It’s Just A Movie

This year, the Cannes Palme d’Or Prize went to the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, for the deeply naturalistic film called 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (original name 4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 Zile). The story presents a university student having to deal with an abortion in the communist Romania, when such a procedure was illegal. But more than that, the movie accurately captures the atmosphere during the last years of communism in the Soviet bloc, by expressing a wide palette of devastating feelings ranging from limitation to frustration.

This movie received nothing but praise - and even more, all this praise came from the severest film critics. We already know by now that the Oscars basically award mainly commercial blockbusters with Hollywood A-list actors and over the top budgets, while, at the same time, the Cannes Film Festival is concentrated more on inspirational films that deal with emotional, shaking dramas. And the film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days proves the fact that even a 600 000 euro budget is enough to make a truly significant, unforgettable film, as long as the movie comes with a package of brilliant acting, with an honest, deep approach and with a shocking amount of naturalness.

Actually, it is this naturalist style that describes the movie best. From the long scenes that are actually shot without cutting to the handled camera, to the colors and sounds, everything seems almost painfully natural. Actually, keeping it real and truth-like, life-like and natural is much more difficult to achieve than fakeness, pompousness and a cheesy package full of clichés that describe an alarming number of movies nowadays. Congratulations to the winner!