I haven’t seen this film yet, I just wanted to share that I hate it’s title.
Really? I love it.
And of course, the movie will contextualize it when you see it.
i wish i could help you Darrin but i’ll definitely get into what you’re pointing out, it’s one of my must-see 2009 films and i do hope it gets a Greek release after this year ends.
that being said, Vocalities will receive the award for Stupidest Highlight of the Week!!!
I’m sure the movie will more than contextualize it, and that’s great. I still find the title jarring and awkward. Just…don’t like it.
Darrin Navarro: The three newspapers named by the secretary were “The Thought,” “The Times” and “The Daily.” But she handed over the whole stack to Nelu who, after a cursory browse, went, “I’ve read ‘The Thought,’ I’ve read ‘The Times,’ I’ve read ‘The Journal,’ let’s see what ‘The Truth’ has to say…”
Dimitris: I believe Police, Adjective is scheduled to be released in Greece on January 14th. I could be wrong though. It’s certainly one of the best new films I’ve seen recently.
Arsaib, many thanks!
Your answer provides more to chew on that I had even thought originally.
Darrin, if you have the time I’d be interested in knowing the one reservation you had regarding this film. Though I’m glad to hear that you loved it nonetheless.
I thought it was so obscure that Christi didn’t change his pullover throughout the film and was ready to point that out for discussion here, but then his wife/significant other pointed out that she wanted him to change it. I still don’t understand why he kept practically the same outfit on the entire movie, when he was tailing someone for multiple days. Does anybody know how much of the film was written, because I thought that the acting was fantastic…? The movements and mannerisms of the characters were so realistic. Did Corneliu Porumboiu leave the motions up to the actors? Has anybody seen any of his other work? This IS the best new film that I have seen in a long time.
To answer the original question, and this answer might depend on which translation of the film you see, but the newspapers she offered them was:
“The Thought”, “The Times”, and “The Daily”.
I also agree that the film is absolutely incredible, one of my favourites of ’09.
Derek is a Derek: Perhaps you overlooked it, but that same answer was provided earlier in the thread.
Taylor Kyles: That’s interesting. The fact that Porumboiu made a point of having Cristi’s wife bring his pullover into the conversation leads me to believe that it was just another element by which he wanted to deglamorize the proceedings. To me this film is undoubtedly an antithesis of most policiers ever made anywhere. As for why, one could question Cristi’s experience and the level of commitment (something his superior eventually does in that astonishing sequence near the end).
Porumboiu, who also wrote the screenplay, has admitted to having an obsession with words and their meaning in different contexts (his mother is a Romanian language teacher). His satirically deadpan debut feature, 12:08 East of Bucharest, which is available on DVD if you happen to be in the U.S., wasn’t as explicit about language as the new film, but it did after all feature a randomly assembled trio sitting inside a drab television studio trying to commemorate the evening of the revolution with their own versions of the events.
Since Romania doesn’t really have a film industry ( and I believe the country has less than 100 movie theaters altogether), it’s safe to say that a lot of the actors spend much time on stage. So I’m not surprised by the high-level of naturalism in performances during those lengthy takes. I’m not sure if you have seen other recent Romanian films such as The Death of Mr. Lazarescu or 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days but they also resolutely adhere to verisimilitude, in more ways than one.
This movie is about to play in 2 weeks at a theater here. I will be sure to catch it and post my thoughts afterward
In spite of what the director states at the outset of the film (these are things you have to do when you’re living in a police state) the adjective in question is not the one modifying ‘procedural’ so much as it is the one modifying ‘state’.
The sea may very well be a symbol of the infinite, but what that sting was symbolic of is undoubtedly the whole point of the flick.
The Romanians participated in Nazi Europe’s 1941 invasion of Russia, they participated in the invasion of Iraq, and over 1,600 of them are currently stationed, with NATO and the mercenary companies, on Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
Christi sent an innocent kid to jail because he couldn’t fight with words.
OPEN QUOTE
Romania today, with a population of 21.5 million, has more than 500,000 illiterate (and many non-literate) people, 76 percent of whom come from rural areas. According to one report by UNICEF last year, the drop-out rate tripled in Romania in the 2000-2009 period, with 20 percent of children giving up school. The main cause of dropping out is the high cost of keeping a child in school. Although education in the public system is nominally free in Romania, parents must provide about €500 per month to keep each child in school and provide the necessary material for a study year. Given the low level of wages in the country, this sum is beyond the reach of many families.
END OF QUOTE
Being literate (as opposed to illiterate or non-literate) means knowing the difference between saying “sea” and saying “infinite”. Because when you make something physical, you make it visceral. That’s why saying that Love is to Toothpaste as Life is to Toothbrush packs such a serious punch.
QUOTE continues
one fifth of Romanian children do not attend kindergarten, one third of high school graduates do not go on to take their graduation exams, and one quarter of pupils are unable to solve basic math problems.
EOQ
Thus, children smoking hashish in the schoolyard [being set up for a sting] is to the world’s ill- to non- literate as the plastic fruit in the fascist boss’s office is to . . . [fill in the blank].
Darrin Navarro
I actually have a specific question about the film, but not wanting to waste a whole thread on my one topic, I’ll just start this as a general discussion about the film (which I saw yesterday, and, despite one significant reservation, I really loved).
When Cristi and Nelu are in the waiting room, the secretary offers them three newspapers to read, and I remember that the names of the three papers seemed to represent the arc of the film as a whole, but now I can’t remember the first one. Friends and I have been trying to recollect it, but we’re not certain of anything yet.
I believe they were the “something”, the Thought, and the Journal. Was it the Observer? Something else?
Help.