Nunta muta (2008) User Reviews

Surprisingly good

[Mihnea_aka_Pitbull · 8/10 · 15 November 2008]

The script is full of good ideas and intentions, all in all about half-fulfilled: the story-line is somewhat linear, and lacking many of the important joints of a well articulated scenario - but, on the positive side, it's entertaining and rich in content, able to combine into a well balanced recipe the tragedy and comedy.

To my extremely agreeable surprise, Horatiu proved himself a true director. All his hesitations and uncertainties are of the "inherent to a debut" type - and remarkably few in number. Definitely, he shows a good critical sense, trimming away many of the script's faults, or even speculatively converting them into positive qualities. Further, he has a powerful visual sense, and a solid capacity of synthesis.

One has commented about the movie's "theatralism" - it deliberately departs realism, by recourse to many stylish exaggerations, significant and expressive as such, but of an unlikelihood bordering impossibility. So it is, but this seeming failure remained only one step away of being converted into what it actually purported to be: a daring mean of expression, in the best vein of elaborated style. It would have been enough to insist a bit more on the present-day mayor's narrative about the depicted happenings, stressing the fact that everything is seen through the distorting lens of one's own affective memory.

Still, it's undeniable that Horatiu creates a world of its own, bringing it to focus with extreme expressiveness... It's hard to forget the tasteful beauty of the erotic scenes - topped by the splendid image of Meda Victor being literally "drowned in wheat" by Alex Potocean's thrusts. And the top-scene, the "Mute Wedding" itself, arrives to be a successful tour de force. Definitely, it's a movie to be seen - and savored with relish.

Nothing breaks the celebration

[LazySod · 9/10 · 22 June 2009]

A small town. A happy young couple about to be wed. A tight community ready to celebrate this happy event. All is well. Until a number of militant communists enter the town to declare a period of national mourning after the death of the party leader. After that the wedding party is forbidden and the community searches for a way to have it go on anyway. The solution is as dared as inventive as fun: the feast will go on but everything, including the music, will be in mime.

And so starts one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time - the lives of the people, the loving community and the vividly happy pair are all somewhat pressured by the need to be silent, but are all still there oh so very clearly. As events roll on it is clear that the fun will not last forever, but it is as good as it can be while it is there.

And there it is: a tragicomedy about the right event, at the wrong time, all wrapped in a long back flash which in my eyes is only added to the film to lengthen it a bit. It could have been somewhat better if that part had not been there and the actual wedding party had been done longer. But it's still a great film and it adds a good warmth to the heart.

9 out of 10 silenced laughters

profound feeling !

[aroma444-102-803752 · 9/10 · 24 December 2017]

Perfect cinema ,good laughs with deep profound feeling, the great of this movie is not long only one hour and a half masterpiece especially at the second half,watch it never miss it

fabulous movie

[dana-franti · 10/10 · 16 December 2008]

For me this movie was of a great impact. I left the cinema and have not been able to say a word for more than 15 minutes. I was fascinated. It gave me a deep, profound feeling of genuine art, with incredible complex features gathered together in these 90 minutes of displayed images. A lot of meaning - I am sure for non-Romanians has not the same amount of meaning - and an authentic way of touching the most sensitive parts of the Romanian people, with humor on the most critical aspects of the most absurd time, the communist time of Romania. Malaiele is a great artist, but this film is his masterpiece. I highly recommend you to watch this movie. It is not just a movie, it is a lifetime experience.

One of the best movies I have ever seen

[andreeeei · 10/10 · 23 November 2008]

This is maybe the best movie I have seen. It made me get an IMDb account to rate it 10 stars. I don't care about technical judgments about this movie. It's a Romanian emotional roller-coaster which pictures our recent history in a tragical and comical frame. It's one of the few movies I have ever watched at the cinema where at the end of which lots of people applauded. Romanians are recognizing themselves in the story and they find coherence in their identity and this makes the movie a masterpiece and a great service to the people of this country.

One more thing that I appreciate in this movie is a reparation done within the history of the subjective experience. People from the village were at best ignoring communists and poking fun of them if they were not hating them. Nobody was happy to give away their land and village men knew what communism can bring, since they saw it with their own eyes when they fought on the Eastern front.

