MIFF 2023 Film Review - It’s Raining in the House
Images courtesy of Common State.
It’s Raining in the House explores the story of two Belgian teenagers who live in poverty, as they navigate the summer with an absent mother and a proclivity for getting themselves into trouble. This recent Cannes entry combines a mix of documentary realism with narrative flair to explore the lives of people living in popular tourist towns and the sadness that lies behind them.
The movie follows the real life siblings, Purdey (Purdey Lombet) and Makenzy (Makenzy Lombet), who finish school and begin to enjoy their summers in the province of Wallonia, Belgium. They live with their mother (Louise Manteau), who is frequently absent as she enjoys benders in the town, leaving her children alone to fend for themselves. When she is around, she does not parent, allowing Makenzy (male, 15) and Purdey (female, 17) to smoke at the dinner table and act like buffoons together.
Soon into the film, Purdey gets a summer job while Makenzy and his friend Dono steal people's bikes. Where Purdey is determined to escape her life of poverty and break away from her family history, Makenzy seems determined to stay on the current path of financial hardship, not by choice but by action. Makenzy walks around with a boyish optimism—the idea that everything will be okay and that the world is a safe and comforting place—which seems to stem from a deep love for his mother, despite her apathy for him and his sister. Makenzy talks with Dono about Purdey’s comfortable middle-class boyfriend, Youss, who has an air-conditioned room, is able to buy presents for Purdey, and rides around on a moped, which is in stark contrast to the leaky ceilings, lack of a car, and stifling home they put up with. Dono says, “He is weird, though, that Youss,” to which Makenzy replies, “He thinks he’s better than others,”: the pair, through their blindness or arrogance, cannot decipher that Youss might be living better than them.
With a relatively short runtime of 80 minutes, the length finds a comfortable medium due to its slow pacing, though at times it can find itself holding shots or scenes for a little too long, moving from contemplative to extraneous. The film occasionally does itself a disservice by sticking with an overly naturalistic style, which, in theory, should allow an audience to resonate more with the characters, but ends up creating a barrier.
It’s Raining in the House is a slow-moving film with a largely bare storyline that is interesting in its use of real-life siblings as the stars of the film, and its documentary touches, despite not being innovative in the genre. If the bells and whistles of big blockbusters are too loud for you, then this quiet, introspective piece might just be the one for you.
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Passages screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, running in metro cinemas August 3-20 and online August 18-27.
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