The Cement Garden (film)

''The Cement Garden'' is a 1993 British drama film written and directed by Andrew Birkin. It is based on the 1978 novel of the same name written by Ian McEwan. It was entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, where Birkin won the Silver Bear for Best Director.

Plot

In late 1970s England, Jack is a narcissistic 15-year-old boy living in a post-war era prefab house with his parents, his 17-year-old sister Julie, 13-year-old sister Sue, and 6-year-old brother Tom. One day, while unloading large bags of cement to resurface the garden path of their home, the father collapses from a heart attack and dies. Only a few months after this tragedy, Jack’s mother takes ill and becomes bedridden and frail, prompting Jack and Julie to take control of the household.

Though Jack and Julie initially clash due to Jack’s immaturity and selfishness, the pair’s tension gradually shifts to a romantic one as Jack develops an incestuous crush on Julie. In their new roles as the parental figures in the family, Jack finds himself escorting Sue and Tom to and from school, while Julie takes up the cooking and cleaning duties.

Jack’s mother informs him that her illness has become worse and she will have to go to the hospital for a couple of months. She tells Jack and Julie not to tell anyone about her absence, or else the remaining family members will be forced into foster care and their home will be torn down. Shortly afterwards, the mother dies at home of her illness. In an attempt to conceal their mother’s death from authorities and thus evade placement into foster care, Jack and Julie entomb their mother's body in the basement, in a cement sarcophagus made from the leftover bags of cement that Jack's father had bought.

The children become more withdrawn and their mental states further disintegrate as time passes with no adult supervision following their mother's death. Though Jack slowly matures, he stops bathing. Sue becomes more introverted, distancing herself from her siblings and confiding only in her diary. Julie forms a relationship with an older man named Derek, whom Jack starts to view with jealousy and hostility. Tom, attempting to remodel himself as a girl, takes up cross-dressing, then later starts to behave like an infant, sleeping in Julie's room in a crib and drinking from a bottle. Derek becomes suspicious of what is inside the basement due to the smell. When forced to explain the sarcophagus to Derek, Jack lies and tells Derek that the cement block contains a dead dog, subtly referencing his mother in the process.

Tom reveals to Jack that Derek has told him that the cement block actually contains their mother. Jack then realizes Julie has told Derek the truth of what’s inside. Julie wakes up Jack, and sitting together on her bed, Julie tells Jack that she and Derek are not physically intimate and that he is an immature adult who lives with his mother. Their conversation becomes more intimate, with Julie undressing and the two cuddling while contemplating the future now that someone else knows their family's secret. Jack predicts they will be taken into foster care, and their house will be torn down like the other prefabs in the area, saying "one day, someone will come rooting round. All they will find will be a few broken bricks in the long grass." Derek walks in on the two in bed together and is horrified by what he sees. He demands to know how long "this" has been going on, and Julie simply replies, "ages and ages."

Unperturbed, Jack and Julie lie back down on the bed and converse further regarding whether what they did was right. Jack states that what they are doing "seems natural to me." Julie agrees with a smile and shortly after the two begin to make love as the sound of Derek smashing up the cement tomb containing their mother reverberates around the house. The film ends showing Jack and Julie asleep together, while blue lights from a police car are seen flickering against the walls.

Cast

* Andrew Robertson as Jack
* Charlotte Gainsbourg as Julie
* Alice Coulthard as Sue
* Ned Birkin as Tom
* Sinéad Cusack as Mother
* Hanns Zischler as Father
* Jochen Horst as Derek, Julie's friend
* Gareth Brown as William, Tom's friend
* William Hootkins as Commander Hunt (voice)
* Dick Flockhart as Truck Driver
* Mike Clark as Driver's Mate

Reception

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 11 reviews. Of the film, Roger Ebert wrote director Birkin “uses nuance, timing and Edward Shearmer's unsettling music to create an atmosphere in which outside values cease to matter, and life becomes a series of skirmishes between hostility and temptation. There is a little of ‘''Lord of the Flies''’ lurking here somewhere…he filmleads us into a world where some secrets are hidden and others indulged, and there is no restraint on its dark impulses”. In a more critical review, John Powers noted, “Though the young actors are terrific, the movie doesn’t yield its meanings easily. It hints at many themes—the origins of gender roles, the triumph of nature over culture, the future of England itself—but preserves the hermetic density of a parable”.

Box office

The film opened on 22 October 1993 in the United Kingdom on 10 screens and grossed £24,018 for the weekend. It went on to gross £126,874 in the UK.

Year-end lists

* Honorable mention – Michael MacCambridge, ''Austin American-Statesman''
* Top 12 worst (Alphabetically ordered, not ranked) – David Elliott, ''The San Diego Union-Tribune''

In popular culture

The Madonna song “What It Feels Like for a Girl” opens with a spoken word sample from the movie. The quote used is a line spoken by actress Charlotte Gainsbourg: “Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots. 'Cause it's OK to be a boy. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading. 'Cause ''you'' think that ''being'' a girl is degrading. But secretly you'd love to know what it's like... Wouldn't you? What it feels like for a girl".

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cement Garden
1993 films
1993 drama films
British drama films
Films directed by Andrew Birkin
Incest in film
Films scored by Edward Shearmur
Films based on British novels
1990s English-language films
1990s British films