Most people hated communism and they tried to live a normal life in silence, just like it happens in the movie. Humor was maybe the best survival resource.

I live in Romania and I know from personal experience and thorough study what Russians did bring under the name of communism. I don't try to convince anyone that the so called communism was criminal and implemented locally with the help of the weakest links (like in the movie), low educated people with low morals, since there is enough literature today for anyone that has any doubt. Of course, as somebody mentions here, Romanians too did their horrible crimes on the Eastern front, but this does not mean that what the people like the ones in the movie endured, did any kind of humane justice. The people that fought on the Eastern front are a good source, since they were regular soldiers, not vicious criminals and even if they were vicious criminals, they could anyway still have seen the "benefits" that "communism" has brought to Russia.

I understand why some people consider it propagandistic, but in my view this is a good artistical work upon the subjective experience and life of ordinary Romanians in 1953.

A truly great experience into the moving pictures

[taff89 · 10/10 · 1 May 2009]

Tonight, 1st of May 2009, I have been invited to the Ratiu Foundation's Film Festival in London to see the film. Reviews from Romania came as a poor film, with a simple matter not well directed. I have to say that I've had the best cinematic experience in years. Malaele's film is truly a masterpiece, in directing actors as well as in his choice of cutting and music and everything that anyone would want to see. If some voices call it a copy of Kusturica's films I gotta say that is 10 times better, because on top of a colorful cast he also has acting, drama, tragedy, and comedy at the top of his sarcastic lungs. Malaele is a master in film that needs to be praised, and he needs nothing more of my words. All he needs now is his recognition that I as a Romanian director would give him with all my heart: I wish I could do a film like that!

It made me proud

[alice_imk2005 · 10/10 · 15 July 2010]

An incredible tragicomedy, which brings tears into one's eyes, both of laughter and grief.

The film appeals to the whole set of emotions a person can feel. It embraces the Romanian spirit into its smallest details and its deepest inherent leitmotifs, from the town's mute to the town's whore, from the typical Romanian town saloon to the typical Romanian wedding. Sudden transitions from funny situations to tragic ones and back to comical throughout the film give you a roller-coaster sensation. And all this is 'garnished' with apparitions of death represented as a bride, inserted in the most discreet way possible. These apparitions are the only clue that you receive about the ending. And you don't need more.

All I can say is this film made me proud of Romanian cinematography.

The silence remains.

[letitialeti-1 · 7/10 · 11 February 2009]

There will be others, I hope- since Malaele did such a good job with this first film of his.

The movie tells more than it just shows, even if the story is just a little bit loose in places. The essence permeates just fine and the strong symbolism it uses (like in the wedding silent feast or the silly mute comedy scenes), all the thick strokes still leave room for subtleties and interpretation.

It naturally flows from the savorous comedy bucolical scenes towards the dark drama at the end. It may very well be regarded as a critique of the Romanian capacity to adapt, our viral submissiveness that can make us just go with the wave, instead of reacting and fighting back. The amenability slowly mutates into fear and corruption. As a matter of fact, didn't we all leave with the circus? We let it control our lives and dictate the rules, we just accepted the yoke and the satire stopped doing the magic trick at some point.

Dead and buried, but the communism still wanders around. There are still uprooted people for which the absence is a state of being. People like the quiet mourners, who cannot meet today's society and it's new coutumes without the presence of the dis consideration depicted in the final scene.

Humanity, not comedy or drama

[andrei1981-1 · 10/10 · 16 October 2009]

The easiest way to tell if a movie is good or bad is to look at the comments and see how many people really understand the message; for this movie very few people did, which confirms the fact that we are indeed dealing with a very artistic and highly complex film. It was painful to read all the garbage written by some reviewers before me, and it appears very clearly that they understand very little the spirit of the 1950s as it was superbly encapsulated by this film. A lesson of history and less brainwash by contemporary politically correctness will certainly help understand this movie properly. It is not about a wedding, it is not about a village wiped out, or about communists, it is about historical destiny and humanity. Those who have seen beyond the comedy understand what I mean by that. The rest of you should really stick to shallow movies, because anything beyond that will confuse you unnecessarily.

