Background: An estate in Romania where a wealthy family with a young son, Octav, lived until the late '40s when the USSR led communist government took over the property. Fast forward to nearly the present as that young boy now in his early '80s is essentially broke as he goes though appeals in the court system to regain the property. He comes back to sell this memory to pay off debts, and in the process meets the estate's caretaker that he knew as a boy. Importantly, memories in the form of flashbacks, especially of his father & also of a young girl, alternate w/the reality of the moment.
Left unanswered (perhaps purposefully so as to not distract from the central story): Where he & others were in the intervening years. The house is full of antiquities, oddly in pristine condition, which could be sold to pay off his debts.
11 Reviews
memories
Kirpianuscus8 October 2017
a beautiful film. like a box covered by silk paper. but this box seems be empty. the film has a lot of virtues. the cast is one of them. it has inspired music, seductive cinematography, a good name director. and one of stories who, at the first rumor, seems more than interesting. but something missing. or sound fake. or it is too well known from other films . "Wild Strawberries" is the best example. and only great virtue is a trip of viewer across his childhood memories. not bad but the feeling is than the director make this film in memory of his father. an admirable gesture. but this seems, maybe only for me, the only purpose. a form of reconciliation with the past. so, a return, a house, memories and the lost great past. and nothing more.
Pure poetry
radumarcovici8 October 2017
Slow, beautiful, emotional and almost painful... What is really remarkable in this movie is that it is a powerful trigger for your own memories. You are watching and waiting for the plot to unfold, but instead, your own life will be on the screen. You will see your childhood home, your friends, your first love, your first kiss, your friends, the backyard, the street where you were playing and so on. I have never experienced something like that in a movie theater. Beautiful! Beautiful and unique.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
alessiagould9 October 2017
You can have someone, during a Bruckner symphony, screaming inside "Oh my God, get me out of here!". Or, you can have another one exclaiming "what the hell is this" to a Mondrian painting. And, of course, you have the critics, who will tell you what to like and why. Octav is no different. Some will leave in the middle of the movie, some will tell you it was a drag, and probably the critics will say "meh, nothing new here, move along".
You should do what I did and see for yourself. And maybe you will hate it, or, like myself, will leave the movie theater filled with questions, feelings and an emotional conclusion. Yes, the one that you will not be able to articulate in words. And, after all, that conclusion is the only one I care about, every time I am watching a movie, read a novel or listen to a concert. It is all about that. What are you taking with you? What really matters to you? What will remain not after your life, but after your emotional journey? What are your memories made of?
After watching this movie, I couldn't even talk for a while. It felt like a powerful plow raked throughout the beaten ground of my own memories. Forgotten memories popped out, old feelings brought back to life, the smell of my grandfather's tobacco, the dust in the light of the attic in my childhood home, the river where I would go fishing with my father... Memories that I didn't even know I still have. How and why all of this happened, I don't know and it doesn't matter. But it was beautiful. And I will give it some time and I will go watch it again, maybe it will happen once more.
Play a piano in a barn and you will have a horrible result. Play the same piano in a concert hall and you will have a very different outcome. If you feel that you have the proper acoustic for this kind of movie, go watch it! You will resonate.
You should do what I did and see for yourself. And maybe you will hate it, or, like myself, will leave the movie theater filled with questions, feelings and an emotional conclusion. Yes, the one that you will not be able to articulate in words. And, after all, that conclusion is the only one I care about, every time I am watching a movie, read a novel or listen to a concert. It is all about that. What are you taking with you? What really matters to you? What will remain not after your life, but after your emotional journey? What are your memories made of?
After watching this movie, I couldn't even talk for a while. It felt like a powerful plow raked throughout the beaten ground of my own memories. Forgotten memories popped out, old feelings brought back to life, the smell of my grandfather's tobacco, the dust in the light of the attic in my childhood home, the river where I would go fishing with my father... Memories that I didn't even know I still have. How and why all of this happened, I don't know and it doesn't matter. But it was beautiful. And I will give it some time and I will go watch it again, maybe it will happen once more.
