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Police, Adjective

Poliţist, adjectiv

Romania

2009

115 Min
Color
1.85:1
Romanian
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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DIR Corneliu Porumboiu

PROD Corneliu Porumboiu

SCR Corneliu Porumboiu

DP Marius Panduru

CAST Dragoş Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu, Ion Stoica, Marian Ghenea, Cosmin Seleşi, George Remes, Dan Cogalniceanu

ED Roxana Szel

PROD DES Mihaela Poenaru

SOUND Alexandru Dragomir, Sebastian Zsemlye

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, FIPRESCI Prize, Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), New York, AFI FEST, São Paulo, !F Istanbul (Fix the World), Edinburgh (Rosebud), BAFICI (International Competition)

Synopsis

Cristi is a policeman who refuses to arrest a young man who offers hashish to two of his school mates. “Offering” is punished by the law. Cristi believes that the law will change, he does not want the life of a young man he considers irresponsible to be a burden on his conscience. For his superior the word conscience has a different meaning… —Cannes Film Festival

Director

Original

Corneliu Porumboiu

Corneliu Porumboiu (born September 14, 1975) is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. His 2006 feature 12:08 East of Bucharest won him the Camera d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He is the son of well-known football referee Adrian Porumboiu. —Wikipedia 

Wall

Displaying 4 of 32 wall posts.
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Ciprian David

9May13

introduced it yesterday as part of a short series of romanian new wave films. found it much more funnier than I used to, but also much more constructed. blocks of realism trapped in a dialectic cage. which didn't worsen my appreciation for the film at all.

Elisabeth Maurer likes this

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AALKHE

17Mar13

Romanian New wave FTW!

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JOE

10Feb13

I am beginning to explore this Romanian New Wave movement and I really liked this movie. A police film (n.) that defies the conventions of a detective-cop movie in ways similar to Breathless. Police films usually lead us to action, but 50% of Police, Adj. is Cristi waiting around. His job is following pot-smoking teenagers and dealing with Romanian red-tape and we are forced to sit there with him and wait. I dig it.

Picture of msmichel

msmichel

8Mar12

Though not quite up to the level set by "12:08 East of Bucharest" this is a clever examination of procedure, routine, morality and in the end lanquage. The pacing is quite deliberate and numbing after awhile but also quite mesmerizing. Performances are adequate save Vlad Ivanov who appears as the police captain in the final reel proving his performance in '4 Months..." was no one-off. A simple premise but clever.

Namaste and Adam W. Parker like this

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 299 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Daily Briefing. Iran Detains Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

By David Hudson on September 7, 2011

The co-director of Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film is banned from traveling outside Iran. Plus: Senses of Cinema needs help.

read article
W184

Cinema Scope, Film Quarterly, Sight & Sound

By David Hudson on March 20, 2010

"I hate compiling lists, and I hate polls," announces Mark Peranson, introducing Issue 42 of Cinema Scope, the centerpiece of which is

read article
W184

Artforum, "A Film With Me In It"

By David Hudson on January 1, 2010

"To endure five twelve-hour days of a Jack Smith conference is to realize that Smith isn't exactly the kind of figure you organize a conference

read article
W184

"Police, Adjective," New Issues and More

By David Hudson on December 23, 2009

In the new Voice, J Hoberman reviews the film he's placed in the #3 slot on his top ten of 2009 list (and for more on the Voice poll and

read article
W184

Corneliu Porumboiu Discusses a Scene from "Police, Adjective"

By Corneliu Porumboiu on December 23, 2009

For the first time, Cristi’s wife, Anca is introduced in this scene. In a first draft of the script this scene was one that characterized the

read article
W184

The Auteurs Daily: Film Comment (and Updates)

By David Hudson on November 7, 2009

Selections from the November/December 2009 issue of Film Comment have been posted along with a few online exclusives, among them, the full

read article
W184

Eccentricities of an American Film Festival: AFI Fest 2009

By Gabe Klinger on November 1, 2009

Above: Philippe Grandrieux’s divisive A Lake, playing at this year's AFI Fest. What do you call a film festival that has shrunken by nearly

read article
W184

The Auteurs Daily: NYFF. Police, Adjective

By David Hudson on September 29, 2009

"Less is more in the sophomore feature by Cannes Camera d'or winner Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest), a filmmaker attentive

read article
W184

Cannes 2009: Questionable Observation ("Politist, Adjectiv," Porumboiu)

By Daniel Kasman on May 16, 2009

The emphasis on observation in the recent upsurge Romanian cinemas has, in the films I’ve seen, always been a style and not a commentary

read article

POLICE, ADJECTIVE review

By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
(Police, Adjective is available to buy on UK DVD from 14th February 2011, courtesy of Artificial Eye.)There’s a key passage of dialogue towards the end of Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective that serves
read on Twitchfilm.com

Lists

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Reviews

Displaying 3 of 3

Well shot and thats it

By Heywood Seth on October 23, 2012

The framing and washed out colours made this artistically bearable for about 20 minutes. I tried hard to pull something out of almost nothing at all in the way of a storyline. The main character offers…  read review

Police, subjective.

By Товарищ Петя. on August 13, 2010

In “Police, Adjective”, Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu devotes himself to the story of a small town cop reluctant of busting a minor for endorsing hashish with friends. Although vague at first…  read review

POLICE, ADJECTIVE (ROMANIA/2009/CORNELIU PORUMBOIU)

By micmac● on April 8, 2010

Flying the flag for an exciting new trend in Romanian cinema, Police, Adjective takes its cue from the likes of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and California Dreamin’, dealing with another aspect of…  read review

Forum

Displaying 1 discussion topic.

POLICE, ADJ. - General Discussion

13 posts by 8 people over 3 years ago