Lorna is a young Albanian woman in a marriage of convenience with Claudy, a heroin addict. Just as Lorna is about to be granted Belgian citizenship, Claudy finds the strength to detox; this presents a problem not only for Lorna, but for the criminal who brokered the deal.
Similar titles
You May Also Like
Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Lorna is well played by the actress. Lorna is a complicated woman who is involved in a game between the Belgian underground and marrying a Russian mobster. The only problem is that she is married to a drug addict who needs to die. She is also in love with a man named Sokol. She dreams of running a snack bar or cafe rather than working at the laundromat. But things slowly go awry when she can't a divorce fast enough. Her current husband wants to quit and go clean. Lorna gets paid for the marriage and the arrangement with the Russian mobster. Along the way, we learn Lorna's ethnic background and her motives. The film's ending needs to be more clear. We will never know the future for Lorna at the end and that's troubling.
With Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's fifth feature film, Lorna's Silence, they decided to take a surprisingly unique approach to their style in that they made it look more like a film than anything they had done before. Gone are the intimate, gritty hand-held tracking shots that place the audience into the perspective of the characters and shoot from odd, seemingly improvised angles. Instead, each shot here is much more staged and deliberate, focused on Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) and making sure the audience is able to appreciate all of her surroundings in each moment. It was an interesting approach from the Dardennes and I have to admit a little jarring at first, but this step into a more conventional shooting style provided the film with a contrast from their previous work that I certainly appreciated.As much as I adore their other work, it was nice to see them trying something new and ultimately it worked. The more conventional style does a service for the more conventional narrative structure of the film as well, as for the first time they work with a central plot that encompasses the entire picture, rather than focusing on a more free-formed character study. Lorna is an Albanian emigrant living in Belgium, in an arranged marriage to Claudy (Jeremie Renier) in order to acquire Belgian citizenship so that she can enter another arranged marriage with the Russian Andrei (Anton Yakovlev) after her and Claudy divorce. It's an elaborate scheme all run through Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione), a taxi driver looking to make some extra cash.The setup is unexpectedly complex for the Dardennes, but what's not unexpected is how they approach the story primarily as a way to explore this character. They're not worried about whether the audience is keeping up with all of the semantics of the arranged marriages and divorces because they aren't too worried about it either; instead they're focused on how all of this is impacting Lorna, and that puts them right into their wheelhouse. In exploring this character, they take their trademark understated approach, letting the emotions sink in rather than explode outwardly. This provides for some fantastic internal acting by newcomer Arta Dobroshi, who shines even more tremendously in the few moments where she is able to let those emotions come out. The role marks a genuine "star is born" performance from Dobroshi, someone who we will hopefully be seeing much more of in the near future.The supporting cast all puts in great work, but I have to give particular mention to Renier, who shines once again in an unusual way. The Dardennes have used Renier in four of their six feature films and it's easy to see why. Without changing his physical appearance remotely he is somehow able to be a complete chameleon in each of his roles. The way he holds himself, the way he moves, the way he approaches any given situation, each and every role he is a completely new person and it's extraordinary to watch because you don't see this guy acting at all. He is the true definition of an actor, one who strips away any semblance of himself and disappears entirely into each and every new performance he gives. You look at his work in L'Infant, this and the Dardennes next feature The Kid With A Bike and it's unbelievable the transformations he goes through.One of the many interesting things here was the physicality of the film, how the muted emotions were able to manifest themselves in the physical moments such as Lorna slamming her head into a wall to prove that Claudy beats her or the raw and brazenly intimate sex scene. It's in these moments that the Dardennes' more authentic, quieter approach demonstrates it's true ability, making things that would seem ordinary in most films come as a shock and leave a lasting impact on the viewer.I won't give anything away, but around the halfway point the film takes a turn that I wasn't expecting at all and completely through me for a loop. While the Dardennes had been traveling a more conventional path than usual, in the final act they take Lorna's journey to a decidedly unique place. Their originality shines bright in this final act, with scene after scene that had my jaw open simply over how innovative they had taken the story. I can't give anything away and ruin it for others, but Lorna's Silence began in a more traditional route than I had come to expect from the Dardenne brothers and ended up going somewhere even less conventional than we had seen from them before. Yet another tremendous achievement from two of the best writer/directors working today.
Dry cleaner by day, and bride by night, Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) makes a whole lot more turning over husbands who want to live in Belgium.Her current husband, Claudy (Jeremie Renier) is a drug addict. The marriage was arranged by Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione), a real low life. She needs to get out of this marriage to marry a Russian who wants residence. Fabio will take care of that.In the meantime, she and her boyfriend Sokol (Alban Ukaj) are saving money and making plans to open a sandwich shop. She hopes the next marriage is the last and she will be free.Jeremie Renier plays a very good role. He wants to quit, but his incessant needs wear Lorna down.Arta Dobroshi is excellent. She is being used by Fabio just because she is a woman. He is only interested in money.Lorna is a victim of circumstances, and definitely a survivor.A great character driven film.
The Dardenne brothers, those impressive Belgian filmmakers, are at it again. This is a sort of a departure for them, although their keen insight about people of a certain status has been shown before, perhaps with better results. As it's their style, the film is devoid of music. Their camera has a way to offer the viewer an insight on the character he is seeing on the screen. Make no mistake, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are at the top of their profession by presenting films that no one else would dare to show, and above all, they make the viewer get another take of life, the way they see it.That said, "Le silence de Lorna" takes us to meet people that are so completely different, yet, not because of that, they don't feel real, on the contrary. The situation at hand involves a young Albanian woman, Lorna, who has married Claudy, a Belgian drug addict in order to get the citizenship papers. It is obvious their arrangement was purely a monetary one. Lorna, who has an Albanian boyfriend, Sokol, hangs out with the wrong crowd in Liege. Her association with them will not end happily.Lorna's connection, the reptile Fabio and his underling Spirou pressure Lorna into marrying a Russian mafia bigwig so that he can get the Belgian passport. Lorna, like so many other immigrants, wants to save her money to open a small snack bar with Sokol. She is sidetracked by what Fabio wants her to do. In fact, Lorna is torn between trying to save Claudy, who faces a possible death, and get her dreams come true.The film owes a lot to Arta Dobroshi, a dark haired beauty who is at the center of the story. Jeremie Renier, who has done wonderful turns for the director-brothers is seen as drug addict, Claudy. Fabio Rongione appears as Fabio.We look forward to the brothers' next venture because their films always leaves the viewer richer knowing first hand about real people.