The Cement Garden (1993)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Andrew Birkin

Writers:

Andrew Birkin (writer)
Ian McEwan (novel)

Release Date:

11 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Love knows no limits.

Plot:

After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness...

Plot Keywords:

Teenage Boy | Male Full Frontal Nudity | Dead Mother | Female Nudity | Teenager Nudity

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Andrew Robertson	...	Jack
Charlotte Gainsbourg	...	Julie
Alice Coulthard	...	Sue
Ned Birkin	...	Tom
Sinéad Cusack	...	Mother
Hanns Zischler	...	Father
Jochen Horst	...	Derek, Julie's Friend
Gareth Brown	...	William
William Hootkins	...	Commander Hunt (voice)
Dick Flockhart	...	Truck Driver
Mike Clark	...	Driver's Mate

Also Known As:

Der Zementgarten (Germany)

Runtime:

105 min | USA:101 min

Country:

France | Germany | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

France:-12 | Germany:16 | UK:18

Company:

Laurentic Film Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: Tom makes a joke about one candle on Jack's birthday cake before the scene with the cake and the one candle.

Quotes:

Julie: Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots, because it's OK to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But secretly you'd love to know what it's like, wouldn't you? What it feels like for a girl?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#10.2)" (1997)

Family intimacy

The premise of offspring who try to hold their family together after parents' death or desertion has been done a number of times, most notably in "Our Mother's House" (1967), a little-known masterpiece directed by John Clayton. Here the emphasis is different though, concentrating on the developing intimacy between the oldest sibling Julie and her brother Jack. This is presented in a matter-of-fact and non-judgmental fashion, seeming to fit "naturally," as Jack in fact says, with their increasingly weird circumstances. Be warned: there is much adolescent nudity here, including a wild transcendental dance-in-the-rain performed very well by Andrew Robertson. BTW, that scene is reproduced almost identically in "Edges of the Lord" (2001), but with a much younger boy. Ned Birkin, whom I suspect of being director Andrew Birkin's close kin (an irony unintended I'm sure) plays the cross-dressing younger brother, and his sub-plot is not developed, which is probably just as well since he exhibits little talent. I suppose this is included to emphasize the point that in a family untrammeled by conventional moralities, each individual is accepted with whatever modus operandi "works" for him or her. Not an altogether bad idea when one considers it…