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Poster for The Cement Garden

The Cement Garden

1993 · 101 min

A slow, unsettling descent into adolescent isolation and taboo, suffused with dread and a haunting sense of decay.

Tagline
Love knows no limits.
Overview
After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness. Aware that she is going to have to go into hospital she opens a bank account for the children, so that they can be financially self-sufficient and will be able to avoid being taken into care by the authorities. Unfortunately she also dies and Julie and Jack (the older, teenage children) decide to hide her body in the basement so that they can have free reign of their household. Soon Tom has taken to dressing as a girl whilst Sue has become increasingly reticent, confiding only to her diary, meanwhile Jack and Julie sense an attraction developing for each other. However Julie's new beau, Derek, threatens to unearth the many dark secrets within this family as he becomes increasingly suspicious of Jack.
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • darkstrength 3 of 3
  • bleakstrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • eeriestrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • isolation
  • coming-of-age
  • family
  • identity
  • death
Places
  • single country house
  • suburbs
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore mild
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex strong
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror3
Humour1
Realism7
Romance4
Tension6
Darkness8
Complexity6
Emotional weight8

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Where to watch in the UK

Rent or buy
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Andrew Birkin
Written by
Andrew Birkin
Starring
Andrew Robertson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alice Coulthard, Ned Birkin, Sinéad Cusack, Hanns Zischler, Jochen Horst, Gareth Brown
Music
Edward Shearmur
Cinematography
Stephen Blackman
Runtime
101 min
Country
France, Germany, United Kingdom
Languages
English

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