I mean slasher cause after you see it, you reach for a razor blade to slash your wrist. When all Hollywood movies have a happy ending, Romanian movies have a "kill-myself" ending, haven't seen a single Romanian movie made after '89 that had a happy ending, oh well .. maybe "Asphalt Tango" had a quasi-happy ending.
Back on topic, Nae Caranfil manages to capture the 1911 Bucharest atmosphere very accurate. An old civilized world, without vulgar language and gratuitous violence, a time when honor and social statute where extremely important, a time when falling in disgrace of a member took the whole family down with it. Also a world on the dawn of a new era, when corruption started to spread and con-artists began to thrived.
What strikes me is that this is not a movie about making a movie, but a love story that takes place while making a movie. Its that kind of movie that makes you think about it days after you see it ! Is Emilia a lead character ? No ! Did she influenced dramatically the lives of the male lead characters ? Definitely yes ! Director Nae Caranfil manages to tell a story within a story which in my opinion this makes hes best movie, one of the best Romanian movies in fact.
One minor criticism : German soldiers, which actually where not even Germans as the caption said, they where in fact Austria-Hungarian soldiers, their uniforms looked like Wehrmacht World War II uniforms, especially the combat helmets. Austria-Hungarian helmets had a small sharp vertical spike on top of the helmet. Im not a history buff to dwell on that too much.
**** SPOILER INCOMING ****
Emilia character, played masterfully by Mirela Zeta, at first looks like its not fully developed as a character, her story has plot holes and loose ends but thats intentional, how can you portray a female character accurate when shes's lying as often as she breathes. She's not a peasant girl that lives in the city as she said in the harvest dance scene. At that time no peasant girl would dare leaving to the city and returning as she pleased without her father beating her senseless. I suspect she was a stowaway among the extras trying to get noticed as an actress by the young director or anyone in the movie industry by a matter of fact. She lies and screws everyone and with everyone that can help her achieve her goal: to become and actress. And she did became an actress, in a theater bought by Leon character for her, in a time where he dint afford that eccentricity. She has a son, who is the father ? Plot hole ? No, it doesn't matter whos the father, mostly because even she doesn't know.
Five years passes and the young director Grigore still didn't forget her. He founds a portrait of her, he takes it and he keeps it tight in hes arms like in an embrace. Definitely he loved her more than he shows throughout the whole movie, which fits very well in that age of time, when men didn't showed so transparently how they felt. He loves and hates her at the same time, which can be seen in the scene near the end when he throws a glass of water on her painting in a dual gesture: he threw a glass of water on her face first time she met her and he also threw a glass of water in her face last time he saw her, marking the beginning and the end.
Which leads to the final scene: Grigore character doesn't lie in court because Leon actions harmed her ! He lies to punish Leon because he had her.
Well done Mr. Caranfil ! Bravo !
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