“Police, Adjective”, first screening in Vaslui, , „Police, Adjective.”, July 3rd, in cinema, , EBERT & ROEPER, ''THE BEST OF 2007'', New York Post, AND THE BEST FILMS OF 2007 ARE . . ., Star and Shadow Cinema, UK, 12:08 East of Bucharest – Corneliu Porumboiu Romania 2006,

Corneliu Porumboiu took his new film to Vaslui on Friday, June 26th – “Police, Adjective.” which was recently awarded with the FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique), prize under Cannes’ “Un Certain Regard” section and it also received the Jury’s Prize under the same section.

The film first screenings takes place in Vaslui at Silver Mall in the presence of the Romanian director who invited the local people that contributed to the film production. Also are expected to be present at the event the cast: Dragoş Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Săulescu, Marian Ghenea, Ion Stoica and Cosmin Seleşi. For the local public, the screenings will take place at Silver Mall between June 27 and 28. “Police, Adjective” will be screened all over Romania starting with July 3rd.

The screenings from Vaslui takes place one week before the red carpet premiere from Bucharest, and also before the film national release. “Police, Adjective.” was entirely filmed in Vaslui. “The location is very important for me and this city is the place I know best”, says the Romanian director. Therefore, Corneliu Porumboiu choose his home town for the Romanian release, as a “thank you and also a proof of my appreciation for the locals”. Porumboiu adds “a lot of people from Vaslui helped me to do this film, such as the town hall, the local police, and friends. This is my way of expressing my gratitude.”

The film was highly praised by the international critics. “…this deadpan meditation on authority and moral conscience is playing out of the main competition, despite being one of the finest films at this year’s festival” writes the New York Times. “The cop movie you thought you were watching turns into an altogether different kind of investigation, one about function versus philosophy and that hinges on the reading of a dictionary. I’m not sure the definition of a word has ever been as simultaneously suspenseful and cruelly funny as it is here. […] With Porumboiu, discourse breaks the film wide open and lifts it to greatness” notes the Boston Globe's Wesley Morris film critic.

The film presents Cristi, 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.

“Police, Adjective” is Corneliu Porumboiu’s second film, as a script writer, producer and director after “12:08 East of Bucharest”, the debut feature that won the 2006 Camera d’Or Prize, and also winner of the Europe Cinemas Label at the Directors’ Fortnight 2006, film which was awarded more than 20 prizes worldwide, released in more than 30 countries.

Dragoş Bucur, the actor who played the main character, named Cristi, also played in “Boogie”, “The Paper Will Be Blue” and “Joint/Exit” (directed by Radu Muntean), “Stuff & Dough”, “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” directed by Cristi Puiu. He also played in the TV series “Good Guys”, “Contra timp”. Recently has finished filming at the American production “The Way Back”, directed by Peter Weir (six times Oscar nominated for “The Truman Show”, “Master and Commander” etc.)

Vlad Ivanov played in “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, directed by Cristian Mungiu (Palm D’Or, Cannes 2007), a part which also brought him the Supporting Actor award from Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Irina Săulescu played in “Silence Almost” directed by Constantin Popescu and “Bunraku”, directed by Guy Mosche, co-starring Demi Moore.

Porumboiu’s “Police, adjective” will be screened for the local public from Vaslui on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28 at Silver Mall Cinema. The screenings are scheduled every two hours, starting 2:30 pm local time.


Contact:
anca romanescu | pr | +40727.731.552 |anca.romanescu@mme.ro

“Police, Adjective”, Corneliu Porumboiu’s feature that recently have received at Cannes IFF the FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) prize and the Prize of the Jury under “Un Certain Regard” section, have had the premiere on July 3rd in cinema.

“Police, Adjective.” directed by Corneliu Porumboiu can be seen in cinemas from Bucharest starting with 3rd July, at Studio Cinema, Hollywood Multiplex, Movieplex, Starplex and The Light Cinemas. Also, from this date on, the film will be screened in Cluj, on Cinema City.

