A fost sau n-a fost? [12:08 East of Bucharest]

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© A.J. Malouin 2008

(Rating: 4 by The Film Snob.)
(See our side-bar page “How Caryl & Al Rate Movies”)

(2006/Romania. Written and directed by Corneilu Porumboiu.)
This is a lovely, funny, charming Romanian film offering huge rewards to anyone with the patience to let things develop — and the courage to read English subtitles.

It’s not funny and witty in the way that (to choose one tragic example) American movies like (Forgive Us!) “Blades of Glory” are thought to be funny.(1) (Not!)

It is more subtle and lots funnier than the bludgeoning you get at the hands of most current American comedies.(2)

The Film Snob saw it on The Big Screen, but that ship has long-sailed, so now you’ll have rent it for your own screening room.

Our story? It’s 16 years to the day since their leader went on TV to abdicate power as the tide turned against the Communists in Romania. Guess what time he did it.

That’s right! 12:08.

Now, 16 years later in a small town somewhere east of Bucharest, a local TV talk show host has scheduled an afternoon show built around the debatable question “Was there a revolution in *our* town?”

Was his town at the forefront of the revolution against Communist rule? Or, did it merely jump on the bandwagon, after that tide had turned?

Our film opens on the dawn of that 16th anniversary. We are shown, first of all, a too-long (it seems!) set piece of street lamps and Christmas decorations turning off in sequence.

Soon we are in the homes of various citizens who are beginning their day. We visit several homes as the citizens inside calmly come to life. One home which is in crisis, however, is that of the local talk show host, Virgil Jderescu. He cannot reach by telephone either of the two guests who are appearing on his show that afternoon.

It turns out that they have both bailed on him.

Without these two eyewitnesses to the events in the town’s square 16 years ago, the debatable question, “Was there a revolution in our town?” will turn into a 30-minute monologue on mythology.

In a panic for guests, the host phones up two men who claim to have been in the square at 12:08 on that historic day.

One is Emanoil Piscoci, an old man best known for his interpretations of Santa Claus at grade-school Christmas celebrations from 1960 through 1995.

The other is Tiberiu Manescu, a school teacher who gets drunk every night in the pub. When he does, he can’t remember what he does. Most of it, however, is no more evil than “insulting the Chinese man again.” Manescu also owes everyone in town money.

The TV talk show goes on as scheduled.

The new guest Manescu spends most of his on-camera time trying to defend his story from the gentle attacks of both the host and the host of phone callers to the show.

Old Man Piscoci spends most of *his* on-camera time fashioning paper boats out of scraps of paper, and shooting slyly snide comments into the conversation.

The audience at our screening agreed that this film is *full* of laugh-out-loud situations.

When Manescu wakes up, walks into the kitchen, and sees an scrawny Christmas leaning in the corner, he asks, “What’s that ugly thing doing here?”

“That’s what I asked when you came in last night,” Mrs. Manescu replies.

When Manescu collects his paycheck, he walks into the hallway to find six townspeople waiting in line to collect what he owes them.

When Old Man Piscoci sits on-camera fashioning paper boats, off-camera hands suddenly and repeatedly grab the papers from him.

When Old Man Piscoci is pressed about his presence in the square on the morning of the revolution, he delivers many amusing and evasion answers.

The TV station’s cameraman and the Chinese man who sells firecrackers to teenage pranksters all over town also deliver many comedic set pieces that contribute to enjoying this film.

From beginning to end, “12:08 East of Bucharest” is a quietly funny and whimsically gentle. It closes with a reverse set piece of same street lamps and Christmas decorations turning back on at dusk. This time, *far* from seeming too-long, the sequence is charming, funny, and Delicious! We want it to never end. Fly out right now, and rent this film!!!

(1 hr 29. Not rated in the USA. In Romanian, with English subtitles. With Ion Sapdaru as Tiberiu Manesc, Teodor Corban as Virgil Jderescu, and Mircea Andreescu as Emanoil Piscoci.)
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1. One of the points Al Gore made a long while ago now on “Late Night With David Letterman” was that the American media are toooo busy showing us Paris Hilton to actually show us stuff that helps Americans participate in democracy. In parallel to that, toooo many American comedies are jest [sic] not that funny.
2. “Lars and the Real Girl” is a terrific and touching exception, BTW.