Play a piano in a barn and you will have a horrible result. Play the same piano in a concert hall and you will have a very different outcome. If you feel that you have the proper acoustic for this kind of movie, go watch it! You will resonate.
An old man revisits the family recently recovered property and his own childhood memories.
sanda_moroianu8 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Good acting, a good sound track and good filming should be enough to make an important film. It is not the case for "Octav".No need for a spoiler alert, since there's nothing to spoil: an old man, played by an actor who bears a keen resemblance to the director's father, music conductor Sergiu Celibidache, returns to his family's recently recovered home, in order to sell it, which he does. Period. Nothing new in superposing temporary plans, in the flash backs, or the reference to the war, without any connection or implication for the protagonist's life. Apart from the memories of lost childhood, which any of us would have when confronted with such a strong symbol as the house they lived in, there is no deeper incursion or explanation of anything in the protagonist's life; just images which are meant to imply the quality of life and origin of that family- an obvious reference to the film director... Even the children in the film are unconvincing and artificial in their acting. The script writers seem to have never heard parents talking to their children, otherwise the dialogues between Octav as a 9-10 years old and his parents wouldn't be so unconvincing and wouldn't sound so untrue! Boring and unconvincing, "Octav" appears to have sprung solely from the director's ambition to prove something about his own origins. Not enough to make this film remotely good. A special mention goes to Blue, the Border Collie trained by Bruno Icobet and to the fact that, though a Romanian film, no one in it eats soup in a tiled kitchen!
sublime experience
mitu_sebastian12 October 2017
This is indeed a beautiful movie, an exercise to see a movie with your heart and soul. No eastern European trends, finally a movie to honor this part of the world known just for the bad stuff. A great image, great music, great actors! Sublime, that is the word. Well done for discovering these two children, for sure we will see them more.
A broken movie just like the director's broken Romanian
unofficial-diana9 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Personally, I was greatly disappointed by "Octav".
The movie enjoyed tremendous publicity and marketing support across all media. Naturally, this only built up the curiosity and the expectations of the public. However, all of this excitement collapses once the movie is seen, as it does not live up to its hype.
Why? Because despite the fact that the casting includes A-list actors, only the main actor, Marcel Iures, actually gets some screen time. The rest, such as Victor Rebengiuc, Andi Vasluianu, Dana Rogoz, get to play incredibly small parts with relatively restrained screening time. Thus, the viewer does not get the chance to see a proper performance from these actors, and, more importantly, the viewer is not offered the chance to see a reasonable character development. Instead, the movie focuses only on the main character and to such a great extent that it becomes annoying and, to be honest, dull.
Moreover, the entire movie is very chopped up, segmented, broken and then confusingly reassembled. Without giving away any spoilers, I can describe the movie as a mix of various segments of the main character's life. While this is a nice technique, unfortunately, the director chose a confusing order for the segments to be patched up: he threw in present-day episodes, then childhood memories, then again present-day segments, he then mixes childhood and present-day segments, then one, incredibly random teenage segment, then again childhood, then present-day and so on. This results in a broken movie, lacking a logical structure, some easy-to-follow narrative. The effect is that the viewer is thrown into pure ambiguity and misunderstanding, becoming tired of trying to keep up with all these different segments.
Lastly, I was also left with the sensation that the director tried to milk some emotions as much as possible from some rather okay, unimpressive scenes. There is one scene where two of the characters play and laugh. Unfortunately, it goes on way beyond its natural running time, that it becomes cringe-worthy and obviously staged and unnatural. Simply put, the over-zealous desire of creating something poetic destroys the simplicity and beauty of the act. Sometimes, less is more.
All in all, the movie feels like an incipient draft which needs further work. It could have used more attention to the dialogue, more character development, improved storyline. Sadly, I was left with the impression that something better, more put-together could have been created.
The movie enjoyed tremendous publicity and marketing support across all media. Naturally, this only built up the curiosity and the expectations of the public. However, all of this excitement collapses once the movie is seen, as it does not live up to its hype.
