The Golden Age

In general, a lot of European films hardly made it to international block busters due to its inclusion of very localized elements that we foreigners, most of the time, do not comprehend. ( It's just like how Seinfield, The West Wings and The Sopranos are never my favorites. ) So, I can only rely on my sources, you know. Perhaps, foreign film festivals held by GSC cinema is one of the only few moments when I could watch the critically acclaimed European movies on screen, but how many more will be missing from the list? Well, let's not frown on that. The sources will save us all!

Here's a good example of a shinning European film that I'm not sure if it'll be screened here due to its sensitive theme that our beloved Censorship board will be up against. 4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile (imdb) - the winner of Palm d'Or at Cannes Festival 2007. It definitely won for a good reason. The core storyline is about the protagonist assisting her naive roommate to get an abortion which was deemed illegal in Romania during the 80s. In this movie, the cinematography is magnificent as the filming presented very raw emotions by shooting from the protagonist's perspective, the long one-take scenes, and the occasional hand held shooting. In fact, there's nothing much I can tell about this, other than "you should watch it yourself". The depression of the Romanians during the communism era was impressively portrayed throughout the film and the grayness was so immense, reaching the extent of a soft-core horror film would.

What the director intended was to capture the audience's focus on the main character - the tough protagonist. Trust me, you will feel stressed out and exhale in relief once the movie ends.

So, I need a cold drink.

Note: This movie is the first release of the director's trilogy production, titled "The Golden Age", which is about the communist era in Romania. Perhaps, it is the golden age when the Romanians portrayed such courage we human beings never know we have.