- Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is on one helluva boring stakeout in Romanian black comedy
POLICE, ADJECTIVE (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2009)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Sunday, December 6, 7:00
Tickets: $10
www.icrny.org
www.ifcfilms.com
The first half of Corneliu Porumboiu’s POLICE, ADJECTIVE is as dreadfully boring as detective Cristi’s (Dragos Bucur) assignment, tailing a student, Victor (Radu Costin), who enjoys a joint with two of his friends every day after school. While Cristi wants to nail the kid’s supplier, the cop’s boss has him on a tight deadline, insisting he arrest Victor if the investigation continues to go nowhere, but Cristi strongly disagrees with putting the teenager away for up to seven years for a crime he believes will soon be abolished by the government. However, the film picks up considerably as Cristi seeks help from various contacts, getting caught up in red tape and public servants who would really rather not be bothered. And when he get called in by the chief (Vlad Ivanov from 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, and 2 DAYS) and gets a long lecture in linguistics, well, you won’t be able to control yourself from laughing out loud. Porumboiu (12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST) keeps the pace very slow and very steady, but hang in there, because the end is a riot. POLICE, ADJECTIVE won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, screened at the New York Film Festival, and is Romania’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
POLICE, ADJECTIVE, which opens in New York on December 23, is showing at Tribeca Cinemas as part of the fourth annual Romanian Film Festival. Romanian cinema has seen an international resurgence in recent years, highlighted by the success of such outstanding films as Cristian Mungiu’s 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS and 2 DAYS and Cristi Puiu’s THE DEATH OF MISTER LAZARESCU. The festival includes such works as Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujică’s VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION, Thomas Ciulei’s THE FLOWER BRIDGE, Peter Strickland’s KATALIN VARGA, Horaţiu Mălăele’s SILENT WEDDING, and Adrian Sitaru’s HOOKED, among other U.S. premieres and “Waving at the Revolution” retrospective screenings. Directors, producers, and actors will be on hand for several postscreening Q&A sessions; star Vlad Ivanov will participate in a Q&A following the closing-night screening of POLICE, ADJECTIVE on December 6. In addition, Ivanov and fellow actors Horatiu Malaele and Andi Vasluianu will appear at the Romanian Cultural Institute on Third Ave. and 38th St. on December 7 at 8:30 for a special “Actors of the New Romanian Wave” free happy hour event.