Why? Because despite the fact that the casting includes A-list actors, only the main actor, Marcel Iures, actually gets some screen time. The rest, such as Victor Rebengiuc, Andi Vasluianu, Dana Rogoz, get to play incredibly small parts with relatively restrained screening time. Thus, the viewer does not get the chance to see a proper performance from these actors, and, more importantly, the viewer is not offered the chance to see a reasonable character development. Instead, the movie focuses only on the main character and to such a great extent that it becomes annoying and, to be honest, dull.
Moreover, the entire movie is very chopped up, segmented, broken and then confusingly reassembled. Without giving away any spoilers, I can describe the movie as a mix of various segments of the main character's life. While this is a nice technique, unfortunately, the director chose a confusing order for the segments to be patched up: he threw in present-day episodes, then childhood memories, then again present-day segments, he then mixes childhood and present-day segments, then one, incredibly random teenage segment, then again childhood, then present-day and so on. This results in a broken movie, lacking a logical structure, some easy-to-follow narrative. The effect is that the viewer is thrown into pure ambiguity and misunderstanding, becoming tired of trying to keep up with all these different segments.
Lastly, I was also left with the sensation that the director tried to milk some emotions as much as possible from some rather okay, unimpressive scenes. There is one scene where two of the characters play and laugh. Unfortunately, it goes on way beyond its natural running time, that it becomes cringe-worthy and obviously staged and unnatural. Simply put, the over-zealous desire of creating something poetic destroys the simplicity and beauty of the act. Sometimes, less is more.
All in all, the movie feels like an incipient draft which needs further work. It could have used more attention to the dialogue, more character development, improved storyline. Sadly, I was left with the impression that something better, more put-together could have been created.
OCTAV - What defines us also connects us in humanist Romanian drama
slithis-1093522 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
It's been said that nostalgia can be a wonderful—or horrible—thing; perhaps both. In the new Romanian picture OCTAV, currently breaking box office records, the legendary Marcel Iures is a penniless octogenarian who faces a personal reckoning upon unexpectedly revisiting the formative experiences of his youth.
In a mood piece that says it is never too late to go home again, director Serge Ioan Celebidachi (Taming the Apex) has fashioned a contemplative, thoughtful picture charting mysterious, dual evocations of childhood and late-life, and how they are inextricably linked.
Picture opens when penniless Octav (Iures) regains possession of the pastoral country home of his youth, a longtime state-owned property, and returns to the countryside with the intention to quickly unload the property to new buyers. But the past, which comes flooding back, simply will not allow a speedy transaction.
Upon arriving at the remote manor, two ghosts of another time almost immediately return; one material, the other not. While Octav receives a warm welcome from caretaker Spiridon (the great Victor Rebengiuc), his adolescent confidant, he's surprised to be visited by the dream-like visage of a long-forgotten first love, Ana (Alessia Tofan), a vision of childhood innocence and invitation to return to a simpler time. For aging Octav, reconciliation is in order, but first he must revisit a handful of formative experiences.
These include the re-emergence of Octav's childhood band of friends, and sure-handed Celebidachi captures the games, routines and spirit of youthful zeal in a manner reminiscent of Bergman's classic FANNY & Alexander, delivering a portrait of childhood as an eternal playground, until it can no longer be. As it always is in classic period pieces, parental discord and the call of war are never far away, nor is loss of innocence.
That pivotal turning point arrives too soon with the untimely death of his beloved artist mother (Lia Bugnar), a celebrated painter, but not before she can imbue an important life lesson about the soul of an artist in a richly written scene suggesting a conversation Octav has attempted to make sense of across his long life.
Octav's father (Ioan Andrei Ionescu) is a notable pianist who treats both Octav and young Spiridon as equals in the house, an artist's enclave of sorts, complete with an elaborate music room adorned by string instruments. In a masterful late moment, father consoles son with a delicate monologue equating musical notes with the beats of a human life.
The poignant screenplay, co-written by James Olivier and Celebidachi, eschews traditional plotting and, like life, doesn't conform to the dictates of a three-act structure. Instead, it takes its time unfolding in unexpected ways, which include significant passages taking place inside Octav's memories and liberal crosscutting between eras, expertly woven by editor Mircea Olteanu. What Olivier and Celebidachi are getting at with OCTAV is the universal axiom that as far as we may go in life, we are defined by our early experiences and burying them, or perhaps moving past them, leaves us incomplete.
