‘A Silence’ Overview: Joachim Lafosse’s Darkish and Probing Pedophilia Drama Turns Decidedly Bleak

Within the movies of Belgian auteur Joachim Lafosse, households are usually torn other than the within, introduced down by deep-seated psychological baggage (The Stressed, Non-public Property), extraordinarily dangerous conduct (Non-public Classes, Maintain Going) or a historical past of abuse (Our Kids). For his newest function, A Silence (Un silence), the writer-director has managed to pack all three components right into a single film, specializing in a bourgeois clan that step by step unravels as previous and current offenses come again to hang-out them.

Like the remainder of Lafosse’s work, it’s a penetrating, artfully made drama, this one starring Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Devos and newcomer Matthieu Galoux, delivering quietly riveting performances. However it additionally overstretches itself, with too many pivotal occasions coinciding directly, making the plot much less credible whereas dissipating the emotional impact of its many revelations. After premiering in San Sebastian, the movie will proceed its competition run, adopted by theatrical play in France, Belgium and different Euro territories.

The “silence” of the title is one thing that has overshadowed the Schaar household for much too lengthy. You’ll be able to really feel it within the hushed ambiance of their tasteful city mansion, the place the high-profile prison lawyer, François (Auteuil), lives along with his spouse, Astrid (Devos), and their adopted teenage son, Raphael (Galoux). The three don’t appear to fraternalize a lot once they stumble upon one another, virtually by chance, at odd hours of the day or evening. In any other case, everybody stays confined to their very own personal house.

There’s a purpose for this — really a bunch of causes, a number of which we’ll find out about because the narrative progresses and some deep, darkish household secrets and techniques are dropped at the floor. However at first, the family is overwhelmed by the extreme media highlight on a case of pedophilia and homicide that François is within the midst of prosecuting. We don’t know all of the horrible particulars, of which Lafosse and his three co-writers present solely items. However it’s clearly one thing that has captivated the native press, who stay parked outdoors the Schaar’s entrance gate always, ready to toss questions at François at any time when he reveals his face.

If that state of affairs isn’t sophisticated sufficient — François has been representing the younger victims for 5 years already, and the trial has taken over his life — it turns into a veritable shitstorm when the lawyer’s daughter, Caroline (Louise Chevillotte), confronts Astrid about one thing terrible that occurred in their very own household over 25 years in the past. Lafosse withholds key details about these occasions for fairly some time, and it’s not price spoiling them right here. However suffice it to say that, coincidentally or not — and therein lies one of many movie’s key questions — François’ skilled and private lives come clashing collectively in a extremely disagreeable method, turning his home upside-down.

The story is especially advised from Astrid’s perspective as she grapples with the fallout of the revelations, which not solely contain her husband but additionally Raphael, an emotionally distraught excessive schooler who finds himself swept into the proceedings. Within the movie’s dense second half, the point of view begins to change between mom and son, displaying how they’re each compelled to bear the brunt of François’ unspeakable acts and conduct. One other query Lafosse asks is: Are you able to pardon a beloved one for previous crimes, or for being in want of significant psychiatric assist? Or must you simply allow them to be punished?

Such questions appear to be a specialty of Lafosse’s, a director whose finest film thus far, the 2012 Cannes prizewinner, Our Kids, made the viewer someway really feel deep empathy for a girl who killed all 5 of her personal children. Right here, nonetheless — and regardless of some remaining doubts that we’re left with — it’s laborious to get behind François when there’s a pile of proof stacked towards him.

That is additionally one of many fundamental issues with the movie’s construction: So many issues occur in such a short while span — an enormous trial, an enormous household secret instantly popping out, an enormous new infraction dedicated by both François or Raphael — that it stretches credulity, even when thematically talking the occasions are all associated, each psychologically and criminally.

Lafosse has by no means been a really cheery director, however A Silence might be his bleakest movie thus far. From the very first shot, common DP Jean-François Hensgens frames the motion tightly, solely revealing a part of the rain-soaked automotive window as Astrid drives to fulfill with a cop (Jeanne Cherhal) who’s been trailing François for a while. The claustrophobic viewpoint, from which we will by no means be taught the total reality, and the place it looks as if the partitions are perpetually closing in, completely encapsulates the Schaars’ state of affairs.

It’s a depressing state of affairs certainly, which isn’t to say {that a} film about baby abuse and homicide is meant to be some form of upbeat pleasure trip. However maybe Lafosse lays the sauce on too thick this time, and though he once more probes the ethical quandaries of characters dealing with as much as terrible truths, he appears to have already reached his verdict.