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REVIEW: Ghost in the Shell (http://lwlies.com/reviews/ghost-in-the-shell/)

IN CONVERSATION: Ben Wheatley (http://lwlies.com/interviews/ben-wheatley-free-fire/) REVIEW: Free Fire (http://lwlies.com/reviews/free-fire/)
TRAILER: A Ghost Story (http://lwlies.com/articles/a-ghost-story-trailer-casey-affleck-rooney-mara/)
IN PRAISE OF: John Woo’s action cinema (http://lwlies.com/articles/john-woo-films-action-cinema/)

ARTICLES (/ARTICLES)

Meet the
filmmakers
redefining the
Romanian New
Wave
Directors like Bogdan Mirică are
challenging their national cinema’s
image.
Share this

R
WORDS omania was well represented at the Cannes Film Festival
DANA KNIGHT
(HT TP://LWLIES.COM/AUTHOR/DANAK)this year. As well as having two films in the main
competition, Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada
Share this (http://lwlies.com/festivals/sieranevada-first-look-review/) and
Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation Most Popular
(http://lwlies.com/festivals/graduation-first-look-review/), there
was Dogs, directed by newcomer Bogdan Mirică, in the Un
Certain Regard section, 4:15pm End of the World, by Cătălin Ghost in the Shell
Rotaru and Gabi Virginia Sarga, in the short film competition review – ‘Signs of
and All Rivers Run to the Sea by Alexandru Badea in the life are worryingly
Cinéfondation. sparse’
(http://lwlies.com/
(http://lwlies.com/reviews/ghost-
in-the-shell/)
in-the-shell/)
A few days before the festival started, I received an email from a Ben Wheatley: ‘I
Romanian producer urging me to sign a petition calling for “a didn’t get
different kind of Romanian cinema,” a cinema that should anywhere with
“entertain and interest us, instead of annoying or boring us to film until I
death, a cinema about the beautiful side of Romania, with stopped caring’
characters that are nice.” As sympathetic as I was to this sincere, (http://lwlies.com/interviews/ben-
(http://lwlies.com/
wheatley-free-fire/)
if somewhat naive, cinematic plea, I couldn’t help smiling trying wheatley-free-
to imagine what Puiu’s answer to this exhortation might be. fire/)
LWLies 69: The
Are there any “nice” Romanian people in the films presented in
Free Fire Issue –
Cannes this year? Yes, but they are either victims of corruption,
On sale now!
such as the father character, played by Adrian Titieni, in
(http://lwlies.com/
Graduation; of sexual assault, as with the daughter in
69-the-free-fire-
Graduation, played by the angelic Maria Drăguș; or else they are
(http://lwlies.com/articles/lwlies-
issue/)
completely out of their depth and succumb to a tragic fate, like 69-the-free-fire-issue/)
the character Roman, played by Dragoș Bucur, in Dogs. The uncanny
disembodiment of
The latter film, a gruesome story of evil lurking in the seemingly
Scarlett
bucolic Romanian countryside, represents a slight departure
Johansson
from the Romanian New Wave aesthetic. Although the
(http://lwlies.com/
performances are still naturalistic, the film is subtly stylised, with (http://lwlies.com/articles/scarlett-
johansson-ghost-
director Mirică using insidious and unnerving tracking shots johansson-ghost-in-the-
shell-body/) in-the-shell-
throughout, giving the film its languid rhythm. The opening
body/)
sequence, in which the camera tracks smoothly over a stagnant
pond before closing in on a severed human foot, is reminiscent of Mulholland Drive:
the opening of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Speaking about his The Musical
creative decisions, Mirică explains, “I wanted to shoot the film in (http://lwlies.com/
a classical style, using a combination of super slow tracking shots drive-the-
and ample camera movements, in widescreen, which gives it a musical/)
certain breadth. We even used a 10 meter-high crane.” (http://lwlies.com/articles/mulholland-
drive-the-musical/)

