Private Property 2006

Isabelle Huppert and real-life brothers Yannick and Jérémie Renier (The Promise, The Child) deliver shattering performances in this electrifying family drama. Pascale (Huppert) shares her life with her layabout twin sons, François and Thierry, in an isolated farmhouse still owned by her ex-husband, who occasionally turns up to fork over cash to his offspring – much to Pascale's vociferous displeasure. A total lack of limits reigns in this household where the young men, like raucous overgrown cubs, loiter about, provoking and romping with each other, or joshing with their mother. Privacy is non-existent, though this pack dwells in an intimacy that excludes all outsiders. The too-close ties that bind them begin to unravel when Pascale dares to launch into a romantic adventure with a local baker. Then her decision to sell the house and set out on life anew, depriving her adult sons of the home and motherly attention to which they feel entitled, tears everything asunder and makes rivals of the siblings. Their struggle to maintain control leads to a devastating denouement.