Photo du film
Tuesday after Christmas: Muntean dissects married life
Un Certain Regard
This Thursday, in his first appearance at Cannes, the director presents his fourth feature in Un Certain Regard, a film inspired by the ups and downs of married life (Salle Debussy, 14.00, 22.15). His presence marks the Festival’s particular affection for the new generation of Rumanian directors of the post-Ceaucescu era.
His first feature, Rage (Furia, 2002), won critical acclaim, and today Radu Muntean stands alongside Cristi Puiu, also selected this year for Un Certain Regard, as one of the foremost members of this new wave of Rumanian cinema. This committed filmmaking, now free of the chains of the dictatorship that once controlled it so closely, is developing outside the circuits of the official subsidies still being awarded by the Rumanian state to the older filmmakers, once fashionable under the Ceaucescu dictatorship.
This new generation has found Cannes to be a special place to express themselves. Cristi Puiu, winning Un Certain Regard in 2005 for The Death of Mr Lazarescu, and Corneliu Porumboiu, winning the Caméra d’Or in 2006 for 12h08, East of Bucharest, were the precursors of this promising renewal. But it was in 2007 that the movement was properly crowned when Christian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his feature, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, a first for Rumanian cinema.
A far cry from revisiting the ghosts of the Ceaucescu era (this year treated Hors Compétition with The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu, by Andrei Ujica), Tuesday after Christmas treats the torments of Paul Hangaru, an unfaithful husband confronted by the choices a passionate extra-marital affair confront him with. “I tried to imbue my film with this voyeuristic sensation that you can get from looking into people’s houses, kitchens or even a couple’s bedroom, the director explains. Marital intimacy can be more captivating than the best action films”.
B.P.
