The Cement Garden

When Jack and his father are sprinkling cement in the family's weedy garden, the father dies of a stroke. When the mother dies shortly afterwards, Jack, together with his sister Julie, has to take care of the young siblings. To avoid the group of brothers and sisters being taken into care, Jack and Julie buries the mother in a container of cement in the basement. The summer passes and Julie begins to date boys. One day she invites her boyfriend Derek over and he wonders about the weird smell from the basement.

COMMENTARY
Cement crumbling away, all sorts of creepy crawlies pouring out, repulsive smells spreading; this could be described as central to the German-French-British co-production The Cement Garden.
This is a ''family movie'' in a double sense.
But the viewer looking for kicks should not be put off by this seemingly cosy notion.
To begin with, two not entirely unknown, notorious more to the point, families are involved in this production. Birkin and Gainsbourg - unforgettable since the swinging 60's scandalous hit: ''Je t'aime (moi non plus)''. Jane Birkin's brother Andrew is the director. The female lead, big sister Julie,
is played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jane's and the late Serge Gainsbourg's daughter. And one of the younger family members
is played by Ned Birkin, the director's
6-year-old son.
Secondly, The Cement Garden is about the taboo of sex within the family - incest. In an unidentified suburban landscape we meet a family which is crumbling away in the same way as their surroundings. The father dies. The mother dies. What is left is a family consisting of two teenagers and two toddlers.
At the center of attention is 15-year-old Jack, played by Andrew Robertson, whose narcissistic introspection lends a new and singular dimension to the word ego-tripped. His sister Julie trembles like Jack from newly discovered sensualism and desire. A desire that takes a ''wrong'' turn in the hostile suburban landscape.
Despite its many grotesque ingredients The Cement Garden comes across as an unobtrusive and sensitive movie. The acting is brilliant, the visual language tight and efficient. The movie as a whole is an excellent illustration to the anemic paleness of the crumbling nineties. ~,
Garan Underoth

Medverkande
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrew Robertson: Producent
Bee Gilbert, Ene Vanaveski: Manus
Andrew Birkin: Foto
Stephen Blackman: Musik
Edward Sheamur: Talat språk
English