Serenada pentru etajul XII

like many Romanian films of period, it is just a nice comedy with few social roots. great cast, good acting, easy script. the splendid future in new house, seductive colors, few musical scenes. in fact, exercise to escape from political command. and to cover a social tragedy who reflects the Communist Party image about the solution for society's problems. a family film, naive, amusing, with few interesting scenes, saved by actors who can use the thin script in a decent movie. a film of hints , like many others, puzzle of sparkles and with the high purpose to amuse. in fact, a strange form of normality, part of leadership need to reflect reality.

In a country where apartment buildings have between 4 and 8 floors for a lack of qualified civil engineers, here you have the 12th.

This is a romanticized vision of the change. Because many refused to live their unsanitary petty dwellings, the communists have went this far to make it interesting. After all, living in the high rise ghetto mean cleaner homes with more light. For some that was the first chance to have running water and indoor toilets. That also meant learning to live in a community and learning how to use to communal facilities. Some 40 years later people still find that hard to do.

Because of the ambivalence of the production team this film does not touch any of the issues not found on the TO DO list. No reference to the conditions before the high rise. Yet you get Toma Caragiu preaching for the communist ownership from the first scene. A few very light references to the community that would form in the high rise. And also the funny scenes ripped off some foreign movie. After all, nobody but cops and military can handle guns. And they don't take it home. Yet Cotescu's character has a hunting gun and he is not afraid to threat the neighbors. But it is all in good spirit and nobody is calling the police.

Overall a waste of time that brought a good wage to few while in production.

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humor. good performances. seductive atmosphere, mixture of musical moments, old clichés and social critic who has few sparkles of political incorrect. few friends. a new house. drops of nostalgia and funny situations who remind Soviet comedies. the superficial note who saves the film by ideological traps. nothing original. only the feeling of holiday( with few bitter crumbs) and picture of a social drama in inspired nuances. because , far to be different by many other comedies of period, it gives the inspired air of improvisation, the joy of emotions from a small community, interesting characters and nice situations as result of social/cultural differences. a film about life, friendship and meetings. short, a real nice film.