Romanian film review – Hot and Heated: A Summer List
<p>Warm and stormy. That would describe this summer so far. Here are some of my faves for the capricious season, films set in summer and/or with a summery air: dusty, sweaty, erotic, romantic, chaotic, melancholic, dangerous. All of it.</p>
<p>My most recent (unexpected) highlight is Sergio Leone’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollars_Trilogy">Dollars trilogy</a>. The master of the spaghetti western, a term coined to describe westerns produced in Europe, made three films about a lone gunman (played by Clint Eastwood) set in the American Wild West<em>. </em>The gloriously entertaining <em>The Good, the Bad and the Ugly</em> (1966) is the most famous one.&nbsp;To my shame it was the only one I'd watched. Now I finally caught up and I am impressed. The first is <em>A Fistful of Dollars </em>(1964), a nasty, concise and laconic tale of Eastwood’s character playing two rival families against each other, followed by my favourite, <em>For a Few Dollars More </em>(1965), an elegant, languid meeting of two bounty hunters (Eastwood teams up with the sharpest combo of gaze and cheekbones in cinema, the formidable Lee Van Cleef). The trilogy has just been aired on public broadcaster TVR1 and TVR2 and looks like there will be some reruns.</p>
<p>In Cluj you can catch one of the greatest of French and world arthouse cinema, Éric Rohmer. Known for his intellectual, witty, talky films, he is most famous for a series of films dealing with the question of attraction, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/417-six-moral-tales">Six Moral Tales</a>. <em>The Collector/ La Collectionneuse</em> (1967) is the delightful story about a young woman ‘collecting’ lovers while vacationing in the south of France and of two older men who want to make sure her morals do not degrade too much. The pic is shown at <a href="https://www.cinemavictoria.ro/">cinema Victoria</a> as part of an homage to the director, who also made a series of four films on the trials and tribulations of love, each set in a different season and area of France. <em>A Tale of Summer</em> is wonderful; keep an eye on the programme in case it pops up, but you’d be fine with any Rohmer title they show. &nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</em> (Blake Edwards, 1961) needs no introduction, and while the film is a sappier, happy-ending fairytale version of Truman Capote’s eponymous novella, it is such a charmer. It’s set in New York, or more precisely in the New York apartment of lovingly eccentric Holly Golightly, who profits financially from a collection of wealthy gentleman friends, and is geting close to her upstairs neighbour, a loyal, down-to-earth writer. I don’t want to spoil it for those (very few) who don’t know it, but let's say it's no wonder Audrey Hepburn became a stratospheric star after this one. Screening in Bucharest this week.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Rebel Without a Cause</em> (Nicholas Ray, 1955) is another drama that needs no introduction at this point, and it turned a very young James Dean into a legend. I’ve rewatched it recently and had forgotten how sad it is, but also how sensitive and memorable in its portrayal of young despair. Set in Los Angeles and centred on a group of troubled teenagers, it remains one of the most enduring youth movies. And of the most beautiful. The film was shown at <a href="https://sibiu.tiff.ro/">TIFF Sibiu</a> (7 – 10 August).</p>
<p><em>Islands </em>(Jan-Ole Gerster, 2005) is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir">film noir</a> set on the island of Fuerteventura. And it works near perfectly as a thriller in broad sunshine. Excellently cast Sam Riley plays a blasé tennis instructor who finds himself shaken out of his routine of drinking and hook-ups by a family who insist he teaches their young son how to play. Also part of the TIFF schedule.</p>
<p>In Iasi, <a href="https://festivalsfr.ro/"><em>Serile Filmului Rom</em><em>â</em><em>nesc</em></a> screened current and classic Romanian pics and I have to mention Bogdan Mureșanu’s <em>Magicianul/ The Magician</em>, a gorgeous animated period film set in the multi-ethnic port town of Sulina at the beginning of the 20th&nbsp;century. Animations are so rarely produced in Romania, and I am thrilled by the steadily rising number that premiered in the past years. Mureșanu has been the festival and audience darling with <a href="https://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-film-review-new-year-bieff-oct-2024"><em>The New Year That Never Came/&nbsp;Anul Nou care n-a fost</em></a>, but I think his animation is more remarkable.</p>
<p>And finally, last year’s major surprise, Horia Cucută and George ve Ganæaard’s <em>Dismissed/ Clasat</em>, a low-budget, fully independently financed Romanian thriller in the shape of a fake documentary investigating the suspicious death of an employee of an AI company in Bucharest. Tight, tense, clever stuff, using its ‘limitations’ to the best, most precise effect. Also screened in Iași.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>By Ioana Moldovan, columnist, </em><a href="mailto:ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com"><em>ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com</em></a><br />
<em>(Photo info &amp; source: still from </em>Breakfast at Tiffany’s,<em> courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) &nbsp;</em></p>
<div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RFWYI5buWlY?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe>
</div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KlZ4fYqjGJI?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe>
</div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJFjejZLwOk?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe>
</div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HWHH5TwEwtI?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe>
</div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DDAuT-2W5O0?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe>
</div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I05u6dROkVE?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe>
</div>