SILENT WEDDING, although errs on the side of its own militancy, lands on its feet in its grassroots advocacy and comedic appeal

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 29 January 2018]

Actor-turned-director Horatiu Malaele's debut feature, jumping on the bandwagon of Romanian New Wave movement in the noughties, SILENT WEDDING abandons itself to its categorically anti-Soviet ideologue nearly at the expense of a galvanizing story.

The frame story is set in the present day Romania, a TV crew specializing in paranormal stories, arrives in a desolate area used to be a Communist factory, affected by a spine-tingling frisson whipped up by the presence of a ghostly bride and the remnant old women-in-black there, a witness recounts the harrowing extirpation of the village to build the factory in 1953, the year when Joseph Stalin died.

A joyous and rumbustious flashback makes heavy weather about its bucolic landscape and community, peopled by foul-mouthed but overall congenial countryfolk, amongst which a pair of young lovers Mara (Andreea Victor) and Iancu (Potocean) are going to get married (their mutual orgasm is rendered in exhilarating high pitch). Concomitantly Malaele threads farcical episodes of Communist party recruitment (highlighted by slo-motion and slapstick antics) into the through-line, where an event of open-air cinema is interrupted by a passing circus, whose own hilarity is sequentially, abruptly bookended by a tragic death of a young village girl (implied at the hands of a Russian type) and the departure of Iancu's best friend, the homunculus Sile (Palin).

On that wedding day, bad tidings is brought by a Soviet officer that due to the death of Stalin the night before, the whole country is entering a 7-days mourning, wedding is forbidden, anyone who revolts will be executed with high treason. Thus, it triggers the "silent wedding", a weighty defiance against authoritarianism, the film reaches its winning apotheosis in the collectively endeavored cooperation to not make any jarring noise in their covert celebration, including using cloth-wrapped glasses, eating with one's hands instead of crockery, miming and mouthing wedding toasts, the wedding band playing silently and a chucklesome message-passing skit, et.al., until a final moment of liberation that sounds their death knell, the authority is as good as his words.

That theatrical kicker (embellished with a surreal touch), to some degree, negates the film's prior effort of ingenuity by veering into an easy route to meet its prefigured perdition and its wraith-of-the-past coda. An anomaly repulsing the post-Cold War ethos, SILENT WEDDING, although errs on the side of its own militancy, lands on its feet in its grassroots advocacy and comedic appeal.

All I can say is that I can't stop thinking about this movie...

[woinaroschy_1979 · 8/10 · 15 March 2011]

It's difficult to describe the feelings I had when watching this movie..I'm not sure if this movie is intended for all types of audiences, I think some people will be bored or dislike the plot altogether.

As some reviewers have already mentioned, the movie is not objective. In it, communists and Russians are described as invaders and oppressors...but the viewer has to understand that just as Germans are depicted as cruel Nazis in all the WWII movies about concentration camps, like "Schindels list" or "Sophies choice", here the Russians are seen as the cruel invaders by the inhabitants of a small Romanian village in the aftermath of WWII. One has not to forget that this is a story set in a specific time and place.

I can't describe to you how funny this movie is at points, the dialog and word games are brilliant and reflect the whole genius of Horatiu Malaele. You find yourself rooting for the characters and going through the motions with them, through good and bad. I can't honestly say that the movie is a masterpiece, neither plot nor acting isn't Oscar material...but then, since seeing it, which was about 8 months ago, I can't keep it out of my head because it made a really strong impression on me. I don't exactly understand why or how, but there is something deeply human, tragic and beautiful in it that just won't be denied. A friend asked me which movie had made an impression on me lately, and I was myself surprised when I did not answer "Black Swan" but "Silent Wedding". Not to diss "Black Swan", which I thought indeed Oscar worthy...but I guess this really says something about this movie.

Alegoric.

[horvatherika · 16 June 2019]

Allegory for the Soviet conquest in Romania. A conquest of minds not only of soil.

8/10

politicaly explicit, so you love it or you hate it!

