What are the traps for? Or is it just one? Is it like a makeshift fishing pole? I never saw her catch any fish with it, wondering what it was all about.
And I also don't understand how the guy was cheating the waffle stand owner. If he was making his own waffles, then wouldn't he be paying for their production out of his own pocket? Then why would it make a difference whether he sold his or the ones provided for him?
If you watch the film, you will see 2 occasions when Rosetta pulls in a trap and there is a fish inside. The trap has a line with a hook inside the neck of the bottle (you see her baiting the hook with a worm). I'm not a fisherman, but this does seem like an unusual way to catch a fish. Whatever works, I guess.
As for the waffle scam, if he sells his own waffles, that means he's not selling the waffles his boss makes.
This has to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious movie for someone who just saw this one scene:
(all bad language will be replaced with "sponge")
(from what I remember)
"He's been cheating on you"
"What?"
"He has waffle irons"
"Where?"
"In his cabinets"
later at some guy's house
"Where are they?"
"Where are what?"
"Don't sponge with me! Where are they?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"WHERE ARE THE SPONGING WAFFLES?!!"
then, all I saw was this guy chasing her around Paris on a motorcycle, though she failed to realize that motorcycles can't go up stairs...
I know I missed the point of the movie completely, but..WAFFLES!!
MJWM
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I love French films so naturally I got sucked into this movie last night. I can't believe that I stayed up to 12:30AM watching this film waiting for something, anything, to happen!!! Rosetta was the most walkingest (is there such a word LOL) person I have ever seen. It was like 'see Rosetta walk here', see Rosetta walk there'. The waffle scam made no sense to me at all.
shareI think you should have understood better what the story of Rosetta is about if you had lived day to day with no money in your pocket like the two main characters of this story. What seems like just waffles to you, mean gold for the characters because it's a job and for Rosetta, getting a job means NORMAL LIFE.
Otherwise, the action takes place in Belgium and not in Paris. The waffle scam = The guy makes his own waffles and keeps the profit for him.
I don't understand what you don't understand. One more time this movie is easy to understand when you have lived without a cent and especially when you've lived in this region.
Great movie, fantastic actors, simple and VERY realistic story.
Yeah, Fillbert222, I really wanted to laugh too about that scene, but I stifled this because I thought well this is a foreign country and was looking at this film from that point of view and my hint of laughter just kind of died away. It's a little reassuring though I wasn't the only one with this reaction.
I think catching the fish inside the broken bottle prevents other, larger fish from eating away at the hooked fish before Rosetta can get to it.
shareYeah, and it also makes it harder for the caught fish to throw the hook and swim off. If you are line fishing , you fight against that yourself.
As for the waffles-- yeah, the guy was making his own waffles and collecting the profit, while (my guess would be) making inaccurate orders to the supplier about how much was being sold, how much stock was needed, etc.
I thought the whole scam really outlined what is frustrating and inexplicable to me about Rosetta--she is too proud to accept a free waffle from her buddy, too honerable to steal or "ho," but she has no qualms about backstabbing her only friend over a pretty minor abuse of the system. (Although in the final analysis she can't live with this either, apparently)
I have loved this film since the first time I saw it, and have not been able to shake Rosetta since. Such a powerful character, and such a deep portrayal...
Rosetta backstabs her friend partly because she wants his job, but also because she's freaked out by being beholden to anyone. The waffle guy is her first and only friend and she is so used to keeping inside her hard shell to defend herself that she does her best to sabotage their relationship rather than test herself on new, unsteady ground. Thus her turning him in and her refusing a waffle stem from the same determination to refuse other people's sympathy - and so makes perfect sense.
Agree - Just before the so called betrayal, her friend offers her some part in the waffle scam and she declines it. I felth that this was not because of the moral argument about stealing profits, but as the previous poster mentioned, becuase she would feel obliged to him. And she couldn't deal with that. And I can't blame her.
shareExcellent point. Thanks.
shareStrange,did Rosetta just throw the fish back into the pond?
shareIf my memory serves me correctly, she heard someone coming and gave up on the fish.
But it's been a while.
Yes. She threw the fish back because she heard the motorcycle and assumed it was the superintendent of the trailer park who had just gotten on her case about not going through the back fence. He was waiting for her on a motorcycle and after scolding her he rides away.
When she hears her "friend" approaching on his motorcycle she gets into a bit of a panic and throws her trap line into the water out of fear of getting it taken away by the superintendent.
Just saw this the other day and was surprised to learn it won the Palme d' Or. Very physical film..lots of running, exertion, which I found somewhat repetitive and, frankly, irritating. Rosetta was not a likable character, she seemed only interested in her own ends, as exemplified by the near-drowning of Riquet and the Great Waffle Betrayal. I suppose her world had moulded Rosetta into this resentful, spiteful, vengeful character. Glad she wouldn't want to be any friend of mine...
shareI believe the overarching theme here is that Rosetta is wholly unaware of the niceties we take for granted. Her maladjusted mother is deep into her own spiritual degradation and raised the girl probably, as she too had been raised – without love and generosity. The little girl has no soul. If ever she had one it was 'ground' out of her by seeing what her mother does and what her mother is – and how totally indifferent the rest of the world is to the miseries they each endure on a daily basis merely to survive.
She turned in the “waffle thief” not as a tribute to justice but as a means to steal what he had - as any wily animal would do - because our society has reduced her to that - a feral human - living moment-to-moment, hand-to-mouth.
And, is it a mere coincidence that her name is Rosetta, like the stone? I think not. She appeared as a stone to me. Her character never smiled once, even accidentally.
A very sad but very real movie, which stayed with me for a very long time after it ended. This movie forces the viewer (in my case, practically kicking and screaming) to take a long hard look at how badly we treat those less fortunate. This indifference we humans have for the rest of the planet- not just the unfortunate - is now coming home to roost.