„The plot is classical, crime genre. I had thought a lot about this genre when I wrote it. It is a crime movie, but it was build up on the unexpected, not on the action” says Corneliu. “I don’t believe on the phrase the film is my child, because I have a child at home. I know that Police, Adjective it is not a mainstream film, but I believe that I have my own public.”

The preview of the film took place on 26th June, in Vaslui, the director’s home town, in his presence and in the presence of the actors along with those who supported the film. The director choose his home town for the Romanian release, as a “thank you and also a proof of my appreciation for the locals”. Porumboiu adds “a lot of people from Vaslui helped me to do this film, such as the town hall, the local police, and friends. This is my way of expressing my gratitude.” “Police, Adjective.” was entirely filmed in Vaslui. “The location is very important for me and this city is the place I know best”, says the Romanian director.

The film was highly praised by the international critics. “…this deadpan meditation on authority and moral conscience is playing out of the main competition, despite being one of the finest films at this year’s festival” writes the New York Times. “The cop movie you thought you were watching turns into an altogether different kind of investigation, one about function versus philosophy and that hinges on the reading of a dictionary. I’m not sure the definition of a word has ever been as simultaneously suspenseful and cruelly funny as it is here. […] With Porumboiu, discourse breaks the film wide open and lifts it to greatness” notes the Boston Globe's Wesley Morris film critic.

The film presents Cristi, 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.

“Police, Adjective” is Corneliu Porumboiu’s second film, as a script writer, producer and director after “12:08 East of Bucharest”, the debut feature that won the 2006 Camera d’Or Prize, and also winner of the Europe Cinemas Label at the Directors’ Fortnight 2006, film which was awarded more than 20 prizes worldwide, released in more than 30 countries.

Dragoş Bucur, the actor who played the main character, named Cristi, also played in “Boogie”, “The Paper Will Be Blue” and “Joint/Exit” (directed by Radu Muntean), “Stuff & Dough”, “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” directed by Cristi Puiu. He also played in the TV series “Good Guys”, “Contra timp”. Recently has finished filming at the American production “The Way Back”, directed by Peter Weir (six times Oscar nominated for “The Truman Show”, “Master and Commander” etc.)

Vlad Ivanov played in “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, directed by Cristian Mungiu (Palm D’Or, Cannes 2007), a part which also brought him the Supporting Actor award from Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Irina Săulescu played in “Silence Almost” directed by Constantin Popescu and “Bunraku”, directed by Guy Mosche, co-starring Demi Moore.

“Police, adjective” is produced by 42 km Film and Periscop Pictures, made with the support of the National Center of Cinematography and the participation of HBO Romania.

Contact:
anca romanescu | pr | +40727.731.552 |anca.romanescu@mme.ro

bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/bestof2007/index.html

This was a great year for American movies, but I think some of the most interesting films on the festival circuit these days come from Romania, where a generation of young filmmakers is reviving that country’s cinematic traditions. Number 6 on my list is “12:08” East of Bucharest, the debut feature from Corneliu Porumboiu. You’ve probably never heard of it, but it is available on DVD, and well worth checking out….
For a recap of all of the movies on both of our lists, you can go to atthemoviestv.com. While you’re there, browse through more than 20 years of movie reviews in the balcony archive. That’s it for this week, until next week, the balcony is closed.

www.nypost.com/seven/12302007/entertainment/movies/and_the_best_films_of_2007_are_______37
2268.htm

And now, without further ado, Cine File's favorite films of 2007, in order of preference: 1. "12:08 East of Bucharest" a hilarious satire from Romanian helmer Corneliu Perumboiu. And the fact that I am quoted on the cover of the DVD has no bearing on my decision.

www.hotnews.ro/

12:08 East of Bucharest – Cornelieu Poromboiu Romania 2006 – Mircea Andreiescu- Theodor Corban – Ion Supdaru
Viewed Star and Shadow Cinema Newcastle UK 13 Jan 2008.
Ticket price £4-00

In Bucharest the snow quickly turns to black slush

A film made out of the ordinary everyday elements of the social matrix: a drunk, an old man in his ‘70’s, a second rate journalist. A film uses these elements to initiate a process that engages with the historical myth pertaining to what happened in Romania on 22nd Dec 1989. Porumboiu’s East of Bucharest (EB) provides us with a continuous strip of action, over the period of a day, comprising the preparations for and the enactment of a TV chat show. The stream of action allows the actors no escape from envelopment in time: the day unfolds, shot mainly in wide, and the film in the first section cuts between different situations but without montage per se, without cuts within and between actions. Poromboiu does not use editing techniques as his source of tension in EB, i.e. juxtaposition of shots to create energised action image links between images.
EB is not a film of ‘image’. Porumboiu as director works to devalue image as a source of filmic information in EB and to enhance the meaning of time.