[denpolites · 7/10 · 27 November 2010]

Unfortunaly the film has a very clear anticommunist message, so the discussion about politics prevails. Most comments I read face the film this way. As about me:I could understand the way the winners face the history, but I think its a shortcoming to be so one-sided. The communists are depicted like idiots, the Soviets like monsters. Of course this is not an historic documentary, it's art, but it makes it difficult for a viewer to accept pure propaganda. Now regarding the artistic virtues: I found it very good, very much alike Kusturicha's films, but a better version of them. The directing is skillful, and the acting quite good. Some scenes are of extravagant beauty. It also gives an idea of the Romanian spirit and soul, but as I wrote above the political message doesn't allow for a non-objective evaluation.

Good idea.

[juventen · 4/10 · 3 March 2009]

I've seen this movie in a pact theater , something that doesn't happen to often in Romania. The mood was great and I had a good feeling about this movie. I am sorry to say I was wrong.

It's certainly worth a look.But … I didn't like the movie…yes it was funny, it had a great,terrific story to tell, great cast! A decent budget, big for Romania, looks great, sounds OK... but as much as I love Horatiu Malaiele, I think this movie needed a better director.

Good story, but the way it was told was weak. The acting was not perfect, something that isn't OK, from such a cast, you expect a great performance, it wasn't bad, but should have been perfect.

The silent wedding scene is great, very funny, and the Highlight of the movie. The bad part is, that this isn't a funny movie, but it's built as one. This movie is a tragedy, and more then that, it's based on a true tragedy. It is impossible to get close to any of the characters, so it is impossible to really feel that last scene, the scene that should have been heartbreaking… the way this film was made, that last part of the movie doesn't mean anything.

Great idea of making you laugh and joyful then making you cry. Made me laugh , but couldn't possibly make anyone cry. This was a decent movie, should have been a lot better… it had a lot more in it. In the end it had a very Romanian feel about it, but of a higher Quality.

My score for it: About 6.8 IMDb average, 3.5/10 my score.

A very good debut for Malaele!!!

[dj_pleata2007 · 9/10 · 9 November 2009]

This is a comment dedicated to setting things straight about the way this movie was filmed.It is the very first movie directed by Horatiu Malaele,please try to keep that in mind before watching it and complaining about some inconsistencies in the story line.I would very much like to see if Spielberg or Hitchcock did better in their first movies.It is not a masterpiece,nor the best description of the period, granted,but it is touching and the characters manage to grow on you if you just give this movie a chance.

The story is simple,placed in a period that is not as well known of the communist period in Romania,after the WW2,when Russian troops still occupied the country.

The movie begins with a present day filming crew that wants to make a movie about the paranormal activities reported in a village.The village mayor takes them to the site where these reports occur and on the way he begins to tell the story of what had happened there a long time ago.

The movie flashes back to 1950 and presents the everyday lives of the people living there and,in particular,the lives of Mara and Iancu,two youngsters that decide to get married.The rest of the movie presents what problems they encounter on their wedding day.

I was particularly impressed with the movie because of the stories my grandfather told about this period and the fact that this movie presents several aspects that coincide with what he said.

I'll give it a 9 because it is a good first movie for a new director and the story is well written and the characters perform true to life.

Lovely

[sergiutns · 10/10 · 28 September 2020]

You must be a little bit romanian to understand the whole message. Interesting movie about family life. Great work !

the disappearance of a world

[dromasca · 8/10 · 10 May 2011]

I have known Horatiu Malaele as one of the young and gifted actors of the Romanian theater. Having left Romania 26 years ago I could see him now and then in movies or theater in TV, and heard only sporadic news about other directions he developed in - stage director, theater manager, satiric cartoons artist. Now I could see his first tentative as a movie director, and it is more than satisfying and certainly much more than just a debut. Make no mistake, this film does not look like the 'minimalistic' style films of the younger and better known generation of Romanian directors, it is more theatrical and inspired from classical Romanian literature in conception and looks deeper back into the history of Romania.

