The Cement Garden (1993)

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:

Diary | Illness | Basement | Secret | Reading

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:

USA:Not Rated | France:-12 | Germany:16 | UK:18

Company:

Laurentic Film Productions

Trivia:

A quote from the film (as spoken by Gainsbourg) is featured in the introduction to the 2001 Madonna song "What It Feels Like for a Girl".

Goofs:

Continuity: After Jack stops tickling Julie, she is sitting up, then sits up again.

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)

Soundtrack:

Moonshine

Put mom in a can and share the bed with siblings

I like Ian McEwans writings, especially his early short stories, and this is a generous contribution to the haunting quality of his work (much better than Comfort of Strangers or A Good Son). Charlotte Gainsbourg is wonderful as the impish sister and Andrew Robertson does very well hiding behind his shag cut and masturbating in his private bunker. Camera work is wonderful in a fantastic location in middle of English dump sites with broken houses and bricks. Film´s strength rests not on incest but on superbly explicating a child´s value that it places on it´s family over the rest of the world. Reminds me of long ago isolated family vacations fighting and playing with siblings and forgetting everyone else, just stuck in time. Ignore the poor shock value trailer (``...but he is your brother!´´´) and dip your head into this haunting world of adolescence. Very sad and beautiful. Don´t see with siblings or Mom, I did (an uncomfortable mistake).