olivier Gourmet

This film follows a young and impulsive Belgian girl, Rosetta (Dequenne), who tries to establish an independent life and will do anything to maintain a job.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jean-Pierre Dardenna Luc Dardenne
DIRECTED BY:	Jean-Pierre Dardenna Luc Dardenne
RELEASE DATE:	Video: July 18, 2000 Theatrical: November 5, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	95 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Belgium / France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Rosetta is a character of raw pride in a film of lingering power.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

You feel it in your nervous system before you get a chance to reflect on its meaning.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The bleakness of Rosetta will not be for all, but it's one of the best films of the year.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film has an odd subterranean power. It doesn't strive for our sympathy or make any effort to portray Rosetta as colorful, winning or sympathetic.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

An immensely uplifting movie whose final, unforgettable frames come as close as anything to answering the big questions about why we bother in a dog-eat-dog world.

Mr. Showbiz Richard Jameson

The final reel of Rosetta is like nothing else ever filmed, and it would be wrong to describe it.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

This devastating film is buoyed by Dequenne's bravura willingness to go all out; she's a baby-faced kid when the camera focuses full on and an exceptionally beautiful young woman in profile.

Slate David Edelstein

Throughout this terse, entertaining parable (it won the grand prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival), the Belgian-born writer-directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne ("La Promesse," 1996) immerse you in the sensations of Rosetta's life.

Time Richard Corliss

The purity of Dequenne's performance inspires awe.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Grabs you by the throat and won't let go.

Film.com Peter Brunette

This kind of film, in its various manifestations recurring through the decades, gives us confidence that cinema can ultimately get to the heart of things.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Bleak, demanding stuff, and its hand-held documentary-style photography is harder on the stomach than "The Blair Witch Project."

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Carries a strong emotional charge along with its valuable reminder of the suffering that youngsters may undergo when a heedless society overlooks their needs.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

The film's loose, scaled-down technique never turns gimmicky...but enhances the tension and intimacy of Rosetta's struggle.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Pummeling, jagged, and extremely well-edited film.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A psychologically acute profile of one teenaged girl obsessed with leading what she thinks of as normal life.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Instead of feeling universal, the movie feels claustrophobic.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

A portrait of dispossession so acute that it's caused a few critics to cry, Let her eat cake!

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The Dardennes are talents, clearly. Watching Rosetta is like watching them flip you the bird.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jack G. gave it a10:
Any review that takes a cheap shot at the character's appearance (as well as a cheap assessment of her intellect that's totally off the mark) can't be trusted.

Yoon C. gave it a 6:
A chubby gopherfaced halfwit girl living in poverty with an alcoholic mother wants a job more than anything else and then when she gets one by betraying the only person who's nice to her, quits. What is this? A abnormal psychological case study? Critique of European capitalism? Expose of socialist malaise? Shot in cinema verite style, it's a dizzying mess, not only muddled and confused but beyond our care. It has been compared with Mouchette but Bresson peered into the soul beneath the stark exterior of downtrodden lives. Dardennes brothers in their Marxist zeal are content to rub social dysfunction in our faces. I'd suggest they first figure it out before so eloquently slapping it around as art or social statement.

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Rosetta USA Films

Rosetta
USA Films