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‘Julie Keeps Quiet’ Review: A Tight, Poised Belgian Debut About the Challenges of Holding It Together
An abuse scandal ripples through an elite tennis academy in Leonardo van Dijl's impressive, Cannes-premiered debut feature 'Julie Keeps Quiet.'
Repressing adolescent urges and emotional swings has long been part of her routine at the high-level youth tennis academy where she’s currently the star student: Years of concentrating all her time and attention on her game — all work and all play, as it were — look likely to reward her with the pro career she dreams of. A standout of this year’s Critics’ Week programme at Cannes — where it won the SACD Award and scored sales including a U.K. distribution deal with Curzon/Artificial Eye — “Julie Keeps Quiet” should travel far on the strength of its coolly riveting execution and subject matter that remains broadly resonant amid an ongoing #MeToo reckoning. While its dramatic pull is more or less universal, however, the film follows in a distinctive tradition of muted Belgian realism: The observational influence of the Dardenne brothers, who take a co-producing credit here, is clear enough, but van Dijl also matches the sleeker, chillier styling of next-generation heirs like Laura Wandel (“Playground”) and Fien Troch (“Home”).
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