I’ve just seen
Some thoughts? SPOILERS ahead!
- The acting was impeccable. I enjoyed it.
- I had various emotions during the play.
- There were some nice ways of using the environment (light, smoke, materials, food).
- I had a vivid state of hunger during the play.
- The play was very Romanian-ish.
- I could follow the play easily.
- The main themes of the book were there – cutting of the tree, the fight with the children, the funny scene in the field with the boiling beans.
- Lots of variations to the book, you should have at least have an idea of what was in it to understand some inside jokes.
- Very powerful scene with the fight with the boys (although it missed the reasoning – “I hit you because you don’t understand the efforts I put. You work for yourselves, not for me”).
- I liked a lot the usage of photographs used in cemeteries as symbols of children.
- I liked “Absolut” with Marcel Iureș better.
- Finally, on the script – Cătălin Ștefănescu does a good job on the small things – you laugh at a scene, you get very emotional at another. It impacts you. But the movie lacks the coherence of a single, big, philosophical idea. A main idea, which should follow the whole movie, isn’t there.
“Nu prea știu cum e să vorbești despre țărani într-o lume care are ”casă la țară”. Nu prea știu cum e să fii mare scriitor cînd “intri în manuale”. Sau cînd breasla te tot propune la premiul Nobel. Fiecare cultură cu mîncărurile și creatorii ei. Mi-e frică de țărani și de dramaturgia contemporană. Pe de altă parte, am vrut dintotdeauna să văd la Act o piesă cu țărani. Și, uite că am parte de ea. Mă bucur, ăsta e cuvîntul. Mă bucur de piesa lui Cătălin Ștefănescu, de fabulosul roman al lui Preda, de actorii George și Marcel. Așa e la noi, ne bucurăm de toate prostiile”.
Alexandru Dabija (more)