The Cement Garden

There are many films that I don’t watch often. It has a lot to do with my mood and the subject matter. I usually watch foreign films on Sundays, when I don’t have anything else to do. That way I can focus on reading the subtitles.

There are other films like The Cement Garden, it’s a foreign film that is in English. I like being surprised as the story unfolds. I remembered the synopsis and it was still just as entertaining, but there was something else that I realized.

Madonna has a song called, (What It Feels Like For A Girl) I never paid attention that the opening stanza of the song was from the film The Cement Garden which of course Madonna gives credit to. All artists are inspired by certain things. It can be a movie, a painting, a person…

The film is based upon the book The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan. It was written and directed by Andrew Birkin. The film stars Andrew Robertson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alice Coulthard, Ned Birkin, Sinead Cusack and Hannz Zischler.
The film surrounds a family in a moral wasteland when the father suddenly dies and then the mother takes ill and dies, the children have to grow up, but its not that easy for Jack who turns 16 before his mother’s death.

I don’t like giving away key elements of a film, but it has to do with a boy becoming a man and the awkward time in his life as his sexual desires are poured out onto his sister who takes on the role of mother.

This is one of those films that is truly a work of art. Great visuals and a must see for film lovers.

Thanks for stopping by; do keep an open mind and come back again.