Sunday, December 02, 2007

4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile

4 kuukautta, 3 viikkoa, 2 päivää / 4 månader, 3 veckor och 2 dagar / 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. RO 2007. PC: Mobra Films etc. D+SC: Cristian Mungiu. DP: Oleg Mutu - 1:2,35 - color [Super 35mm > digital intermediate, Kodak Cinelabs, Romania]. LOC: Bucharest. Starring Anamaria Marinca (Otilia), Laura Vasiliu (Gabita), Vlad Ivanov (Bebe). 113 min. Released in Finland by Cinema Mondo, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Arto Vartiainen / Ditte Kronström. Viewed at Maxim 2, Helsinki, 30 November 2007. - Cristian Mungiu's first entry to his proposed trilogy of "Tales from the Golden Age", bitterly ironically dealing with the 1980s in Ceausescu's Romania. It is a tale of abortion, illegal in Romania. The title refers to the stage of pregnancy of the protagonist Gabita. It is the story of the young student Gabita and her loyal friend Otilia, who experience extreme humiliation in the hands of the illegal abortionist called Bebe. Like Roy Andersson, Cristian Mungiu shoots his film in the early cinema style of long shots and long takes with minimal camera movement and cutting. It all rings true. The ultimate humiliation of Bebe's demands hits the girls hardest after the fact. The banquet scene at the home of Otilia's boyfriend conveys powerfully both the joy of others and the desolation of the young girl. The abortion seems to be an experience well-known to many. The performances are excellent. - The print from the digital intermediate is relentlessly bleak, ugly and dead, highlighting the melancholia and depression of the subject-matter. In Italian neo-realism the lively vibrancy of the cinematography was a counterforce to the depressing reality of the story.

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