More Cannes glory for Belgian duo

By Neil Smith BBC News entertainment reporter

The Dardenne brothers with their Palme d'Or award on Saturday

The sibling duo previously won the prestigious prize for their 1999 drama Rosetta, which also won a best actress award for its star Emilie Dequenne.

Their follow-up film, 2002's Le Fils (The Son), was shown in competition as well and won a best actor prize for leading man Olivier Gourmet.

And this weekend saw them beat such hotly-tipped auteurs as David Cronenberg, Jim Jarmusch and Austria's Michael Haneke to the festival's top award.

The brothers' speciality is a stark, gritty realism that has led to comparisons with French master Robert Bresson and Britain's Ken Loach.

Harking back to their background in documentaries, their films frequently tackle the problems faced by the Belgian underclass - poverty, immigration, alcoholism and crime.

'Remarkable'

They are also characterised by an eye for detail, a distinctive, hand-held style of camerawork and a visual austerity that can be hard for some to watch.

Not all critics at Cannes were won over by L'Enfant, in which a young petty thief (Jereme Renier) sells his baby son on the black market.

L'Enfant (The Child) concerns a petty thief who sells his child

"Bland and predictable, the picture is unlikely to stir much interest among either the Cannes jury or moviegoers," wrote Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter.

Generally, however, the reaction has been enthusiastic, with Screen International's Jonathan Romney acclaiming "a remarkable film... executed with adult seriousness and compassion".

Separated by three years, Jean-Pierre, 54, and Luc, 51, began their careers making short videos about blue-collar life in Belgium's Wallonie region.

In 1978 they shot their first documentary, Le Chant du Rossignol, about Belgian resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War.

Their first fictional film, 1987's Falsch, continued this theme with its portrait of a Jewish family killed by the Germans.

But it was 1996's La Promesse that put them on the map when it was selected to play as part of the Directors' Fortnight strand at Cannes.

The brothers, who share writing and directing credits on their film, say their trademark style "comes about organically".

"There are always two points of view on what's happening," Jean-Pierre Dardenne told the New York Times. "It's like two policemen who are alternating interrogations."

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