Restul e tacere

just saw the movie. In a cinema theater. Sunday morning, only four people in the audience, myself included.

I'm blown away.

here, normally, I would have added only another sentence to this post - but the IMDb rules state a post must have a minimum 10 lines.

so I might write that this is not just a movie. It's a tribute to all movie makers, of all times. It's a tribute to all the people passionate enough with an idea to be able to follow it until the very end. A tribute to those few people that do not sell their soul, or their ideals. In a way, one might read it as Caranfil's manifesto.

but ignore all the above. Ignore all the comments. Just go see the movie. It speaks for itself better than anybody ever could.

the rest is silence.

Story of a movie. Story of a Romanian society and the image of movie-adventure. A film about small things, warm, nostalgic, like a spring day.A comedy but, in same time, description of a fight. Old fashion atmosphere and subjective view. And large circles of collective memory. A film about present with words of past.Simple, naive and natural, classic and childish, cruel analysis of a victory and scene of soft discover of national modernity's roots. Ioana Bulca in a impressive come-back. Marius Florea Vizante as brilliant pioneer. And the ash of a lost time. A film about the deep images of soul. Piece of self-definition. A sort of game out of gray reality. A movie. About sense of art, fight, success, fame and truth. Small fragment of a huge mirror.

The latest hits of Romanian cinematography are all movies which show Romania in gray tones. So far they've been successful and i really appreciate those movies but it's about time that a director does the normal thing, to change the pace of Romanian films a little. Through the magic of Nae Caramfil and the help of a consistent budget, we have a film good enough to compare with Hollywood productions and who still keeps his artistic integrity and doesn't fall into commercialism.

The script is brilliant and fearless, with cleaver lines and a language to suit the depicted times.

Marius Vizante has a great performance as a frustrated but proud young director, and Ovidiu Niculescu's unlikely (Niculescu having neither the age, neither the stature of Leon Negrescu) cast in the role of Leon proved to be a really good choice.

I sincerely believe that this movie will be a milestone in Romanian cinematography and i hope that many as good as this one will follow.

Love films. Always have, always will. Would like to love Romanian films too, because it just feels good to hear a film unfold in my very own language. But things are as they are and I can't make them any different. All I can try is change my "optic" of things, which I can't seem to do in this particular case. Some films sway you to, others don't. It's just as simple as that.

In Caranfil's style, "Restul e tacere" is a jolly new film about film, but also about jolly old Romania and the people inhabiting it. It looks good and is decently acted, as a young protagonist tries to make a film about the Romanian battle of independence, against the Turks, which leads him on a road of enlightenment about the people of that world. A lot of character types pop up in this morally vile Romania which bear a lot of criticism to the contemporary one as well.

What disappoints me is that subtlety is often sacrificed for clarity, with an ending so full of itself that it just undermines many of the things said and done along the way. It is undeniable that the film has moments of poignant humor and all in all manages to sketch a very true form of the ill society which rules the land, now and then, but it isn't "round" enough to be placed on the shelf it wishes to place itself.

I may be overly harsh about Caranfil's latest effort, but I do not wish to ignore the underlying themes and motifs he ties in with the story, the allegorical parallels of other stages of the world and some of the great single elements which are part of it. However it isn't enough - as far as I'm concerned - to be really smart about the things you say, if the way you say them doesn't fit.

it could be another successful film of a special Romanian director. or the return of Romanian cinema to the historical genre. or occasion to see great actors in impeccable performances. or, just, a different film. but its virtue is the status of beautiful homage. to film. to sacrifice of few idealist people. to a slice of Romania modernity. to figures who looking for change everything. it is a basket with stories. love, humor, dramas. and the beginning of Romanian cinema. the same flavor of films and making of and clashes between different visions. for me, "Restul e tăcere" has two fundamental virtues : the original portrait of the king Carol I, the splendid presence of Ioana Bulcă. and , sure, the impeccable atmosphere.