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Title: Возвращение(The Return)

Year: 2003

Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev

Cast: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko

Genre: Drama / Comedy

Country: Russia

Runtime: 105 min.

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Plot (spoiler alert ):
Ivan and Andrey are two brothers living with their mother and grandmother. One day, their father returns home, after many years of absence. Despite Ivan’s reserves, they set out on a fishing vacation with their father.

The father’s attempts to make up for all the time he had been gone, however, have the opposing effect. His brutal way, ignoring or punishing them, gain him the opposition of Ivan. Andrey, however, feels the urge to make things right, which in turn makes him distance from his brother.

The journey leads them to an island, where the hostility and violence gets worse. One day, this makes Ivan run away to a light tower, with his father going after him. This ends up being tragic for him, as he dies after falling from the tower.

My views:
This movie starts being an interpretation of a common “Hollywood story”, but ends being almost the opposite. It is a very well made psychological drama, with very good interpretations, and a great camera work (the blue camera “filtering” all the joy from the movie is especially significant). It could, however, be more informative in some aspects (why was the father gone for 12 years? What is the box he keeps in the island?). Although the answers could be symbolic, that symbolism is never patent, and there are too many different versions of it, which probably means it was somewhat failed.

Despite that, it is a quite enjoyable movie. But you might want to keep a comedy next to you to view after this one…

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Title: Filantropica(Philanthropy)

Year: 2002

Director: Nae Caranfil

Cast: Mircea Diaconu, Mara Nicolescu, Gheorghe Dinica, Viorica Voda

Genre: Comedy

Country: Romania / France

Runtime: 110 min.

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Plot (spoiler alert ):
Ovidiu is a teacher and failed writer who falls in love with the sister of one of his students. In order to impress her he gets involved with the Filantropica Society, run be Pepe, whose “business” is basically scamming people, mainly using beggars. Ovidiu is an exception, and so his plan is more elaborated.

He pretends to be married to Miruna, Pepe’s assistant. They go to restaurants and, at the end, they start complaining about the price, saying they cannot pay that much. When they begin talking about their 10th anniversary, people start feeling sorry and eventually pay them the bill. With the waiter also part of the scam and a price much higher than it should, there’s money to be wasted.

With his pocket full, Ovidiu starts pretending to be someone he’s not, in order to impress Diana. One day, she finally finds out, breaking up with him. He doesn’t give up, though, and continues his scams.

One day, he sees a chance to win her back: her brother seems money desperately. He gives her the money, expecting to win her back. Everything seems fine when she plans a date for that night.

Nevertheless, she isn’t there when he shows up. The only person he encounters is his student. Funny enough, he doesn’t have a sister...

But happy endings still sell, and so Ovidiu manages to keep the girl he's been fictitiously married to.

My views:
I haven’t seen many Romanian movies, but this one actually made me want to see some more.

The plot itself is probably the best part of the movie. I’m not totally familiar with the Romanian lifestyle and life conditions, but this movie clearly has a social analysis, even a satire, which could also apply in many other places. Still, this is a light comedy, and the satire part is too shallow, and not really explored, which is a pity. The only point which got some focus was the organized begging, which is probably the most “publicized” problem of Romania nowadays. As I said, I don’t how much of that is true, so I’m afraid that didn’t work really well with me. But of course, I might be wrong, and Romanian viewers might see many things I didn’t see or understand.

Although predictable at moments – the ending, for example – it’s still a quite enjoyable movie, and its nearly 2 hours pass fairly quick.

The actors were virtually unknown to me, but most of them have done a good job, especially Mircea Diaconu. The director, Nae Caranfil, is not very well known outside Romania, but he already made some other less known, but also good movies (Asphalt Tango, Don't Lean Out the Window). This one is probably his greatest achievement, if not in directing, at least in writing. Very well filmed and edited, this movie is, in that aspect, a pleasant surprise. With this being a co-production between Romania and France, I’m a bit curious to know what part France had in this...

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Title: The Shawshank Redemption

Year: 1994

Director: Frank Darabont

Story: Stephen King

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler

Genre: Drama

Country: USA

Runtime: 142 min.

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Plot (spoiler alert ):
Andy Dufresne is a man convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. He is sent to Shawshank to serve his sentence. In there, he meets Red, who will eventually become his best friend. His previous job as a banker and his accounting abilities allows him to approach the captain of the guard and, subsequently, the warden.

Andy’s time in jail goes from receiving favours in return for his accounting skills to being thrown in solitaire for several days. He starts being well known to everyone, yet no one knows about his major activity while in there: preparing the escape. Day after day, he digs a tunnel that will eventually lead to his freedom.

One person, however, is well aware of Andy’s plans, and knows exactly where to look for him. Red is eventually released from prison, with the movie ending with the reuniting of the two friends.

My views:
Just like with books, I decided to start this with a movie that marked me.

Looking at the plot outline, it’s hard to imagine a good movie coming out of it. After reading Stephen King’s book, things get a bit better, but still I think this is not one of King’s best stories. So, unlike most of him books, I actually prefer the movie adaptation to the book (the other exception, curiously, is another Darabont movie. I’ll eventually talk about it too ).

Differently from most of King’s work, hope is a major theme. In the movie, that is even more obvious. Another of the major themes, as the title implies, is redemption. When Red gets out of jail for the first time, he follows the steps of another prisoner (Brooks). After so many years in jail, Brooks is simply unable to live in the “real” world, eventually killing himself. Red has the same problems, but Andy “redeemed” him, filled him with hope in a better future.

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman have amazing performances here. Darabont was a surprise, as he hadn’t made anything particularly worthwhile until then. Nevertheless, the better part is clearly the story and the message passed by the movie. I usually don’t like these “look-how-sad-this-is” movies, so placing this at the top should mean something. And, according to IMDB points, many people agree with me

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