As Octav experiences sense memories and triggers—parental influences, lifelong friends, joys and sorrows—he arrives at scene of subtle truth, eloquently spoken in delicate scene of finality between adult and child. We can move forward, the screenplay tells us, but only if we know where we have been and what it has meant.
International star Iures, significantly aged for the role, has the challenging job of conveying Octav's inner life in the smallest of emotional beats. It is a quiet performance of subtle calibration and a less-is-more portrait giving voice to reflection and its relationship to wisdom gained. Watching Iures filter and re-filter Octav's life events in close-up is absorbing, and no easy task for any actor, delivering, in the smallest of expressions, the meaning of sometimes wordless scenes.
Executive producer Cristina Dobritoui and producer Adela Vrinceanu Celebidachi have mounted the handsome production in the sprawling Bucharest Film Studios and on location outside Câmpulung, near Romania's Carpathian Mountains. And while the picture largely confines the present-day action to Octav's home and its surrounding grounds, recesses of memory and imagination suggest a vastness to the environs.
And the great Italian DP Blasco Giurato's painterly 35mm compositions employ a shifting color palette evoking both the romance of adolescence and sobering realities of adulthood. Giruato, who knows a thing or two about rendering idyllic childhoods on screen (he lensed the Oscar-winning CINEMA PARADISO), polishes the picture's time frames and moods with alternating sheens of gloss and grit.
Culturally, OCTAV is a picture that attempts to recast the notion of the Romanian film as far more universal and less grim than recent outings from noted filmmaker Christian Mungui, who specializes in admittedly powerful yet bleak morality plays with no winners, and less hope. By contrast, OCTAV takes an accessibly humanist view of our universal experience and that of the Romanian people—we all live, feel, remember and move forward in life, and how we come to terms with the formative events we experience is what defines us, and connects us.
In a mood piece that says it is never too late to go home again, director Serge Ioan Celebidachi (Taming the Apex) has fashioned a contemplative, thoughtful picture charting mysterious, dual evocations of childhood and late-life, and how they are inextricably linked.
Picture opens when penniless Octav (Iures) regains possession of the pastoral country home of his youth, a longtime state-owned property, and returns to the countryside with the intention to quickly unload the property to new buyers. But the past, which comes flooding back, simply will not allow a speedy transaction.
Upon arriving at the remote manor, two ghosts of another time almost immediately return; one material, the other not. While Octav receives a warm welcome from caretaker Spiridon (the great Victor Rebengiuc), his adolescent confidant, he's surprised to be visited by the dream-like visage of a long-forgotten first love, Ana (Alessia Tofan), a vision of childhood innocence and invitation to return to a simpler time. For aging Octav, reconciliation is in order, but first he must revisit a handful of formative experiences.
These include the re-emergence of Octav's childhood band of friends, and sure-handed Celebidachi captures the games, routines and spirit of youthful zeal in a manner reminiscent of Bergman's classic FANNY & Alexander, delivering a portrait of childhood as an eternal playground, until it can no longer be. As it always is in classic period pieces, parental discord and the call of war are never far away, nor is loss of innocence.
That pivotal turning point arrives too soon with the untimely death of his beloved artist mother (Lia Bugnar), a celebrated painter, but not before she can imbue an important life lesson about the soul of an artist in a richly written scene suggesting a conversation Octav has attempted to make sense of across his long life.
Octav's father (Ioan Andrei Ionescu) is a notable pianist who treats both Octav and young Spiridon as equals in the house, an artist's enclave of sorts, complete with an elaborate music room adorned by string instruments. In a masterful late moment, father consoles son with a delicate monologue equating musical notes with the beats of a human life.
The poignant screenplay, co-written by James Olivier and Celebidachi, eschews traditional plotting and, like life, doesn't conform to the dictates of a three-act structure. Instead, it takes its time unfolding in unexpected ways, which include significant passages taking place inside Octav's memories and liberal crosscutting between eras, expertly woven by editor Mircea Olteanu. What Olivier and Celebidachi are getting at with OCTAV is the universal axiom that as far as we may go in life, we are defined by our early experiences and burying them, or perhaps moving past them, leaves us incomplete.
