By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
Original language title: Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau metabolism
Country: france, romania
Year: 2015
Running time: 89
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3102906/combined
Thom says: “If I hadn’t gotten a chance to see this gratis I might have passed as the director has a rather poor track record with me. 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST (2006) (3 CATS) & POLICE, ADJECTIVE (2009) (2 CATS). This one has the old film within a film theme, certainly not really worth another look unless with a lot to present. Here we have a well respected? film director in a series of scenes between he and his leading lady discussing film history, technique, acting, and food. The director has fallen for his star but to what purpose or intent is unclear. What is clear is how patently obnoxious the director is, forever grilling the pretty but trite actress, and saying one insulting thing after another. She ends up being not so charming herself. He keeps saying that she’s the spitting image of the great Monica Vitti (she’s not) as he recites the great Michelangelo Antonioni films that made her an international star like LA AVVENTURA, L’ECLISE, & RED DESERT. When she said she’d never heard of Vitti or the films I lost all interest with her. An elongated video of a colonoscopy also wasn’t a walk-in-the-park. The film never picked up any steam although I was rather beguiled by the work done by Avramut, especially as she attempts to fix a script problem questioning the state of her dressing or undressing and why the change of scene to make the plot have verisimilitude. 2 cats”