The story written by Malaele and satiric author and playwright Adrian Lustig is set in the year 1953, the year of the death of Stalin and is supposed to happen around the time Stalin died, although by a decision that could not have been unintentional the action is set in summertime (allowing for a few beautiful countryside takes) while Stalin died on March 5th that year. In a Romania occupied by the Russian army, the traditional agriculture based on private property and way of life of the Romanian peasants fights a war without chances with the Communist economy and ideology imposed by the occupier. A wedding needs to happen, and what should have been a normal event in the course of life becomes a confrontation between two worlds, as no joy and no noise is allowed while the whole planet is supposed to be in grieving for the loss of the Father of the Peoples. The ending is inevitable and symbolic.

Malaele and Lustig are not extremely careful with the historical details - I mentioned the date mismatch - but they are extremely true in building a set of characters which are full of color, nuances and humor - a kind of combination of the Romanian literature types encountered in the works of Caragiale and Marin Preda - who by themselves build a world that disappeared and to which this film tries to be a homage. The critic can be made that the negative characters are too schematic, the Communists and the Russian officers look like B-movie villains, but this seems to be intentional again, as the authors seem to say that the whole system that swapped Eastern Europe looked like a bad movies inspired villain system.

There are many scenes to remember in this film, which in its best moments reminds the movies of Kusturica at their best. Of course the wedding scene itself is fit for movies anthologies, but I will also keep in mind for long the scene of the screening of the propaganda film in the village, and the closing that gives to the whole movie a different perspective and a supplementary dimension. The team of actors does a very good job, with Meda Andreea Victor shining over all in the role of the bride.

I do not know if this was supposed to be a singular tentative in the multiple directions the career of Horatiu Malaele is taking, or whether he plans to continue with other films as director. If he does I will look forward to his future films.

There is more to the story than your eyes can see

[alexandrufilioreanu-36597 · 9/10 · 11 November 2021]

Before i even start the review, I do need to say that there are a few people around here that either don't get the idea of the movie or they have some love towards communism in such a way that they review the movie as a 1/10 just because it does not fit their politic agenda or their "real" history facts learnt in, what i'm pretty sure to have been, communist schools.

Anyway's I'm giving this movie a 9/10. Nothing is perfect but this comes close to actually reaching.

The movie describes perfectly a post-war Romanian village with it's goods and bads. Some people might see the language portrayed in the movie as vulgar, but this quite similar to the day to day language that was used at the time and also nowadays by the people.

During the movie, at times, the story seems to split up but I see this just as a reminder of other elements in the Romanian culture.

Like the interest people show to the circus, the priest not showing any concern in speaking about a wedding after a funeral, or the myth of the "strigoi" or "vampire". Although this might not seem connected at first, the movie is using all this elements to paint a picture of the traditions and beliefs that you could have found in a romanian village at that point in time, as well as showing what were considered the most important thing in society - when talking about marriage and the marriage ceremony.

The movie also has political elements included. No wonder we can see the soviet union emblem on the poster.

Some few people in these reviews were saying that the Romanian Army committed horrible acts while fighting on the eastern front. I won't say that they did not. But the difference is that when the romanian army was pushed to fight the russians, they were enemies. When the russians were on romanian soil, they were supposed to be allies.

Yes, the russian army has done some nasty things when they arrived in Romania, and that memory lives even today and the reason for that is perfectly encapsulated in the end of this movie. The movie is not propaganda, but will remind us of a history that some want to be forgotten.

Overall, this comedy-drama made me curious with it's beginning, made me laugh with the development of the story, made me hope that everything will be alright for the characters, made me sad when it was implied all the men were killed, made me remember the past.

Do not forget guys, this is inspired by a real story!

In march 1953 a silent wedding took place. All the men were captured and deported for their defiance to the "mourning order". The groom returned after 13 years, and died home.

great

[Kirpianuscus · 26 November 2016]

it is the only word who could be used about this film. because it represents the best way to remind/present so painful , delicate events from the East than other manner is more than risky. it is a film about dictatorship. about fear, hope and about beginning. about courage and community. about the absurd who defines ordinary people life. and about survive. a film by a remarkable actor who use his laws and nuances and sketches of his experience of performer for do his so personal film. it reminds Kusturica but the theme and the subtle style to give the right image of a dark period does it unique. because it is a profound Romanian film. and this fact does it universal. because , in fact, it is a history lesson. honest, clear, using the most strong, convincing bitter humor. it preserves the taste of Urmuz, Eugene Ionesco or popular jokes under the Communist regime. and this does it a real masterpiece.

