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View Full Version : Graduation (Cristian Mungiu)



Stay Puft
06-05-2017, 08:55 PM
BACALAUREAT / GRADUATION
Dir. Cristian Mungiu

http://i.imgur.com/N8ZAQbr.jpg

IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4936450/)

Stay Puft
06-05-2017, 08:58 PM
The best part of Mungiu's style is his willingness to hold a shot during conversations and allow a rhythm to develop between actors. There's an intensity to watching Romeo, for example, pleading with his daughter or attempting to explain and rationalize his motivations (and basically articulate his paternal love for her), as the conversation becomes increasingly more frustrated and sad, and so much of that is borne out of being able to read Eliza's body language. Conversely, this style can contrast the discussions of backroom dealing and corruption with a dramatically potent casualness, an everyday matter-of-factness that helps illustrate Mungiu's themes (the most shocking part to me was finding myself sympathizing with Romeo in one scene, when discussing his problems with his police officer friend, thinking of course I would help my friend out in the same situation, who wouldn't, before stepping back and going, hold on, yeah, no, because that would make us criminals lol). To this effect, Mungiu does a good job weaving a thorny and intricate web of ethical dilemmas, where the viewer can empathize with multiple viewpoints.

His style also works against him a bit, however. A long take of Romeo wandering around at night, attempting to follow a potential suspect (I won't be more specific, to avoid spoilers) doesn't really build any suspense, and just kind of drags on. Similarly, a prolonged shot of Romeo wandering into the woods and having a breakdown doesn't offer anything dramatically, and even worse, is connected to one of the film's peculiar, open ended subplots that attempt to suffuse proceedings with a Haneke-like mystery (think the VHS tapes in Caché) but ultimately just feel extraneous. The heart of the film is less corruption in Romania and more the love and sacrifice of parents for their children, and the lines they're willing to cross for them... so who really cares who tossed a stone through Romeo's window?

Pretty good, but a step down from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. I didn't see Beyond the Hills.

Peng
06-06-2017, 03:10 AM
Yeah, least favorite of the three Mungiu I have seen, but still pretty good. Not the unbearably tense tightening of the screw in 4 Weeks... or the shattering bursts that interrupt the idyll in Beyond the Hills, by the virtue of placing story's thrust in an authority figure for once. But that allows for another aspect of Mungiu's pet theme of moral compromise and societal decay, that is no less engaging in its quieter and more melancholic register. A man being chipped away at his foundation until he doesn't know where he stands anymore, right down to the last scene that can seem either relatively optimistic or deeply disquieting, both to him and to the audience. Compelling stuff. 8/10