If you are a fan of flash frenzied action films you will not buy into this Belgian short, but if you are ready to go into the depths of a difficult human relationship, this one is for you.
You will not be amazed by the characters of 'Retraite': just a father and a son. Nor will you be fascinated by the place: an ordinary detached house in the middle of a flat countryside environment. As for the plot it is basic: a young man who has just renounced his singing career takes refuge at his father's house at the beginning of the film and goes away at the end. And the style of François Pirot ('Retraite' is his first film as a director) is anything but showy: a mere tracking shot to open the film and another one to close this slice of life, like two brackets surrounding a quote, and that's about all the effects there are in the whole film. In fact, Pirot HAS a style, but his technical skills are invisible. The director steps aside and lets his characters LIVE. And although the characters are played by two excellent actors, you never think of them as actors or characters but as real life three-dimensional human beings.
When the end credits roll, the characters have become so familiar to us, that we can't help sympathizing with them. With the older man, retired from work, retired from family life (his wife is dead and - he realizes it in between - his son has become a stranger to him),and on the verge of retiring from life in general, which he hates! But also with the younger one, stuck in problems but unable to express them, letting the opportunity to help his father and to be helped by him pass him by.
The ending of this simple - but deep - story is poignant and the emotion the viewer feels is genuine, not forced by the cheap tricks of low grade melodrama, but intensified by the very sobriety of François Pirot's style.
You will not be amazed by the characters of 'Retraite': just a father and a son. Nor will you be fascinated by the place: an ordinary detached house in the middle of a flat countryside environment. As for the plot it is basic: a young man who has just renounced his singing career takes refuge at his father's house at the beginning of the film and goes away at the end. And the style of François Pirot ('Retraite' is his first film as a director) is anything but showy: a mere tracking shot to open the film and another one to close this slice of life, like two brackets surrounding a quote, and that's about all the effects there are in the whole film. In fact, Pirot HAS a style, but his technical skills are invisible. The director steps aside and lets his characters LIVE. And although the characters are played by two excellent actors, you never think of them as actors or characters but as real life three-dimensional human beings.
When the end credits roll, the characters have become so familiar to us, that we can't help sympathizing with them. With the older man, retired from work, retired from family life (his wife is dead and - he realizes it in between - his son has become a stranger to him),and on the verge of retiring from life in general, which he hates! But also with the younger one, stuck in problems but unable to express them, letting the opportunity to help his father and to be helped by him pass him by.
The ending of this simple - but deep - story is poignant and the emotion the viewer feels is genuine, not forced by the cheap tricks of low grade melodrama, but intensified by the very sobriety of François Pirot's style.
