4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Day: Unforgettable review
Satyen K. Bordoloi reviews Palme d'Or winner at Cannes 2007 Romanian film 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile that's getting released in India this weekend
The longest take is close to 8 minutes in this movie full of long takes. Only twice in '4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days' does the camera cut away and resumes a moment later. Yet, the most significant psychological (and physical) action of the movie takes place in these time jumps. However, if you do not read between the images and expressions, you will miss out on what happened.
The film opens with a nervous young girl blowing puffs from a cigarette, as her roommate finally utters the word 'Ok'. The girl extinguishes her cigarette and says 'Thanks' and the camera begins its relentless pursuit of its protagonist, the girl who said 'Ok', the one who does not yet know what this one 'Ok' would do to her and how she would suffer the most for the least fault on her part. The film follows her through the day, without telling you anything about what she had agreed to, without giving you much hint of it initially, till it hits you at the right moment, only for you to realize that the moment has just begun, lives have been overturned, and a movie has imprinted itself forever on you psyche.
It is impossible to talk about the movie without spoiling it for the reader. '4 Months‘¦' is best seen as an accidental discovery, without reading a single word about it anywhere, except for the name (that was my happy discovery) and to be slapped by its unabashed style‘¦to realise how individual histories can never be disjoint from the political history of ones surroundings. Hence, for those of you who yet know nothing of the story, at least this one review will not reveal any of it, hoping for you to discover its magic by yourself.
Despite a disturbing theme, the film does not drive to shock at precisely those moments it can throw you off your chair. Instead, it takes the Hemingway approach to fiction writing - it underplays the crucial moments, so that if you are not paying attention or your sensibilities are not ripe enough, the moment simply passes you by. And isn't this truly like life where it is not the present that haunts, but the fear of the future, or the rumination of the past. The present is just too quick to even take notice.
Indeed, perhaps the greatest achievement of the film is in making you believe that it is a true documentary, where a person with an invisible camera follows one girl through her day, without her realizing it.
And invisible camera it had to be, for it is so intrusive, it is scary at times. Akira Kurosawa used to keep the camera far away from his actors to give them their space and keep intrusion to minimum, preferring to zoom in from afar even for close up shots. This film has a totally opposite tendency. The camera is unrelentingly bold, thrusting itself into the expression of characters at one moment, while getting back and reflecting at the scene the next, without, of course, cutting the shot. It stares shamelessly at the painful faces of its actors, not concerned at what it would do to them, in the process giving you an uncompromising but agonizing mirror into their thoughts and feelings. The image refraction caused by a camera so close, makes for a very interesting view of reality.
Of course, others have tried long shots before. Be it the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, or the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock in 'Rope' (a 2 hour movie with just one inconspicuous cut) or the gruesome rape scene in the Gaspar Noe film starring Monica Bellucci - 'Irreversible'. In this film however, the attempt is not to show off but to underplay moments and tragedies with tenderness, sensitivity, humour and most of all with a brutal honesty.
Great wars have produced great reactions from artists who have revolted with moving and rebellious works of literature and cinema. Religion has done the same. But we no longer live in times either of religious fervour, or warring zeal. Critics point out to the intellectual and creative bankruptcy of such comfortable times. Yet perhaps it is in such times, that some great individual stories will be produced, stories that are not about the politics of war, but about the politics of living.
'4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days' is a film that will affect you for much more than 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days after you have seen it. Unless, of course, you have been cut off from hearing silences by the din of the loud stimuli you receive from various media every day, be it on your mobile, TV, computer or newspaper. If however, you've still not lost your awareness despite this, you'll come out enriched.
This masterpiece of World Cinema is releasing this Friday (March 14, 2008) in India, just two weeks after another brilliant foreign language film premiered. If you've missed the previous, 'Lives of Others', do yourself a favour and watch this one!
Comments( 5 )
Dear Satyen, Really nice piece! did
Dear Satyen,
Really nice piece! did watch the film at MAMI but didn't notice the intrusive camera angles that you pointed out ...
It's really great to see such off beat and innovative films being released in India. I will again watch it with all these things u have pointed out in mind once it comes here...
We finally will have a choice:-))
Hi Satyen, Fantastic article. I am
Hi Satyen,
Fantastic article. I am going to rent this movie this weekend itself. I actually became quite nostalgic when I read your reference to Ozu and Hitchcock's Rope. Yes long takes are a difficult trick and it takes a real master to achieve something cinematic out of a device suited more to theatre. Keep posting and all the best!
Dearest Sats, Loved the piece! did
Dearest Sats,
Loved the piece! did miss lives of others (hell, damn), but will catch this one and see what you're saying. can a child watch it?
ps. much as i agree that we now deal with the politics of living and not the politics, it's because this is a time of apathy. There are many wars out there; they just aren't showing up at our doorstep because we prefer to ignore what doesn't affect us directly or right now
muuah,
Ni
Hey Payal: Thanks. Will have to see the
Hey Payal: Thanks. Will have to see the film again to tell you the exact places of the angles.
Dear Aniruddha: Thanks.
Ni: Thanks. But would prefer a child not watch it unless her sensibilities are high enough. There's no danger of graphic elements, except in one or two shots. About wars Ni, those wars you rightly mentioned we ignore, have always existed. The only thing is that we do not have the big wars, or the fear of the big wars (World Wars, The Cold War) or revolutions (French, Russian) or religious persecution (like the dark ages, renaissance etc.). They are not as pronounced as they are. The little wars that the rest of humanity will convenienty choose to ignore, will always happen. For me, the entire continent of Africa is in a big war, only there is no visible enemy. The enemies are more sublte, poverty, AIDS, internal strife etc. Because we choose to ignore it, it doesnot bother us. And we ignore it, because it doesnot bother us at our face, like the other wars of the past.
Dear Satyen, Thank you for writing
Dear Satyen,
Thank you for writing this review. I watched the film after your recommendation and I can't just thank you enough for first not revealing the plot. But someone else told me after I expressed my desire to watch the film. Anyhow, even after knowing what the film is about it doesn't prepare you enough for what's going to come your way. I am so glad I watched the film. It took me back to NFAI days when I watched good cinema. Thanks once again.