This departure from the Romanian New Wave is not limited to Free Fire – ‘More
visual style: Mirică’s elliptical story echoes American neo-western fun than a
thrillers such as No Country for Old Men – certainly more overtly hopped-up
than anything from his native cinema. He reveals that the helicopter joy ride’
inspiration for the story was provided by violent events he (http://lwlies.com/
witnessed as a child: “I grew up in the countryside, near (http://lwlies.com/reviews/free-
fire/)
fire/)
Târgoviște, where I saw many disturbing scenes – people hitting
each other with axes, or using bicycle chains. In a civilised The 100 best films
society, you’d expect some causality: if you don’t provoke an of the 1990s: 100-
incident, nothing bad will happen to you. But here, the violence 76
was often gratuitous.” (http://lwlies.com/
best-films-of-the-
This violence and a pervading sense of evil in Mirică’s film is (http://lwlies.com/articles/the-
1990s-part-1/)
best-films-of-the-1990s-
enhanced by the presence of musical score, which are generally part-1/)
absent from Romanian New Wave films. For Mirică, music is Watch Casey
extremely important, even at the writing stage: “If I’m listening to Affleck haunt
the wrong playlist, I write the wrong things.” While working on Rooney Mara in
the script for Dogs, he played the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis the trailer for A
soundtrack for The Proposition for months on end. His hope was Ghost Story
that the music in Dogs would allow the audience to “lose (http://lwlies.com/articles/a-
(http://lwlies.com/
themselves in the texture of the film.” Although Mirică confesses ghost-story-trailer-
casey-affleck-rooney- ghost-story-
that he used an “enormous amount of music” for the soundtrack, mara/) trailer-casey-
its subliminal quality is perhaps the reason some critics missed it affleck-rooney-
entirely (“unadorned with music or other distractions,” mara/)
wrote Peter Debruge in Variety).

In contrast to Dogs, there is no music in either Puiu or Mungiu’s

films. The Romanian New Wave, with its strong emphasis on
realism, simply wouldn’t allow it. In Graduation, which tells the
story of a father who goes to great lengths to steer his daughter’s
future in the right direction after she is almost raped in broad
daylight by an unknown assailant, music is heard only when the
radio is on or a CD is playing. The father listens to Andreas
Scholl’s performance of Handel’s ‘Ombra mai fu’ repetitively, a
way to also emphasise the high ideals and sphere of
consciousness he aspires to.

“We always believe that what we do in the name of affection for

someone is right. But if what you do contradicts what you say to
your children, you have a problem.” says Mungiu. Referring to
Adrian Titieni’s wonderfully restrained performance, and more
specifically the only scene in the film where he breaks down, the
director comments: “In this type of cinema, it’s very difficult to
show what characters feel deep inside themselves. There are
times in life when you feel that the most important events have
already happened and you’re only left with some hope for your
children. We always try as parents to appear strong but we also
have weaker moments and I wanted to show one of those weaker
moments with that scene.”

There are certainly plenty of “weaker moments” in Puiu’s

Sieranevada. The film centres on a family getting together to
commemorate 40 days since the passing of their patriarch.
Filmed almost entirely in a cramped apartment in Bucharest, the
characters walk and talk non-stop, constantly in and out of
rooms, giving the impression of a disjointed family. This idea is
also reflected in the loose, repetitive structure of the film. Like life
itself, Sieranevada is made up of fragments of conversation, petty
trivialities and hysterical incidents, many of which were
directly experienced by Puiu, his actors or the people they know.

Renowned as an experimental filmmaker in the John

Cassavetes mould, Puiu felt it was time to let his actors contribute
to the construction of their characters: “The initial script I wrote
was different, the characters were much nicer. I’m a nice person,
you know…” He also confessed that his late father (whose death
inspired him to make this film) was a real ladies’ man and that he
only discovered this fact when he was a teenager. “I never had the
impression I really knew him, and the same is true for my brother
and sister; people are full of surprises. That’s why I’m making this
kind of cinema – about relationships, about human
communication.”

PUBLISHED 2 JUN 2016

Tags: Bogdan Mirică (http://lwlies.com/related-tags/bogdan-

mirica/) , Cristi Puiu (http://lwlies.com/related-tags/cristi-
puiu/) , Cristian Mungiu (http://lwlies.com/related-tags/cristian-
mungiu/) , Romanian Cinema (http://lwlies.com/related-
tags/romanian-cinema/)

Read More
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Sieranevada – first look review How cinema is challenging popularGraduation – first look review
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BY
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(HT TP://LWLIES.COM/AUTHOR/DAVIDJ) (HT TP://LWLIES.COM/AUTHOR/DAVIDJ)
BY
CHRISTINA NEWL AND
One of the progenitors of the Romanian (HT TP://LWLIES.COM/AUTHOR/CHRISTINAN)
The 2007 Palme d’Or winner returns to
New Wave returns to the Cannes Cannes with another gripping and
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