Original Title: Babardeala cu bucluc sau porno balamuc
Year: 2021
Country: Romania, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Croatia, Switzerland, UK
Language: Romanian, English, French, Czech, Russian
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director/Screenwriter: Radu Jade
Music: Jura Ferina, Pavao Miholjevic
Cinematography: Marius Panduru
Editor: Catalin Cristutiu
Cast:
Katia Pascariu
Claudia Ieremia
Nicodim Ungureanu
Olimpia Malai
Andi Vasluianu
Alexandru Potocean
Dana Voicu
Gabriel Spahiu
Alina Serban
Alex Bogdan
Petra Nesvacilová
Rating: 7.2/10
Original Title: Nu astepta prea mult de la sfârsitul lumii
Year: 2023
Country: Romania, Luxembourg, France, Croatia, Switzerland, UK
Language: Romanian, English, German, Hungarian, Italian
Genre: Comedy
Director/Screenwriter: Radu Jude
Music: Jura Ferina, Pavao Miholjevic
Cinematography: Marius Panduru
Editor: Catalin Cristutiu
Cast:
Ilinca Manolache
Ovidiu Pîrsan
Nina Hoss
Rodica Negrea
Dorina Lazar
László Miske
Uwe Boll
Katia Pascariu
Serban Pavlu
Mariana Feraru
Daniel Popa
Alex M. Dascalu
Sofia Nicolaescu
Costel Lepadatu
Claudia Ieremia
Rating: 7.7/10
Notching up the Golden Bear in Berlin with BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN (his 7th feature film), Romanian maverick Radu Jade finally makes his mark as a major force to be reckoned with in the international cinema-scape. Mischievously playing with forms and expressions, the film opens with a provocative hardcore porno passage that roundly scoffs the prudish moral codes and expels the prim and the proper right out of the box. What ensues is a secondary school teacher’s one-woman crusade against the volley of prejudices and discriminations leveling at her after the foregoing sex tape (it is the action between her and her husband) is accidentally leaked on internet and reachable by her teen students and their parents. Her job is at stake and Emi Cilibiu (Pascariu) will not cry uncle without putting up a fight.
Structured in three parts, the first one follows Emi’s diurnal port of calls (toy shop, pharmacy, home of the school principal, etc.), who wends her way from one place to another, mostly on the streets during COVID-19 pandemic. During which Jude deliberately extends the shots after Emi disappears from the frame, staying a little bit more to reveal the consumerist aspects of the modern society. A technique stolen from Vittorio De Sica’s INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE (1953), but employed with Jude’s brilliant facility of clandestineness.
The third part is the parent-teacher conference held in the school under the crepuscular light (which gradually transforms into artificial bisexual lighting), where parents get a platform to vent their opinions about Emi’s sex tape. It is the usual debate about the moral guidelines that covering a wide-ranging topical issues, underpinned by an overarching sexism sentiment. Emi raises cogent counterarguments to her defense but the whole state of affairs is nothing more than a heated but tired mockery of the sorry state we are stuck in, aggravated by the impact of the pandemic, all poised to explode in Jude’s finishing touch, a Wonder Woman embodiment that prioritizes fanciful transgression over heuristic inspiration.
Sandwiched between the two parts is Jude’s satirical deconstruction of a sundry (political, philosophical, personal or humorous) topics and concepts, all concatenated into one delectable montage that is composed of archive footage and pictorial imagery to align with the witty interpretations (somehow bringing to mind Ambrose Bierce’s “The Devil’s Dictionary”). Such acute observance of the world at large has become Jade’s strongest suit, which he is weaponized to good use in tandem with his anarchic wit. BAD LUCK BANGING is a case in point, although its appeal is gimmicky and Emi, as a character, never stands a chance to venture out of the designation of a compelling, sympathetic mouthpiece.
Jude’s follow-up DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD also possesses a “one day in life” structure, and our protagonist is Angela (Manolache), an overworked, underpaid assistant for a ‘safety at work video’ commissioned by a multinational company, driving around in Bucharest to visit various candidates for the video (all subjects inflicted by injury at work). She also must fetch some shooting equipments on the way (a cameo by Uwe Boll, the notorious schlockmeister, who is more than happy to use brawny than words to inflict his vengeance), go to airport picking up Doris Goethe (Hoss, the imperturbable icy queen, the spokesman of corporate impersonality, she even cannot be arsed to know more about her ancestor of note, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), the company’s supervisor.
Binge-drinking pick-me-ups and fending off misogynist drivers, an overtired Angela’s only diversion is making Tiktok videos as Bobita, a Snapchat-filtered, foul-mouthed, male chauvinist personage she creates, whose subversive blatantness becomes an outlet of Angela’s grievances and disaffection. Against the über-grainy monochrome of Angela’s toil, Jude interleaves colored scenes (often ending with slow motion) of Lucian Bratu’s 1982 film ANGELA GOES ON, about a female taxi driver trying to strike out on her own in the big city, into the main narrative. A paralleled reference of the two Angelas, navigating their own existences in a society often hostile to women. Like when Angela manages to have a quickie with her lover in the vehicle, which Jude intuitively counterpoints with Angela the taxi driver’s own relationship to show the changing prospects for a woman’s autonomy.
As a homage, two leads of Bratu’s film, Dorina Lazar and László Miske, also appear here as the parents of the chosen candidate Ovidiu (Pîrsan). The film’s final part is an overlong, colored static shot of shooting the said video. Ovidiu, who is paralyzed from the waist down due to a workplace accident, is accompanied by three women, his mother, wife and daughter, to tell his story as a cautionary tale. But the rift between personal interest and corporate concerns (especially when it is shown that the hazards are still there, unimproved) soon emerges. The shooting becomes increasingly discordant, and when chromakeys are floated and utilized to save the day, Jude’s prescient warning of erased personal voice at the hand of technology advancement hits the bullseye. It makes the film’s 168 minutes worthwhile, in concert with Manolache’s two-fisted performance, bristling with rough edges and as Bobita she is definitely a hoot.
Spearheading the second generation of Romanian New Wave, Jude has asserted himself to be a versatile and off-kilter figure who can saturate the earthy realism in that distinctive aroma of scrappy insubordination and flights of fancy. A ludic provocateur with a deep-felt conscience, that is a winning card can help a filmmaker go a long way, bless you Radu Jude!
referential entries: Vittorio De Sica’s INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE (1953, 5.9/10); Cristi Puiu’s THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU (2005, 8.4/10); Costa-Gavras’s AMEN (2002, 7.9/10).
Cinema Omnivore 