Word: mungiu
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...prize Palme d'Or, presented by visiting Hollywood royalty Jane Fonda, went to 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, Cristian Mungiu's exemplary Romanian drama about a young woman seeking an illegal abortion for her college roommate in the waning says of the Ceausescu regime. That was an excellent choice, and more or less expected for the strong, grim film that had earned a consensus of critical esteem, and has been picked up for distribution around the world (including the U.S.). It was also a tribute to a country whose cinema industry is on the rise; another Romanian effort, Cristian...
...Surprises, too, from Romania-indeed, some of the greatest pleasures of festivalgoing are such unexpected ones as Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. It is set in 1987, during the final days of the Ceausescu regime, when the whole country seems to be in a sour mood. But politics are in the background of this taut, fraught drama about what goes wrong when a college student (Laura Vasiliu) seeks an illegal abortion. She and her roommate (Anamaria Marinca) are led to the ironically named Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), a stolid fellow with a sulfurous whiff...
...Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days - a title whose meaning becomes clear only about halfway through the film - is Christian Mungiu's startlingly good drama set in 1987, during the end of Romania's Ceausescu regime. The burdens of Soviet-style dictatorship have imposed a gray pall on the country, putting most of the citizenry in a perpetually sour mood. The black market, for shampoo and Kent cigarettes, is on each street corner, in every college dormitory. That's where we meet Otilia (Annamaria Marinca), a smart, illusionless student, and her pretty, mopey roommate Gabita (Laura Vasiliu). Gabita is despondent...
...predicament. (There's a bustling scene, at the birthday party of Otilia's boyfriend's mother, that becomes a kind of tour de force, with the gaiety of the celebrants making the girl's misery all the more palpable.) It may be minimalism, but in the best sense: Mungiu has stripped away anything not essential to the story...
...Mungiu also plays games with the audience. As the story unspools he plants three tantalizing details that point it toward a melodramatic climax. Otilia filches a switchblade from the abortionist's case; she learns where Bebe's mother lives; and she comes into possession of his I.D. card, which presumably reveals his address. Will Otilia track Bebe down for the punishment he may deserve? Will all three principals survive their assignation? We're not telling. Suffice to say that what's done with these plot elements is as surprising as the rest of this gripping, satisfying film...