http://altohm.blogspot.com/2007/05/va-fi-sau-nu-va-fi.html
Sunday, May 27, 2007 <http://altohm.blogspot.com/2007/05/va-fi-sau-nu-va-fi.html> Va fi sau nu va fi? It won't be 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days but only a few hours until we will find out if the Romanian movie "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days" gets what no other product of the most underrated Romanian industry has ever gotten before - the icing on the movie industry's cake, the coveted Palme d'Or. Only a handful of Romanian films had gotten so close to the gilded Palm without, alas, ever touching it: - in 1957, Ion Popescu-Gopo's animated film, "Scurta istorie" (Short history) won the prize for the Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival - 8 years later, Liviu Ciulei would be acknowledged as Best Director at the same festival for his movie, "Padurea spanzuratilor" (The Forest of the Hanged) - it would take several decades before other Romanian motion pictures made some waves among inernational critics and film-goers alike: Cristi Puiu's "Marfa si banii" or Cristian Mungiu's "Occident" competed in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 and, respectively, 2002, but the first post-1989 prize at this festival would be received only in 2005 by Cristi Puiu's second movie, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu", awarded in the "Un certain regard" category. - in the following year, another Romanian director, Corneliu Porumboiu, would be awarded at the Cannes Film Festival with the Caméra d'Or for the cinematography of "A fost sau n-a fost?" (12:08 East of Bucharest). - could it be this year that the Romanian film industry will finally make the giant leap to a Palme d'Or? Many film critics seem to think so - yesterday they awarded Mungiu's "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days" with the FIPRESCI prize and the late Cristian Nemescu's "California Dreaming" with the Grand Prix of the "Un certain regard" section: "Pitch perfect and brilliantly acted, "4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days" is a stunning achievement, helmed with a purity and honesty that captures not just the illegal abortion story at its core but the constant, unremarked negotiations necessary for survival in the final days of the Soviet bloc. Showcasing all the elements of new Romanian cinema - long takes, controlled camera and an astonishing ear for natural dialogue - Cristian Mungiu's masterly film plays only one false note in an otherwise beautifully textured story. Further proof of Romania's new prominence in the film world, this motion picture will attract discerning audiences in Stateside and European arthouses. Foremost among the many revelations is Marinca's stellar turn as Otilia. It's not just the way she transforms scripted dialogue into real-speak (a quality shared by the rest of the stellar cast), but her ability to convey all her inner struggles in silence. Vasiliu is equally fine, a frightened young woman desperate to end her ordeal." - Jay Weissberg, "Variety", 17 May 2007 See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbAYPt1mpgI "Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu's In Competition entry "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is a harrowing tale of the grim lengths to which two young women will go to end an unwelcome pregnancy in a totalitarian society that is indifferent to their fate unless it involves punishing them. Set in the shabby rooms of rundown buildings on neglected city streets, the film casts an unblinking eye on life in the last years of communism in Romania. Its story of desperation forced on two hapless youngsters indicts a regime that was as callous as it was empty. The film is dark, gloomy and without music, but it is also observant and highly suspenseful, with Mungiu using his often static camera to balance banal cruelty with simple generosity. The film, which boasts an exceptional performance by Anamaria Marinca, may not break out of the festival and art house circuit, but it is likely to pick up some awards along the way. Marinca, who won the BAFTA TV award as best actress for the miniseries "Sex Traffic" in 2004, is superb at displaying internal turmoil, whether watching her friend being groped as she's examined or listening to the braying of people who long ago made peace with their evil masters. The Romanian actress also shines in a tense and heartbreaking sequence at the end of the film in which Otilia must dispose of the aborted fetus in the darkness and squalor of an unlamented urban hell." - Ray Bennett, "The Hollywood Reporter", 18 May 2007 "Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, "4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is the sort of film that will inspire a visceral reaction from most moviegoers - a quick grimace, a darting look away: Wow, that sounds not-fun. And no, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days is not 'fun' - but it's incredibly affecting, magnificently acted and superbly made; in