More theatrical and allegoric than the subject warrants

[cix_one · 6/10 · 20 November 2016]

The director is a well known-Romanian stage actor, and the movie (his directorial debut) shows it - or suffers from it, depending on your point of view. The subject of the picture is inspired from a true and painful story of repression under communism. The story is told with humor, but many times the humor is over the top, cheapening somewhat the tragedy that swept over the Eastern block after the second world war.

The movie is framed as a fantasy/allegory the director and his crew take a few liberties with the script. The editing however is a bit sloppy (modern cars showing in the background in the field scene, mike booms cutting into the frame) and that left me with a tinge of disappointment.

On the bright side, the director's brilliance as an artist shines through in many scenes, such as one in which he masterfully and seamlessly weaves in a silent black and white comedy scene in the best Laurel and Hardy tradition.

Wow!

[anateora-1 · 9/10 · 27 February 2011]

I'm surprised, because i liked this movie. I don't usually like romanian movies: are too sad, too ugly, trivial...but this one....it's different. It has a nice and consistent plot, the actors are great (well known theatre actors)and wedding scene is fantastic. It's so good! You'll laugh without control! The translation should be very good otherwise the movie will be spoiled. That's because the dialogues between the characters are very smart ones and fun. I think this movie is one of the best romanian movies i've ever seen. Don't miss it ! I think you'll like it. Congrats mister Malaele and mister Lustig ! You've realised a masterpiece. Congrats to the whole team involved !

Funny but ideological

[trotskyextremelyop · 6/10 · 3 July 2021]

The movie is surprisingly well-made, with passable acting, good puns and satire as well as a captivating plot. It however loses its artistic touch in one very important scene dedicated to a propagandistic, out-of-place condemnation of communism. Due to the importance of the scene, the actual plot is in fact a secondary element to a very political message, which is a shame.

However if you're looking for a good, happen to speak Romanian or are happy with reading subtitles and aren't interested in Romanian history, this might be what you're looking for, (except for the acting, which isn't really good, just acceptable).

Brilliant

[MoonSander · 9/10 · 22 March 2022]

Among the Romanian movies, this must be one of the best ever made. I remember first watching it at a festival in Brasilia and the people in the rather crowded, large sala applauded several times during the movie, then for minutes on end when it was finished.

At first if gives one the impression that it is a comedy, a feeling that only grows as the movie progresses, only to end abruptly as comedy and joy turn into tragedy. It is beautifully-written and acted, and can touch in simple ways very complicated and depressing matters, with no need for explanations and without leaving you in the grey.

Worth the watch, at least once.

I liked the story, but not the movie!

[eu_cristina · 4/10 · 24 January 2009]

The story is an interesting one, especially for those who know a little more about communism and the horrible things communists did to people. Unfortunately, the movie is not, by far, as good as the story. Maybe it was intended this way, but, to me, it looks like an amateur movie.

The actors did their jobs just fine, but the movie seems to be made out of pieces, as if it was too long and they had to cut a little bit here and there to make it fit. So the action is full of inconsistencies.

In the end, I have just had the feeling that there should have been more. I didn't get attached to any of the characters, as I usually do when I really like a movie, and the compassion I felt for the people in the village was completely wiped out by the misplaced scene in the end of the movie.

The story is a very painful one, and it's a shame that the movie is only scratching the surface!

spider web

[Vincentiu · 13 October 2012]

fragile, fascinating, delicate, cruel theme. and impressive way to say a painful story with humor, wise and art to present an entire universe. in fact, exercise of Mălăiele fascinating science to build a perfect product , exercise of Balkanian nuances, testimony about a dictatorship, slice of Ionesco style, wonderful trip in heart of absurd and fear. an extraordinary experience. or only a remember as warning. nothing special. basic elements, real good cast, atmosphere of many Romanian movies. and a little magic. a sweet difference. and bitter air of an old picture. a spider web in spring wind. that is final impression. and a tragedy as page from ash book of memory. nothing more. but in final, emotion is great and the tear has as root a very small smile.