The Cement Garden Movie Review 1993

Fatherless 15-year-old Jack (Robertson) and 16-year-old sister Julie (Gainsbourg) are afraid that they and their two younger siblings Sue (Coulthard) and Tom (Birkin) will be taken into foster care after their mother dies at home. So to keep their secret, they bury her in the basement and try to assume a normal family life. Not that this works for long--Jack and Julie give into an incestuous fascination and the household slowly sinks into chaotic squalor around them. Gainsbourg is the director's niece and the young Birkin is his son. Based on Ian McEwan's 1978 novel.

Distribution

New Yorker Video, 16 W. 61st St., 11th Fl., New York, NY 10023, Phone: (212)645-4600, Toll-free: 800-447-0196, Fax: (212)645-3030, Email: info@newyorkerfilms.com, URL: http://www.newyorkerfilms.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 105 minutes.
Originally from French, German, British.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Teen Angst, Brothers & Sisters, Incest, Books to Film: Ian McEwan

Screenplay

Andrew Birkin

Cast

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrew Robertson, Alice Coulthard, Ned Birkin, Sinead Cusack, Hanns Zischler, Jochen Horst

Cinematography

Stephen Blackman

Director

Andrew Birkin

Music

Ed Shearmur

Producer

Bee Gilbert, Ene Vanaveski, Bernd Eichinger, Martin Moszkowicz, Neue Constantin, Laurentic Ltd., Torii, October Films