Pozitia copilului, aka Child's Pose (2013)
The new Romanian film movement of the past decade has made such a strong showing in contemporary world cinema that the inevitable backlash has already begun. Forget the backlash: Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose joins the ranks of Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) and Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) as masterful works that transcend hype and bloated expectations. This is clearly a renaissance moment for Romanian cinema that is too broad to be waylaid by either disappointing films from former bellwethers or contrarian views from cranky scribes courting controversy.
Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) is a middle-aged architect, financially successful and socially connected. She appears to have everything but the love of her spoiled, thirty-something son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache), who avoids her for months at a time. A moody, dislikable slacker, Barbu is prone to temper tantrums that culminate in him commanding his parents to "blow me!" Cornelia blames Barbu's live-in girlfriend Carmen (Ilinca Goia) for the estrangement, but it's clear from the outset that his deep-seated resentment needs no encouragement from others.
When Cornelia learns that Barbu has been involved in an auto accident in which a young peasant boy has been killed, she charges into action to keep her son out of prison. In one of several squirm-inducing scenes, she attempts to bribe the sole witness to the accident (Vlad Ivanov, the thug abortionist from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) into changing his testimony. To Cornelia's frustration, Barbu refuses to cooperate with any of her efforts to protect him.
Through the tale of a mother's desperate, overreaching love for her adult son, Child's Pose highlights class structure and privilege in post-Eastern Bloc Romania. The wealthy Cornelia believes that she can buy her son's innocence, especially since the dead child's parents are, to quote the police, "simple people." The final scene, observed from a rear-view mirror, forces a reevaluation of the mother-son dynamic that precedes it, and reveals that Cornelia's suffocating power play for Barbu's affection masks her thorough lack of confidence in his ability to fend for himself.
Though the cast is uniformly impressive, Luminita Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) excels as Cornelia, a mother whose love no longer nurtures...if it ever did. The prying, manipulative Cornelia could have been a stock villain, but through Gheorghiu she becomes a flawed character whose humanity we recognize even if we can't grant her our sympathy. The delirious hand-held camera work of Andrei Butica (Francesca) also merits mention, hurling viewers into the middle of family skirmishes as though we are peering, unseen, over the shoulders of confessors to private agonies. The razor-sharp script, by Netzer and Razvan Radulescu (co-writer of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), manages to locate dark humor in a tale of privilege and corruption.
Child's Pose is a subtle gem that rewards careful viewing. Netzer's third feature film is a complex critique of parental willfulness and the unlikelihood of social equality when money and influence rule. Both are of universal significance.
Distributed in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films, Child's Pose is currently playing in theaters across the country.
When Cornelia learns that Barbu has been involved in an auto accident in which a young peasant boy has been killed, she charges into action to keep her son out of prison. In one of several squirm-inducing scenes, she attempts to bribe the sole witness to the accident (Vlad Ivanov, the thug abortionist from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) into changing his testimony. To Cornelia's frustration, Barbu refuses to cooperate with any of her efforts to protect him.
Through the tale of a mother's desperate, overreaching love for her adult son, Child's Pose highlights class structure and privilege in post-Eastern Bloc Romania. The wealthy Cornelia believes that she can buy her son's innocence, especially since the dead child's parents are, to quote the police, "simple people." The final scene, observed from a rear-view mirror, forces a reevaluation of the mother-son dynamic that precedes it, and reveals that Cornelia's suffocating power play for Barbu's affection masks her thorough lack of confidence in his ability to fend for himself.
Though the cast is uniformly impressive, Luminita Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) excels as Cornelia, a mother whose love no longer nurtures...if it ever did. The prying, manipulative Cornelia could have been a stock villain, but through Gheorghiu she becomes a flawed character whose humanity we recognize even if we can't grant her our sympathy. The delirious hand-held camera work of Andrei Butica (Francesca) also merits mention, hurling viewers into the middle of family skirmishes as though we are peering, unseen, over the shoulders of confessors to private agonies. The razor-sharp script, by Netzer and Razvan Radulescu (co-writer of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), manages to locate dark humor in a tale of privilege and corruption.
Child's Pose is a subtle gem that rewards careful viewing. Netzer's third feature film is a complex critique of parental willfulness and the unlikelihood of social equality when money and influence rule. Both are of universal significance.
Distributed in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films, Child's Pose is currently playing in theaters across the country.