As Octav experiences sense memories and triggers—parental influences, lifelong friends, joys and sorrows—he arrives at scene of subtle truth, eloquently spoken in delicate scene of finality between adult and child. We can move forward, the screenplay tells us, but only if we know where we have been and what it has meant.
International star Iures, significantly aged for the role, has the challenging job of conveying Octav's inner life in the smallest of emotional beats. It is a quiet performance of subtle calibration and a less-is-more portrait giving voice to reflection and its relationship to wisdom gained. Watching Iures filter and re-filter Octav's life events in close-up is absorbing, and no easy task for any actor, delivering, in the smallest of expressions, the meaning of sometimes wordless scenes.
Executive producer Cristina Dobritoui and producer Adela Vrinceanu Celebidachi have mounted the handsome production in the sprawling Bucharest Film Studios and on location outside Câmpulung, near Romania's Carpathian Mountains. And while the picture largely confines the present-day action to Octav's home and its surrounding grounds, recesses of memory and imagination suggest a vastness to the environs.
And the great Italian DP Blasco Giurato's painterly 35mm compositions employ a shifting color palette evoking both the romance of adolescence and sobering realities of adulthood. Giruato, who knows a thing or two about rendering idyllic childhoods on screen (he lensed the Oscar-winning CINEMA PARADISO), polishes the picture's time frames and moods with alternating sheens of gloss and grit.
Culturally, OCTAV is a picture that attempts to recast the notion of the Romanian film as far more universal and less grim than recent outings from noted filmmaker Christian Mungui, who specializes in admittedly powerful yet bleak morality plays with no winners, and less hope. By contrast, OCTAV takes an accessibly humanist view of our universal experience and that of the Romanian people—we all live, feel, remember and move forward in life, and how we come to terms with the formative events we experience is what defines us, and connects us.
Thank you, Octav!
danaandreescu13 October 2017
Thank you, Octav! Thank you for offering such a Great film to Romanian people. Romania really needs such a Masterpiece!
My soul is full of Gratitude; I am feeling now closer to everything that means the Beauty of Life! I've rediscovered myself as More Beautiful Romanian Woman and I am proud of this Beautiful Octav Romanian Film! Thank you!
My soul is full of Gratitude; I am feeling now closer to everything that means the Beauty of Life! I've rediscovered myself as More Beautiful Romanian Woman and I am proud of this Beautiful Octav Romanian Film! Thank you!
Just vindictive rhetoric.
teodorg-830-61368228 April 2019
What a pity that big actors like Iures and Rebengiuc have accepted to play in this movie. The image is interesting, the actors are known to be very good, but the lines are so dull, that it s hard to watch it to the end.
Fantastic, pure poetry.
incrediblepiggame17 February 2023
Rarely it happens for me to be amazed and even less to get to that point when I (almost) cry.
This movie did it. Sent me back directly to my childhood and took me in a fantastic journey trough some blurry yet shiny and sublime memories.
Yes, this movie is not for everyone and is not a movie to watch but rather feel. Also is probably best understood by a native Romanian speaker although probably it won't matter that much. However, once you have had those kind of memories, a movie like this can only work like a catalys and boost everything to sublime. I'm not overstating it. This film is a masterpiece, played masterfully by some of the best actors I know with a beautifully made cinematography and an extremely touching story. A masterpiece, indeed.
This movie did it. Sent me back directly to my childhood and took me in a fantastic journey trough some blurry yet shiny and sublime memories.
Yes, this movie is not for everyone and is not a movie to watch but rather feel. Also is probably best understood by a native Romanian speaker although probably it won't matter that much. However, once you have had those kind of memories, a movie like this can only work like a catalys and boost everything to sublime. I'm not overstating it. This film is a masterpiece, played masterfully by some of the best actors I know with a beautifully made cinematography and an extremely touching story. A masterpiece, indeed.
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