The Cement Garden is a remarkable film which establishes itself as first among dark classics. Filmed in black and white, it's stark sexual imagery and brutal realism is both disturbing, and equally powerful in it's subtle erotic message. The story relates what can happen when parents unexpectedly abandon their emotionally deprived, and woe-fully neglected children superbly played by Andrew Robertson as Jack and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Julie. With their parents dead, it is the older sister and the sexually curious younger brother who adjust to the certainties of social rules and regulations which demand the dissolution of the disintegrating family. Faced with the social erasure of their tiny family, Jack and Julie assume the role of parents. However, their acceptance promotes sexual privileges and not parental responsibilities. Eventually, the older sister's involvement with an admirer threatens their secret but developing illicit relationship. All in all, this film is exquisitely constructed to elicit the deepest emotions within all of us. ****
Review of The Cement Garden
