Weekend cu mama (2009) Online

A few days ago I was walking through Cora and out of curiosity I stopped at the press stand to look through some magazines. By chance, I found a book that caught my eye. I turned it over and I read the synopsis : "everything you didn't see in the movie". So I started to read a few pages.. I pulled out my phone and saved the name of the movie. Today I've had the opportunity to see it. It's exquisite. The soundtrack is a bit unprofessional at times, mainly because of a few string that sounded generated and not recorded. But besides this minor flaw, I can truly say that the journey, although a bit extreme and romantic aesthetics in it, was a very Romanian one. And it is nice to find yourself lost in the artistic beauty of a tragedy.. but also in a day to day cultural mirror. Bad habits, ignorance, mistakes, the death of family values, lack of respect, streets, filth, carelessness, loneliness at an old age, indecency.. the shallow hope of an absolution that is not consistent with reality.. All here. And more. No verbs.

I am usually not a fan of Romanian films but this one topped my expectations! The story develops around an 18-20 year old girl named Cristina (Adela Popescu). She's a drug addict. The story gets going when she meets her mother who just returned from Spain. It's a powerful drama about family relationships and past while dealing with the present.

I heard somewhere that "all Romanian films have horrible outdoor sound and no soundtrack". That may be true, but this one has a soundtrack and it's a beautiful one - no outdoor sounds. It's an enjoyable movie, I advise you to go see it.

Stere Gulea is one from the "old school" directing. And the same as the other communist by products (Sergiu Nicolaescu pops into mind) he never directed a movie Kurosawa-wise. He is just another guy who had the luck and the relations to say he is a director. He might have been an engineer or a librarian as well. So he's playing director. And the scene is quite pathetic given his age. From the outside he might have designed a bridge - the quality would be the same.

The scripting spells failure. Unless this is just another advert of "drugs are bad; don't do drugs" this won't qualify as a script. The authors never bother to interact with the depicted world, or at least they know how to hide it well. Just another fairy tale after a drinking day.

The acting is at the same level as the directing. With the notable exception of the late Dinica they are all fakes and none can make the ridiculous characters live.

And all that effort to make a collage of what the director would call "western junkie movies". The extra star is for the tech team as the light and camera are doing a rather good job. Excellent given the team and the context of late '00 Romanian movies.

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