One of the most critically acclaimed movies of the last decade is also one of the most overrated. Even though it has great cinematography and performances, the elongated sequences are dreadful and the movie requires a change of pace to be considered the great movie that so many critics praised it was. The movie deals with two friends, Otilia (Anamaria Manrica) and Gabi (Laura Vasiliu), as they decide to have an illegal abortion in Rumania during the 1980s. Nothing goes as planned and the two girls have to take things into their own measures to gather the money to pay Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov, the abortionist). The man playing Mr. Bebe is one of the most terrifying men on screen, he is subtle about his endeavours as anyone can ever wish to be, but as soon as his mask falls down we see a very evil and angry human soul, who does not care about anyone in any way possible. When he screams at Otilia at one point, the yelling penetrated me even if I had no idea what he was saying. We feel remorse for any pity we might have had of him at any point during the movie, because he is truly the personification of a self-centred arrogant man.
My main problem with the film is the pacing of it, which is also the movie's way of expressing its message. The shots are supposed to simulate real life, and the film had very extended tracking shots and long moments when nothing happens, we just see the actors. And this makes a lot of sense, and has worked in films like Elephant, and L'infant, but the lack of action in this particular film gets pretty boring. In Elephant at least the climatic scene shocks us because of its violence. Yet, by boring us, the director of 4 weeks is stating something to us. We expect something to happen, yet most of the interesting plot points happen off screen. We see the aftermath of the events, and the impact this had on the characters in the film, and realize that the actions themselves were not bad or good, it is how they took it and WHY they happened that really shook their souls. We are supposed to see the pain in their faces and realize how horrific this has been, and I perfectly well understand that, but it just got boring. The movie was very anti-climatic, and in a sense it leaves you with the sense of wanting more, of missing something by not viewing what you expect to see from a movie: the fighting, the sex scenes and the complete downfall of the person which eventually leads to maturation and evolution. I don't doubt for a second this is what the director intended: by not showing us the "climatic" scenes, he is stating a metaphor for how people in Rumania (and maybe even across the globe) have turned their back to traumatizing events, and pretended they didn't happen to just move on and go on with their life. The movie is great because it symbolizes something more: it is a movie about how we choose to forget the trauma in our lives, and yet, we never do Even if we pretend to forget what happened and not talk about it, there is still a giant white elephant in the room that changes who we are, and how we interact. By elongated long shots and tracking shots, the director is showing us life as it really is, brutal and for the most part, boring. Most people don't evolve and grow from their traumatizing events, they just pretend to forget about it, and there is a feeling of unsolved issues when they interact with people and also in us when we finish seeing the movie.
That doesn't make the movie less boring though. I can call the movie a great metaphor for condolences and worldwide neglect of violence, but in the end, that won't make the movie less boring. It may be because we are the YouTube generation and we expect the scenes to be 15 seconds long, or we expect most scenes that occur on screen to be either amusing or reveal something major of the character – and this film doesn't deliver any of that, it simply has scenes as life, because that's how life is. It's like if you followed a woman for two hours. You would get pretty bored no? Maybe not if you're a stalker, but if you're normal, probably yes. This is like the real world Rumania without editing. Of course, this is not like Russian Ark where it is just one 90 minute shot, but there are a lot of shots when nothing happens and you're just waiting. And waiting. I guess I'm not that kind of person that simply likes to watch a movie for its cinematography or acting. Maybe that means I can't concentrate as well as some people, but I like to watch stories, and stories with a lot of content for that matter.
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My main problem with the film is the pacing of it, which is also the movie's way of expressing its message. The shots are supposed to simulate real life, and the film had very extended tracking shots and long moments when nothing happens, we just see the actors. And this makes a lot of sense, and has worked in films like Elephant, and L'infant, but the lack of action in this particular film gets pretty boring. In Elephant at least the climatic scene shocks us because of its violence. Yet, by boring us, the director of 4 weeks is stating something to us. We expect something to happen, yet most of the interesting plot points happen off screen. We see the aftermath of the events, and the impact this had on the characters in the film, and realize that the actions themselves were not bad or good, it is how they took it and WHY they happened that really shook their souls. We are supposed to see the pain in their faces and realize how horrific this has been, and I perfectly well understand that, but it just got boring. The movie was very anti-climatic, and in a sense it leaves you with the sense of wanting more, of missing something by not viewing what you expect to see from a movie: the fighting, the sex scenes and the complete downfall of the person which eventually leads to maturation and evolution. I don't doubt for a second this is what the director intended: by not showing us the "climatic" scenes, he is stating a metaphor for how people in Rumania (and maybe even across the globe) have turned their back to traumatizing events, and pretended they didn't happen to just move on and go on with their life. The movie is great because it symbolizes something more: it is a movie about how we choose to forget the trauma in our lives, and yet, we never do Even if we pretend to forget what happened and not talk about it, there is still a giant white elephant in the room that changes who we are, and how we interact. By elongated long shots and tracking shots, the director is showing us life as it really is, brutal and for the most part, boring. Most people don't evolve and grow from their traumatizing events, they just pretend to forget about it, and there is a feeling of unsolved issues when they interact with people and also in us when we finish seeing the movie.
That doesn't make the movie less boring though. I can call the movie a great metaphor for condolences and worldwide neglect of violence, but in the end, that won't make the movie less boring. It may be because we are the YouTube generation and we expect the scenes to be 15 seconds long, or we expect most scenes that occur on screen to be either amusing or reveal something major of the character – and this film doesn't deliver any of that, it simply has scenes as life, because that's how life is. It's like if you followed a woman for two hours. You would get pretty bored no? Maybe not if you're a stalker, but if you're normal, probably yes. This is like the real world Rumania without editing. Of course, this is not like Russian Ark where it is just one 90 minute shot, but there are a lot of shots when nothing happens and you're just waiting. And waiting. I guess I'm not that kind of person that simply likes to watch a movie for its cinematography or acting. Maybe that means I can't concentrate as well as some people, but I like to watch stories, and stories with a lot of content for that matter.
mariofas.wordpress.com