Every aspect of the film from its desaturated low contrast colourisation its ‘found’ framing and shot composition work against the primacy of the image in the production of EB. What is central to EB as a formic process, is that it is a film taking place within and through time. The endemic tensions within EB emanate from forces released and worked through by the film, both in picture and in sound, that are generated by the propositional question: was there or was there not, a revolution here in our small Romanian town? And it is, as this proposition is examined in the ‘real time’ filming of the chat show that the tension is expressed, released and compressed within the dialogue. The tension comes from within the process, which is humorous but relentless in its discipline and leaves us with a final picture of Mr Manescu one of the two participants in the chat show
with his head totally bowed down, bent at the end of the process in which he has valiantly participated. But we also know that this Mr Manescu from the incidents of the day that have informed us about him. Mr Manescu is no stranger to humiliation, it is one of the ways in which he copes with life. He will recover and continue as if nothing has happened. So one way there is no humiliation as an event there is only the continuing process of Mr Manescu’s life. There is no image of humiliation rather an embraced ritual, a recurring process repeated endlessly. There was no revolution. Simply a man with a bent head. This is not what the picture says.

Looking across the current filmscape it is unusual in my experience to view a film that does not engage in the explicit exploitation of visual images. Most European films are in thrall to a specific visual culture reliant on the excitement of visual stimulae and on retinal pornography. A culture whose touchstone is the advertising industry which comprises of the worlds: of enflamed desires of iconic brands and of associative psychic linkage to self image/identity. An industry that is founded on the manipulation and twisting of human needs (that it describes as freedom of choice for the consumer). An industry that has developed slick marketing machine to deliver the products which feed the artificially created needs. And at the centre of this business is the image.

Many of us have passed formative years experiencing a Pavlovian conditioning through our exposure to our visual commercial culture. We have been conditioned like the great man’s dogs to slobber at the chops when presented with the right stimuli. An image is worth a thousand words. A smiling woman with white teeth and blond hair holds up a pack of Kellogg’s cornflakes. We desire to possess what that image represents, But the logic it also works in a sort of reverse sense. We see an emotive image - perhaps of suffering, a child in the final stages of malnutrition - which triggers another set of emotive judgemental reactions related to our internalised self image. The problem is that image when wrenched out of context and detached from processes becomes open to manipulations and desires. Image in Western culture over determines reactive relaxes at the expense of understanding processes through time.

Porumboiu has understood this as a problem. His response is not to have one set of images replace another, but rather to make a film in which time is the principle agent forming the structure of the film. Everything in the film points to time. It’s in the title. It’s set on the day of the anniversary of the ‘revolution’. The question in relation to the revolution is defined strictly in terms of time, which of course a joke, and the film takes place through real time experience of the chat show.

In EB Porumboiu seems to suggest that the Romanian revolution belongs in that category of events that may be called trance. The image is of the revolution that took place in the squares of Romania but the temporal stream opposes this image. The revolution took place in a trance. The violent events in Timisoura started a process that was broadcast by the media to the people who were entranced by the images that were relayed to them. They understood that with the sudden downfall of Ceausescu that a revolution had taken place. But they were in trance and very little had actually happened outside of the image of the dictator and his wife being executed. The image was of crowds gathering in squares and calling for the overthrow of the regime. But it was mostly an image a comforting illusion based on the simple device of reversing cause and effect. There was no revolution so of course when the crowds dispersed and went home little had changed. Without Nicholas and Elena in fact the same people continued in power using similar but slightly modified methods. The people, by and large absent from the revolution came out of the trance and continued with their lives much as before.