Philanthropique

I had the exquisite privilege to see the film's premiere and since then I've been to see it five more times. It is the best Romanian film ever made. From the script writing (plot) to acting, costumes, camera movements, editing, everything has so high a quality it acquires international value. The disadvantage of it being so Romanian may diminish a lot of its humor for foreign viewers, but there is something universal about humor that makes the bittersweet truth reach the humanity of each member of the audience rather than their nationality. It is a sour sweet satire of the contemporary Romanian society and underworld of which fiction one begins to doubt as credits start rolling.

This is for those who don't know how the director looks like: Nae Caranfil has a cameo as a Karaoke singer. Does the foreign audience applaud when there is a good scene or when the director appears in a cameo, like they did here?

What else? The Romanian film critics had designated "Filantropica" as representative for our country in Best Foreign Picture pre-nominations for the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, they didn't know much about publicity and didn't even come up with all the necessary data for the sites & all, but this does not diminish the film's value and the excuse may be that the event was a first time ever.

Are you laughing or are you crying? I dunno and this realistic view on today's life in some east European country (Romania) makes you aware that the power is in hands of those who are related to the mob. "Filantropica" tells the story of an ordinary man, a schoolteacher who writes some books in his free time (without success). He earns enough to keep himself alive but from the moment he wants something out of line (sympathy for a gorgeous looking girl) he has just one route : following the route of crime. "Filantropica" shows perfect how the mob is involved in everything, from televisionshows till the beggar on the street and it might be a very hard movie, it's a brilliant masterpiece of today's society. Absolute must!

Beautiful black humor film, which shows the system in Romania, even still today. The part of teacher Oividiu shows, how even now teachers have to fiddle to enrich their income.The young woman Diana is the personification of Romanian women who love their country and also find ways to add income, but still keep their pride, dignity and identity. They have style and grace. Diana and his wife know how to show this to the viewer.Wonderful acting. The youngsters could be from any place on this earth, they are all the same, react the same,have no identity, therefor it is great to see how Caranfil finds a great way to show the world of nothing to something. He proofs that there is character on both sides. Even the beggars get respect and in a humorous way there is a cooperation. During the film there is a symbiose between the poor and "nouveau rich" who respect and even complement each other.

This movie was highly appreciated, I belive, because of its mere content, meaning that the director Nae Caranfil puts all its talent into it and struggles to evince that Romania is a very complex and intricate country, full of contrasts and paradoxes. Caranfil is eager to make the public appreciate its creation and that can be seen several times throughout the film. iTs satisfaction is all that counts. In Filantropica, he blends comedy in drama in the very specific and contondent way which Romaniands behold as "laugh of worries and trouble". That's why this is an excellent movie. The social and psychological satire couldn't be more obviously conveyed than it is by the main character, a superficial teacher, who drggs his dull life day by day neither with a purpose, nor with a glimpse of satisfaction. But what has satisfaction become nowadays ? Does satisfaction mean money? Must you be ignorant and most of all corrupt to be happy? Under this superficial layer lies the multitude of social convictions and the chaos of a society that struggles to keep, and moreso to gain its real and unhypocrite identity, under a constant flow of foreign However the prospects are grim. Being a satirical comedy, "Filantropica" tries to put in mind of the beholders one question? Have we become so anonyme and unimportant individually that we haven't even realized it and are we constantly manipulated by social cercles beyond our reach and knowledge? We'll never know, will we? All that we can do is "laugh at our own incapacities and faults" of middle or lower class people that we are, as the great Chaplin said. So go and watch Filantropica. I became pretty damp after seeing it, realizing how useless people, specially in the ex-Comunist countries can be. But in order to reach that point of view you must first know the words of a great philosopher: Andre Malraux: "What is the human life? Nothing! But nothing worths more than a human life!". Is this the idea conveyed in "Filantropica"? You will have to judge, so go and see it and then try to answer the previous questions. Although not a great movie, it is very good and maybe it will put a differnt view of Romania to all you westerners(I don't say this disdainfully)who know it only by extreme poverty and degradation. See the film and you will understand a small, but important part of my country 8/10

I am used to Romanian movies being dark, verbally violent, poorly acted, poorly directed, wanting to shock, yet saying nothing. Most of them are like that, but not this one. This was actually a dark comedy with almost no violence. The threads of the story do end in despair, but not in tragedy, giving the viewer that "jigsaw puzzle completed" feeling.

The acting of the main characters was superb, even the extras did their job well; the script contains a too complex and interesting story to be told here, all I can say is that it's a great tale; the music gives a Romanian feel to the movie and nicely selected for this particular idea; the directing has to be good, since almost none of the actors slipped, none of the scenes made me say "Cut" :) and the movie carried me from the first scene to the last with no discrepancies.

This movie may have turned my pessimistic view of Romanian film-making around, along with "Asfalt Tango", which is a movie of the same caliber and quality (with the same great main actor ) and I am looking forward to good, watchable movies like these two, with great and original stories.