Rosetta haunts me , too. I can't count how many times I have seen this movie.And you're right, her face is completely somber all the way through.
One thing that made this movie fascinating to me was the way inanimate objects tookn a sacramental importance in the hands of the actress-- that is the kind of detail you would miss if the pacing was not slowed down a bit. The way she handles her apron when she gets her new job, the way she clings to the flour sack when she loses it, the way she holds her pillow as she whispers to it at night,the almost tea-ceremony-like way she handles the boiled egg at the end... each interaction she has lends an importance to the things she is touching, and makes them a symbol of her wants, her hopes, her need for comfort. Her relationship to the things around her is every bit as important as the dialogue.
I agree.
Things to her (like the apron, the egg and the bag of flour) were talismans to ward of "the rut" which trapped her Mother and which was her ever-present, 'boogeyman.' She used that preciseness like a mantra with all that she touched. I've seen this a couple of times and noticed for the first time in my last viewing that the apron she wears has her name embroidered on it (by her Mother's fine hand?) Too, despite the meanness of her existence, she managed to keep her clothes clean at all times and the carefulness, which borders on obsession, with which she would change from her street shoes to her boots and back. All her ‘rituals’ made me feel quite tired. Quite a touching and memorable movie. I cannot even begin to imagine the kind of courage required to live the life she and her Mother portrayed onscreen.
Equally, I cannot understand those who denigrate this film. Rosetta unfolds so honestly - more like a documentary or cinema verite than most documentaries I’ve watched. In the watching I often felt almost embarrassed – like I was a voyeur – or that it kind of hurt my eyes to see our world from behind her eyes. The camera's close proximity to her (the Rosetta character) gave me a feeling almost of claustrophobia, too.
There's probably a lot more I can say on this unique movie, but I'll stop now.
[deleted]
For the record she smiled and laughed at the guy's handstand.
shareOn a totally unrelated note, whenever I watch Rosetta, I get hungry for waffles and boiled eggs...
shareheh. Come to think of it, me too.
RE: Rosetta's moral character. The great thing about this character is that she is both irresistable and frustrating at the same time. Waht is her logic? It's not ok to accept a free waffle from a friend, but it's totally ok to jack that friend's job?
On the one hand I admire her resoluteness, her pride, her unwillingness to let her poverty drag her down into behaviour that will shame her. On the other hand, it's not as if she isn't flawed-- and I suspect one of the points that the director is making is that her unwillingness to accept help-- her unwillingness to acknowledge that this fight is not one she can handle alone-- is a flaw. An understandable one, but there you are.
At the end she can't even manage her own suicide-- the burden is too heavy. When she collapses and allows herself to be helped to her feet by a freind, she is at her most honest. And she grows in character.
Your short message has a lot of good thoughts in it - in an interview, the directors said that Rosetta "had to learn to see other people." That never made sense to me till now. I guess I hadn't considered both sides...probably because I felt such empathy for the Rosetta character, and resentment toward the others.
Come to think of it, I too used to refuse help of any kind until someone whose help I refused said, "You're going to have to learn how to receive." They said offering help doesn't have to mean that person wants you to be obligated to them, and giving doesn't only benefit the recipient...it also benefits the person offering the help because it makes them feel good or perhaps because someone helped them in the past. In a way, my acceptance of their help is the way I give back to them.
Bunnywithanaxe, I like your name and I LOVE the way you put it: "It's totally ok to jack that friend's job?" Ha! ha! ha! ha! It may be totally ruthless but it just goes to show in the immortal words of Felix: "Don't assume because when you assume you make an ass out of u and me." Heh....heh....heh....heh....heh....heh.
:D Everybody reacts strongly to my handle (one way or another), and the comment I made is part of the imaginary lecture I give Rosetta every time I watch this movie.
Help me out, people-- why do I keep cross-referencing "Nights of Cabiria" when I see this?
You Americans are so funny! :-DD You see an European movie in French and think it's set in France! :-DDD Are you teached some world geography at school?...
shareI saw Rosetta yesterday and got tired because of the camerawork, I think I can blame it on my old DVD player, it seemed to be some sort of delay in the picture frames, very noticable in some of the fast sequences (like the important first scene).
About the fishing; I think she threw away the first fish she got because it was too small. It's probably perfect to eat, but it's not of sympathy for the small fish she threw it back, it's very common to do for perserving the fish population for the future.
I also think the fence was there to prevent people from fishing in the river, most places this is forbidden to without some sort of permission. Now this didn't look like a typical fishing river allthough there was a lot of fish in it. The boss' behaviour, the fence and the richness of fish in the muddy river imply that the boss was running a sort of illegal fish farm.
And thank you for very nice interpretation of the last scene of the film. It makes perfect sense. The boy for the first time mute, not showing his face, at the end standing behind his shoulder looking at Rosettas face.
I thought of Cabiria too (one of my favourite movies), I think it's because they're two strong female characters and the in both there's a dramatic yet hopeful ending.
shareI thought of Cabiria too (one of my favourite movies), I think it's because they're two strong female characters and the in both there's a dramatic yet hopeful ending.
I loved Fish tank. The main character had more layers than Rosetta in this film.
shareI wouldn't quite agree with the interpretations I see here.
Rosetta is desperate to have "a normal life" and finding a real job is crucial to that. She's desperate to do *anything*. When all of her efforts don't yield results, she turns her friend in cause she knows that she'll get his job.
I don't see why people are shocked she'd rat him out to the boss- a few scenes before, she was READY TO LET HIM DROWN!!!
She's so desperate for any real job she'd literally kill for it.
The tragedy is that even when she does have the job she was ready to kill for, she isn't happy. And doesn't find a way out.