Asphalt Tango

A group of stripper entertainers decide to leave Bucharest and take a private bus to Paris where they hope to find excitement and a good living. Dora, a housewife decides to join the dancers on their two year contract. Andrei, the husband decides to chase her along the highway and bring her back to Bucharest. Such is the flimsy story. What could perhaps be a journey of adventure turns out to be a pretty dull affair. The two men in charge of the bus hope to make some sexual conquests while on the road, but it is the husband who eventually commands the attention of the pretty girls. The actors struggle with a boring script and the overall result is most disappointing. I always look for good points about a film but in this case I cannot find any except perhaps to say that the girls are physically attractive. Unfortunately, a movie needs more than this to survive a reviewer's critical assessment.

A film of its time. Spicy subject, the presence of Charlote Rampling, the humor, Mircea Diaconu in a role who represents yours for excellence. Illusion of freedom and money and foreign eccentric life. Slices of Romania. And a jealous hhusband. More than a film, like many others after 1989, a sort of testimony or exorcism. Nice. But, today, unconvincing.

I don't believe that you must be a romanian to understand this movie. Yes, the economical and social situation is pretty bad, but there are some that remain uncorrupted and with a clean conscience. Of course, after 50 years of communism, everybody wants to open up a business and that's natural. Don't forget to be human and don't forget that there are some things more important in life than money and fame: love, loiality, compassion, spirit of sacrifice and so on. As a conclusion i would say everybody gets what he deserves - if you are a pig you will live like one, no matter how much money you do have...

Romanians use to call the period after the fall of the communism in 1989 'the transition'. A time of change of course, but also and mostly a time of confusion. Woken up from the sleep of the dictatorship and repression, the majority of the Romanian had a hard time to adapt to a world that has progressed ahead for decades, and fell into cynicism and despair seeing corruption and demagogy dominating many aspects of the national and day-to-day life. Many of the younger people found the solution in leaving Romania, and the story of this film traces the road from Bucharest to the Western border of Romania of such a group of young women who signed up for a contract as striptease dancers and entertainers in France.

Transition created a genre in the Romanian cinema, and this film realized a decade ago by director Nae Caranfil is a transition film by itself. On one hand we do find many of the features of the older (and not very successful) Romanian cinema, with the tendency for character comedy and very much based on the talent of popular actors. On the other hand we can detect first signs of what will become a few years later 'the new Romanian vague' with the accent on subtle social commentary, with the cynicism of the newly learned freedom, with the comic moments sliding into sarcasm rather than cheap effects.

It is also fascinating to see two so different stars, coming from such different acting schools like Charlotte Rampling and Mircea Diaconu facing one another. The abyss between their styles is the abyss between their worlds, and the efforts of communication beyond words bring them eventually together into appreciation. 'Asphalt Tango' is an imperfect and transitory film and a transitory period, but is certainly a snapshot not only of the recent history of Romania, but also of the evolution of the Romanian cinema.

This film has nothing of the Hollywood recipe about how to make a good selling movie. You want to see a cool hero, a powerful love story, a terrible disaster, some creatures from outer space or a juicy blonde ? Well there isn't any of these in Asphalt Tango. What I discovered instead was an excellent movie which makes you learn something about a different culture. We sometimes have to imagine that somewhere on this planet there are people which have a different way of thinking, which is not necessarily worse because it isn't our own.

The director did a great job in showing all the different sides of the main characters, the way they are changed by the efforts they are making to integrate a new way of life, an always-changing-never-working economical system. Some characters just cannot accept the new realities and remain the same, others become jackals looking for a new prey. They sometimes act strangely from the outsider's point of view, our point of view, who just can't understand them.

A good scene describing this idea is the one where the French agent, Marion wants to take a decision, and the Romanian guide tells her that he was the only one capable of doing that job because "I am born in this f**ing country and I know how it works !!!"

The movie is also very funny, all the situations have an amusing side and a serious one, it is up to you to decide what do you want to see. Either way, I loved this movie a lot !