Child's Pose (2013)

it is new demonstration about values and rules and game of influence from the East. a dark portrait of Romania, more complex than it seems be at the first sigh, impressive, powerful and touching. a mother protecting her son. without any price. an accident. and a poor family. and examples of admirable acting. from Romanian realities, nothing surprising. the family remains a fortress. many mothers , in the situation of Cornelia , are adepts of the same solutions. and this is the motif for discover this film. for the splendid job of Luminița Gheorghiu. for Bogdan Dumitrache as Barbu. for the levels of a crisis. and for the clash between two social circles. the basic virtue of the film - it has one of the most inspired ends.

The Romanian New Wave continues with Călin Peter Netzer's "Poziția copilului" ("Child's Pose" in English). Luminița Gheorghiu plays an affluent woman whose son accidentally kills a boy in a traffic accident. The movie looks at a number of topics: corruption, emotional manipulation and parent-child relationships. All of these add up to a general focus on the state of affairs in Romania, as the woman seeks to pull strings to get her son a lenient prosecution, and tries to force the victim's family to forgive her son.One of the most effective lines is "What parents can't accomplish they achieve through their children." One of the most obvious examples is shows like "American Idol". But beyond that, we see the woman chide her son for his unwillingness to grow up, even though she kept an overly tight leash on him most of his life.All in all I recommend the movie. Shot in a naturalistic style, it hits you hard. I hope that Romania turns out more of these.

The Romanian film Pozitia copilului was shown in the U.S. with the title Child's Pose (2013). The movie was co-written and directed by Calin Peter Netzer.Luminita Gheorghiu stars as Cornelia Keneres, a wealthy woman who dominates everyone with whom she comes into contact. Bogdan Dumitrache plays Barbu, her adult son, who clearly grew up under his mother's thumb, and has barely managed to achieve some measure of independence. However, Barbu has been involved in a fatal car accident in which he has killed a child. He's paralyzed with fear and regret, and that allows his mother to step back into his life to try to keep her son out of jail. (Barbu wasn't drunk when the accident occurred, but he was speeding and probably driving recklessly. We all know he's guilty.)It's hard to have much sympathy for Barbu, who is sullen, uncommunicative, and somewhat strange. His intimate partner, Carmen, is about to leave him, because she can't tolerate his behavior any longer. (Carmen is played very well by the capable actor Ilinca Goia. She and Cornelia have an interesting--and intimate--conversation about Barbu. It's an extremely intense and unsettling scene.)Of course, you could argue that Barbu is what he is because of his mother. It's a reasonable argument, although we can't be certain. In any event, Barbu, if left to his own devices, will go to jail. His mother defends against this possibility with all the ferocity of a mother tiger defending her cub.The director makes it clear that in Romania--as in most places--money talks. Cornelia sets about to bribe the witness, bribe and bully the police, and manipulate the dead child's grieving parents. In fact, the only honest and untouchable person we meet is a young policewoman, and no one pays any attention to her.This is a dark film about a dark situation. What makes it worth seeing is the outstanding performance by Luminita Gheorghiu as Cornelia. Gheorghiu was the star of the excellent film The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. In that movie she portrayed a working-class nurse, trying to save her patient and always facing closed doors. In this movie she is an elegant, sophisticated, architect, trampling over everyone to protect her son.The parts are very, very different, but Gheorghiu has the talent to make us believe in her character in both roles. She is truly an incredible actor, and the film is worth seeing just to watch her on screen.We saw this movie at the excellent Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. It's primarily an intimate film, and will work very well on the small screen. In whatever format, it's worth finding and watching.

The movie is about action and reaction in life, responsibility and why parents shouldn't try to stifle and spoil their children. More importantly, it is about control and how love understood wrongly as transfer of responsibility and even consciousness leaves the son in the story weak and defenseless, incapable to face maturely the consequences of his actions. on the other hand, He can't do that because he's been taught not to take any responsibility for anything. This does not mean however the mother is the only guilty person. Her love for her son has translated into complete takeover of his individual responsibility. He realizes he must fight her and get back control over his life too late. Love is no excuse for that. The movie is dynamic and to the point. The characters are well defined.