The Cement Garden (1993)

Andrew Birkin's Fantastic The Cement Garden (based on Ian McEwan's controversial Novel of the same name.) follows awkward and feminine looking Teenager Jack (Andrew Robertson) and his family that live in a council-house surrounded by ruins somewhere in England.Jack is a hard to like character at first, spending most time either looking at himself in the mirror or roaming the ruins to read and masturbate. In contrast to narcissistic and rebellious Jack we have his sweet, reliable and compassionate sister Julie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who appears to be wise beyond her years. There's also youngest brother Tom, who wants to be a girl (and gets bullied as result in school) and younger sister Sue, who is rather quiet and internal and keeps a diary. Jack's father is strict and eager to criticise all of his kid's actions.Jack's father is sick of keeping up with the garden and plans to cover it up with cement, asking Jack to help him out. Jack soon leaves the old man alone after getting a glimpse of his sister Julie's legs and disappears to the bathroom to masturbate to his own reflection. In a wonderfully edited scene, his father dies of an heart attack and lands with his face in the cement just as Jack is about to cum.Jack first seems careless over the death of his father and continues perving over his sister, and nearly rapes her following an erotic tickle fight.Soon after the death of the father their mother falls sick and is unable to get out of bed, since Jack is to lazy; his sister takes over doing most of the duties in the house. and more games start between the two siblings; after she bosses him around on his birthday she purposefully teases and arouses him with a handstand. (revealing her knickers to him) Julie seems to be very aware of the control she can have over her brother. And despite her motherly and mature nature might not be as sweet as she first appeared to be. It is impossible to take your eyes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Crossing lines between Tomboy and Femme fatale.The mother passes away from her illness only months after the death of the father and the 4 children are now all alone. Afraid that they will be split up and put in orphanages they hide their mother's death by burying her under the cement. (Loved this scene when the cement ran over her dead body, simply beautifully shot and then followed by a flash-back of the kids burying their then living mother in the sand during a Family vacation)The photography overall is superb, from the agoraphobic eagle-eye views of ruins, grey skies, big black shadows and almost monochrome images that create a hostile and dead world where it would almost seem like the kids are the last survivors of a nuclear blast.Despite grief and alienation from the world, The kid's are in a way liberated; youngest boy Tom starts openly wearing dresses and a wig, while Julie starts dating a 30 year old, much to the jealousy and dislike of her brother Jack.I started to warm up to Jack, who despite spending so much time looking into the mirror actually seems like he never quite feel well in his skin, Andrew Robertson subtle performance is wonderful and as the film progresses all characters are extremely well fleshed out on screen, the dialogues feel natural (even if sometimes deliberately awkward) Also loved the tone and pacing; a hauntingly beautiful, sensual and gripping film. 10/10

I get fascinated by the human condition movies. What can happen in some unusual condition, how may we react? How others came across it, in real life cases or in fiction. What could happen if both parents die and you don't want your family to be separated. This film remind me "The Lord of the Rings", B&W version, where chaos is the norm. Please don't expect the kids to behave as in "Big Daddy" where the kid is bathed with swimming suit, or as in "Home Alone" cute boy and clown thieves, these 2 movies are far away from reality than some kids sleeping in the nude and running in the backyard in a summer hot night. "Home Alone" and Cement Garden" are two opposite movies coming from two different human minds performed by actors who were not harmed, one created for the children audience and North American people an the other to the European adult mature audience.

Artful? Maybe. But consider what went on to produce The Cement Garden:When it comes time to cast the script (that he has also co-written), the director chooses his son and his niece and two other youngsters. Put yourself in the girl's place: Your uncle is leading you through the filming of a sexually loaded screenplay (over which, as the director, he is hovering). It culminates with you nude in bed getting down to basics with your nude "brother" — and don't forget the director's young son confusedly wandering about dressed like a girl.That's what went on behind the "art." Was it good for the kids? I doubt it. Bunny-31 (6/26/00) liked The Cement Garden, but says that you shouldn't see it with family. Small wonder she felt that way. The four sibs may be actors, but they are no different from other kids trying to make sense of a highly sexualized world. Was it good for the director? Well, let me take a wild guess and say that children's welfare was not heavy on his mind and that there was more going on in his psyche than the art of it all.

"The Cement Garden" follows the behavior of four children living in an austere semi-rural house on the fringe of society after the death of their parents. The kids include a young adult daughter, a late teen son, a pubescent daughter, and a prepubescent son. The film spends its time pouring over their daily routines as the family behavior becomes increasingly odd threatening to slip into the realm of the bizarre.Uneventful, intentionally bleak with a narrow range of emotion and limited dramatic excursions, this dreary, melancholic psychodrama focuses on the pair of older siblings as their familial loyalty and love inches beyond the edge of normalcy.A solid watch for the serious drama enthusiast, this Brit flick manifests excellent auteursmanship with limited production value. (B)