Page 144 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 144
from walter benjamin to the end of cinema
A film of Corneliu Porumboiu is known in the West under the title
12:08 East of Bucharest (2006), which is not the translation of the original
title A fost sau n-a fost? that alludes to an essentially different dimension
of film’s topic. The English title refers to the location in Romanian prov-
ince and to the time, at which Nicolae Ceauşescu fled, when the revolution
broke out: 12:08 on December 22, 1989. The original Romanian title trans-
lates to something in a sense “Was There or Wasn’t There?” Namely, the
central theme of the film is the question of whether the Romanian town of
Vaslui participated in the 1989 revolution or not? A rather ironic answering,
which is circling throughout a good part of the film around this question,
depends on whether the city really had any protest before – and not just af-
ter – the moment of Ceauşescu’s flight. The film obviously points to a very
recognisable political signifier, but it has rather specific features, compar-
ing it to many other films of the Balkans, which are marked by some polit-
ical meaning, message or topic. In the film of Corneliu Porumboiu we can
find an illustration of the spirit of the time, the contours of which are more
and more clearly delineated after the transition of the Balkan former so-
cialist countries to a different political and economic social (dis)order. The
joining of some of these countries to the European Union allegedly com-
pleted this process. As far as the aesthetic side is concerned, the movie sur-
prises us with images, the rhythm of the editing and general atmosphere
which are very similar to what older spectators would recall from the waves
of openly or metaphorically socially critical films in the age of socialism
and late modernism. What we have in mind here, are films from the 1960s
and 1970s from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and former Yugoslavia.
Apparently, imperfect film images were taken with an unstable camera.
Quite dull, more black than white or dark-coloured films were finished in
frequently not very precise film processing laboratories. The action was set
in dilapidated, untidy, ruined environments with actors, who had appeared
as quite authentic non-professionals; dialogues in a rather un-censored
speech, and many other such features characterised these films. Howev-
er, all this in combination with well-written scripts, often based on an in-
herent cynicism of dialogues and realistic images, emitted strong, reflexive
and witty messages.
What have these indexes of former socialist times to do in the film shot
seventeen years after the end of socialism? The film gives an answer by ac-
tually depicting the dubiousness of success of the uprising against social-
142
A film of Corneliu Porumboiu is known in the West under the title
12:08 East of Bucharest (2006), which is not the translation of the original
title A fost sau n-a fost? that alludes to an essentially different dimension
of film’s topic. The English title refers to the location in Romanian prov-
ince and to the time, at which Nicolae Ceauşescu fled, when the revolution
broke out: 12:08 on December 22, 1989. The original Romanian title trans-
lates to something in a sense “Was There or Wasn’t There?” Namely, the
central theme of the film is the question of whether the Romanian town of
Vaslui participated in the 1989 revolution or not? A rather ironic answering,
which is circling throughout a good part of the film around this question,
depends on whether the city really had any protest before – and not just af-
ter – the moment of Ceauşescu’s flight. The film obviously points to a very
recognisable political signifier, but it has rather specific features, compar-
ing it to many other films of the Balkans, which are marked by some polit-
ical meaning, message or topic. In the film of Corneliu Porumboiu we can
find an illustration of the spirit of the time, the contours of which are more
and more clearly delineated after the transition of the Balkan former so-
cialist countries to a different political and economic social (dis)order. The
joining of some of these countries to the European Union allegedly com-
pleted this process. As far as the aesthetic side is concerned, the movie sur-
prises us with images, the rhythm of the editing and general atmosphere
which are very similar to what older spectators would recall from the waves
of openly or metaphorically socially critical films in the age of socialism
and late modernism. What we have in mind here, are films from the 1960s
and 1970s from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and former Yugoslavia.
Apparently, imperfect film images were taken with an unstable camera.
Quite dull, more black than white or dark-coloured films were finished in
frequently not very precise film processing laboratories. The action was set
in dilapidated, untidy, ruined environments with actors, who had appeared
as quite authentic non-professionals; dialogues in a rather un-censored
speech, and many other such features characterised these films. Howev-
er, all this in combination with well-written scripts, often based on an in-
herent cynicism of dialogues and realistic images, emitted strong, reflexive
and witty messages.
What have these indexes of former socialist times to do in the film shot
seventeen years after the end of socialism? The film gives an answer by ac-
tually depicting the dubiousness of success of the uprising against social-
142
