Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne don't mind if the camera misses some action. In fact, that's often by design. The duo, commonly known as the Dardenne brothers, are master architects of realist cinema who have thrown away the blueprints. The co-directors, writers, and producers bring a documentary ethos to their films—most recently, Two Days, One Night,Kid with a Bike, and now The Unknown Girl—by allowing their characters to surprise them in long takes, during which the camera seemingly moves without agenda. Like other social realist directors such as Cristian Mungiu, the Dardennes eschew the sensationalism of drama in favor of the steady trajectory of everyday life, resulting in a powerful suspense of verisimilitude.
"The film is constructed progressively. We live with it. We experience it. We experience the actors becoming the characters. The sets start to be lived in."
