Ersbel Oraph Pain and shame is the short answer. Pain for wasting time. Shame for the FIPRESCI and Golden Bear jury. This was supposed to be the story that some people guessed from the poster and the small synopsis. But the story is nowhere to be found. You get a woman (Luminita Gheorghiu) talking to another woman about a third. Than you get two more scenes, this time with lots of extras that should express what? None of the nomenklatura princelings from the credits has any idea. Only than the movie starts. Starts into a bad provincial play. Each character is like a mechanical puppet. Apart from some tears in the end, the lines are delivered flat. And you feel the moment the director makes the magical sign to power on the mechanical puppets. You get the police station. Outdoors. A man is calm. The blond old women deliver their lines with obvious bore. Like Frankenstein awaken the man becomes agitated. He even goes to his car to get a baseball bat. Next scene, same time. Indoors. The same man is docile.A lot of unused characters. A lot of pointless scenes. Yet NO STORY. Sure, Romanians seem to identify the story with local political circus. But how about the people who can't play their own imagined story when the trigger stimulus kicks in? There is no change. The characters remain flat all the way. The music is bad. The contrast in volume is disturbing. And it all ends with an Italian song??? The camera is awful. Maybe it's a subtle irony: the killer does not drink, but the camera operator does. The frame bounces and swirls around with no clear purpose. To make things worse there are erratic zooms too. Why? It's a mystery.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

dipesh parmar Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer's 'Child's Pose' is a drama about a rich, dysfunctional family in Bucharest, where one incident unravels the very fabric that holds them together.Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) is the controlling mother who dominates this film, an architect with the right connections thanks to her businessman husband Aurelian (Florin Zamfirescu). She is estranged from her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache), and blames Barbu's girlfriend Carmen (Ilinca Goia) for this separation. In fact, she spends most of her time bemoaning everyone in her family, completely blinkered to the fact that she's probably most at fault for creating such a hideous family structure.Barbu gets into serious trouble which will most certainly change his life, but how much depends on him and his family. He seems set on doing the right thing and pleading his guilt, as we would all hope. But Cornelia railroads her way to the front to play the devoted mother, closely followed by her sister-in-law, Olga (Natasa Raab). We see Cornelia the operator, manipulating the situation and dictating the lives of all concerned. She struts around in her fur coat, telling the police what should be done, namedropping others within her elite circle of Bucharest society, so that she gets what she thinks she's entitled to.Our distaste for Cornelia grows exponentially, such is her lack of remorse and disregard for all around her as long as "my baby" is not harmed. Everything she does has an ulterior motive, even her maid is wary of any communication she has with her. To witness the presence of Cornelia involves being undermined by her, with hidden meanings and veiled threats, all to illustrate who is in charge. Such is her need for control and maintaining standards, she even dictates the novels that Barbu should be reading. Of course, her sole aim is to get Barbu back for herself, she's not remotely interested in his life and his partner and couldn't care less about his predicament. Barbu knows the more his mother is involved the harder she will make her life. He probably prefers a life in jail just to get away from his scheming mother!As with other recent Romanian films such as 'Beyond the Hills', '4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days', and 'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu', 'Child's Pose' poses difficult questions in a Romanian society finally free from the Ceaușescu regime. This film is all about class, entitlement, and how one tyrannical system has been replaced by one thats just as bad for the majority. Gheorghiu is superb as the monstrous Cornelia, joining an ever- increasing list of mothers from hell in film. Just like the aforementioned films, 'Child's Pose' is gritty and occasionally heavy-handed but you have to admire its intelligence and single-mindedness.

Roland E. Zwick A haunting slide-of-life drama from Romania, "Child's Pose" explores the strained relationship between a middle-aged mother and her adult son, set within the context of an unspeakable human tragedy. Cornelia Keneres, portrayed with masterful understatement and restraint by Luminita Gheorghiu, is a haughty, emotionally aloof woman who, nevertheless, just can't seem to cut the cords that bind her to her only child, Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache). Barbu, of course, resents his mother's endless interference in his life, an interference that is only intensified when he tragically runs over and kills a 14-year-old boy who's crossing a freeway on which Barbu is driving recklessly. Because Barbu seems devoid of initiative in trying to make things right with both the legal system and the family of the victim, Cornelia launches into full Mama Bear mode, lavishing large sums of money in her wake as she attempts to clean up the life-shattering mess her son has made for himself and others. Is Cornelia now paying the consequences for treating her son as a child for so long? Is that why he now finds himself unable to step up to the plate and accept responsibility for his actions as a mature adult should?Filmed in a wholly realistic and naturalistic style, "Child's Pose" is about as far from melodrama as a movie about life-and-death issues could possibly be. There are no grand speeches, no emotional outbursts springing from the tragic events of the story. The movie makes us feel as if we are eavesdropping on these people as they go about the business of trying to make sense of an entirely senseless situation. As such, we get to witness first-hand the agony and grief, the bitterness and guilt, and the thirst for redemption that the various characters are going through. As embodied by the extraordinary Gheorghiu, Cornelia becomes a fascinatingly complex character made up of any number of inconsistencies and contradictions. For instance, she's constantly deriding Barbu for not being a man, for making a mess of his life and not fulfilling the hopes she and his father had for him when he was younger. Yet, it is her very insistence on meddling, mothering him and stepping in to solve all his problems that is the key factor in making him this way. And is she truly moved by the concerns of the grieving parties or is she motivated more by the fate of her own son and the guilt she might be feeling for the way she raised him?Flawlessly written and directed by Cailin Peter Netzer (with Razvan Radulescu as co-writer), the movie ends on a powerful note, one that hints at the barest possibility for reconciliation and redemption for the individuals involved. It's a largely wordless moment, heartbreakingly silent and obliquely shot, and it is a moment that will linger long in the memory of anyone who sees it.

agnesdac 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.