Tuesday, September 28, 2010
MANEUVERS
Today's film was the late Cristian Monescu's
with Armand Arsante and Jamie Elman along with a host of Romanian actors too good to be left out of the billing but, well, they aren't known to us.
Assante is one of those actors you have seen over and over and do not remember his name. He is great.
Here he is the commander of a small detail of US/NATO soldiers taking a top secret piece of equipment through Romania and on to Kosovo (Clinton is President).
The small train gets sidetracked when a local, corrupt station master demands the paper work which they do not have. The station master also has a thing about Americans which we get to see in WWII flashbacks.
The station master has a daughter who is hot and restless. She and the young sergeant get it on.
The town is a backwater. The arrival of the Americans is a great opportunity. For what, no one seems to know.
This is all a set up for a tragedy or a comedy or both and that is what we have in this ingenious first feature by the young director who died in an auto accident before he was actually finished with the film. It is still a bit longish.
But that gives us plenty of time to relish the country side, the bumpkins who aren't all that bumkinish and the many culture clashes that ensue.
It is high not low comedy.
Very good.
Romantic interests, wartime love. The corruption and power of a small town thug who has a heart. Sympathy for the villain.
Very complicated.
Asante, as the frustrated commander, keeps stirring the pot almost unwittingly on long settled town intrigues and power balances.
As he blunders into territory which he has no idea nor comprehension of he provides a gentle analogy to US interventions in places like this.
There are a lot of layers. It is a very good film.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5 with a promise to see it again someday when I have my Romanian film fest.
Labels: films