a lot of ways, it reminded me of last year's Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Film, "The Lives of Others", insofar as both depict universal challenges of human existence - what to do about one's problems, how those difficulties can poison how we deal with others - with the harsh realities of fascist power making those challenges even more difficult to deal with. Mungiu's film is naturalistic - the cinematography is made up of either loose tracking shots or long, locked-down single-take scenes - and we never have a scene without Otilia on-screen. (Gabita may be in trouble, but Otilia is the one who has to take action.) That doesn't mean, though, that the film is without craft; Mungiu's sense of timing and space is exquisite, and his actors give performances so good that they disappear into their roles. As Gabita, Vasiliu is stressed-out and desperate; Marinca's Otilia is more worldly-wise, more self-assured - until she runs into the realities of what has to happen and how. Praise should also go to Vlad Ivanov, who plays Mr. Bebe - the abortionist Gabita puts her life in the hands of. "4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is supposedly the beginning of a series of films Mungiu is hoping to make called The Golden Age, each about life in Communist Romania. I hope he's successful; if this film is an example of the kind of rough-hewn humanity and blunt realism we can expect in future films, I'd definitely seek them out. As it is, "4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days" moved me and challenged me, made me feel and made me think, demonstrated the personal and political challenges of a heartbreaking choice that, in many ways, is no choice at all - and that's a rare enough achievement, and one worthy of seeking out." - James Rocchi, www.cinematic.com, 17 May 2007 " Cannes, May 18: A hard-hitting Romanian film set towards the end of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu`s rule is making the early running at Cannes Film Festival, with critics calling it a favorite only three days into the competition. "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", directed by Cristian Mungiu, is set in a single day and tells the story of Gabita illegally aborting an unwanted baby and the trials of her friend and accomplice Otilia. It portrays not only characters` personal misery but also the drab grimness of life in the former Communist country. One of 22 films in the main competition, "4 Months" will already take some beating in the eyes of the critics, although their opinions rarely match those of the jury when it comes to handing out the coveted "Palme d`Or" on May 27. "Pitch perfect and brilliantly acted, `4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days` is a stunning achievement," Jay Weissberg of Hollywood trade magazine Variety wrote on Friday. He went on to praise the lead performances, Mungiu`s direction and the cinematography. "Colors are all muted cement tones, capturing the crushing ugliness of life in the Eastern bloc," he added. Another trade publication Screen International, awarding "4 Months" a maximum four stars, said the film had a "better-than-average shot at a reward from this year`s jury". In its unofficial poll of movie critics in Cannes, "4 Months" was given an average of over three stars, an unusually high mark that puts it ahead of festival opener "My Blueberry Nights" and serial killer drama "Zodiac". The reception for Mungiu`s picture follows similar critical praise in Cannes two years ago for "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu", by fellow Romanian Cristi Puiu, and comparisons between the two are already being made. The buzz surrounding this year`s Romanian competition entry makes up for the muted response to Chinese director Wong Kar Wai`s English-language debut "My Blueberry Nights", which opened the 60th Cannes festival on Wednesday." - <http://www.zeenews.com> www.zeenews.com "Since 2005, when Cannes audiences were stunned by Cristi Puiu's "Death of Mr. Lazarescu," which won the Un Certain Regard prize, the festival has been host to a series of tough, strong, darkly comical films from Romania as directors in that country, assisted by a remarkable pool of native acting talent, confront the difficulties of the present and the brutalities of the past. Last year, there was Corneliu Porumboiu's mordant look at the 1989 revolution, "12:08 East of Bucharest," which won the Caméra d'Or for best debut film. This year, Puiu has returned to Un Certain Regard as a juror, and a Romanian film has quickly emerged as an early standout in the festival's main competition. Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," which takes place in the last years of the Ceaucescu dictatorship, tells the story of two college roommates, one of whom is seeking an illegal abortion. At once unsparing and generous, unfolding in the long, tense takes that seem to be typical of the new Romanian cinema, the film exposes the decay of human decency under communism. At its heart is a breathtakingly poised lead performance by Anamaria Marinca as Otilla, a young woman whose decision to help an unreliable friend (played by Laura Vasiliu) has fateful consequences." - A. O. Scott, "International Herald Tribune", 18 May 2007 "Le cinéma Hollywoodien, on connaît. Le cinéma français aussi. Le cinéma européen. Euhh si bien sûr, l’espagnol, l’italien, l’anglais, on connaît. Le cinéma d’Europe de l’est… Ah oui, on connaît également. Quoique… Bon allez, venez découvrir avec moi le cinéma roumain. Et ne me dites pas que vous en avez toute une collection en dvd à la maison, j’ne vous croirai pas! Nous voilà donc confortablement installés salle Debussy pour la projection de presse de "4 Mois, 3 Semaines Et 2 Jours". Et voilà comment d’une groupie avide de starlettes hollywoodiennes je deviens en un clin d’œil une cinéphile avertie… Magique, non? Réveillez donc votre côté cinéphiliquement intello… J’vous assure, ça vaut l’détour. Cristian Mungiu : ce nom ne vous dit sûrement rien et pourtant, ce réalisateur roumain en est à son second long-métrage et également à son deuxième passage à Cannes. Un habitué? Pas encore…. Une star, non plus. Un grand cinéaste? A coup sûr! C’est le douloureux sujet des avortements illégaux qu’aborde ce second film de la compétition 2007. Un drame à la fois social et humain, celui de deux jeunes filles perdues face à un régime socio-politique rigide et autoritaire. On se croirait il y a un siècle, voire plus. Mais non, l’histoire se passe en 1987, il y a seulement 20 ans. Filmé avec beaucoup de pudeur mais aussi – et c’est paradoxal – de manière très crue, les images sont souvent dures, mais toujours essentielles. Pas de larmoiement inutile, le réalisateur nous montre les faits, bruts. Un film social qui devrait sans nul doute affecter particulièrement le président du jury Stephen Frears. On sort de la salle un peu sonné par ce que l’on vient de voir… La nuit vient de tomber sur la Croisette, et l’on quitte son costume de cinéphile pour rendosser celui de groupie. Le contraste est saisissant, mais c’est aussi ça Cannes, et c’est aussi pour ça qu’on l’aime!" - Amélie Chauvet, <http://www.commeaucinema.com> www.commeaucinema.com , 16 May 2007 "It's only Day One of the festival and Cannes is already a showcase for another stunning an revelatory work from Romania: 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, the second feature of Cristian Mungiu. Exploring the private traumas of two women who undertake a perilous illegal action, it is a bruising, taut and wrenching social and moral portrait about loss and violation. "Things are in a saddle and ride mankind," Emerson said. The same is with national film movements. Modern art in postwar Eastern Europe is often contentious and brittle, punctuated by hope, tragedy and unfathomably restricted careers. The Polish school of anxiety or the Czech new miracle revealed many idiosyncratic and unclassifiable talents that exploded like rockets and then inexplicably was extinguished by institutional and political repression. Now, suddenly, a most invigorated and revealing work is being done in Romania. The major discovery of Cannes two years ago was Cristi Puiu’s astonishing "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu". Last year Corneliu Porumboiu’s "12:08 East of Bucharest" captured the Camera d’Or for best first feature. Puiu’s film was animated by a bleak and trenchant Eastern European mordant black comedy. Porumboiu’s tracked a different kind of social and political despair, done in an acid-black register of cultural and historical amnesia. Mungiu's probing and absorbing new work unfolds in nightmarish and bleak inferno that's very convincingly drawn and realized. "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is not an easy work - it's terrifying, gripping, and devastating. Never punishing or too cruel to experience, the movie considers a wholly different moral and emotional demand, and it quite unflinchingly draws out the limitations, randomness, and cruelty of modern life." - Patrick Z. McGavin, <http://www.rottentomatoes.com> www.rottentomatoes.com / www.emanuellevy.com "After 2005’s Moartea domnului Lazarescu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu), another very high-quality Romanian film explores the country’s ills and the illnesses of its inhabitants in the 2007 Cannes Competition entry 4 Luni, 3 Saptamini si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days). Director Cristian Mungiu set his tale of a very late abortion in 1987 and uses an unobtrusive yet utterly filmic style that mixes the handheld dogme aesthetic with beautiful static shots to great effect. Though the film takes some time to get going and could use some trimming, it might find a place in arthouses across the continent." - Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net, 17 May 2007 ...and many more reviews that can be found on the movie's webpage, <http://www.4months3weeksand2days.com> www.4months3weeksand2days.com So, va fi sau nu va fi? ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
