Instinto Materno

In the 60s, two families live in two terraced houses in the upper-crust Brussels suburbs. A kind of a dolce vita in Belgium. Consecutively to a tragic accident, the film flips all of a sudden, and the atmosphere becomes desperately angsty with a vertiginous spiral towards the depths of the abyss: loss of confidence, need of revenge, paranoia and tutti quanti. The main character is Alice played by the delicious Veerle Baetens already seen in The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix van Groeningen, 2012) and the manifold plot twists are focused on this specific character.

The cast is excellent, especially the 2 main actresses Veerle Baetens and Anne Coesens, without forgetting the child Jules Lefebvre. The sets are very realistic. Photography is neat and the sense of detail is boosted to the extreme, up to the hairstyles.

When a mother loses a young child after a fatal accident, the first thing she does is reproach herself. Céline, one of the two leads in 'Duelles', is no exception. Why did she leave her son alone in a room with an open window? Why hasn't she been more careful? But in this case, she also reproaches her neighbour Alice. She thinks Alice could have prevented the accident. The two neighbours, who are also close friends, start to distrust each other and soon things are getting out of hand.

'Duelles' is a very effective psychological thriller, cleverly creating doubt in the minds of the audience. Alice thinks Céline somehow wants to take revenge. But isn't she imagining things? At one point, even her husband starts thinking she is going nuts. Is she right or is she wrong? Until the very end, the viewer remains in doubt. But when the answer finally comes, it is extremely spectacular.

The very clever screenplay is the outstanding feature of this Belgian film. But it is not the only one. The acting by the two leading ladies is excellent. Both switch from being self-assured and even glamorous to vulnerable and heart-broken. The period setting is another nice feature of this film. It is set in the early sixties, with a lot of attention to details. House decoration, clothing, hairdo's and cars: everything is a joy to watch. The lush cinematography accentuates it all. And the icing on the cake is the exceptionally effective soundtrack, which is perfect in supporting the increasing feeling of unease.

This is a very beautiful film to look at, which keeps you permanently on the edge of your seat. It deserves a large audience. To be honest, I was surprised by the relatively low IMDb-rating and the small number of reviews. I can only recommend it.

Not a boring movie, will keep you hooked, and the ending was pretty cool.. won't disappoint like most other movies do nowadays

This very well-made, very well-acted little thriller is reminiscent of Brian De Palma at his prime, except it's less flashy and more psychologically sound. Olivier Masset Depasse successfully maintains the ambiguity around Alice (is she losing her grip on reality, or is she sensing the truth?), and the ending is unexpectedly bleak and disturbing. This movie sends you out a little shaken. *** out of 4.

He could/would be proud of this one.

Ticks so many boxes: Production design 9 Acting performances 9 Plot twist 9 Pace 7 Score 7 Casting 10 What's not to like. Now I've got to get to the required characters of 600 for this review to be valid, but that's an easy peasy lemon squeezy job. This movie sucked me in from minute one and never let go. Sometimes you would think: is the protagonist going nad, or is she the only one thinking straight? All this in a time period where men could still decide about theit wives' wellbeing by just stating they're crazy. This is a director I will follow and hope stands up to (t)his very promising standard.