12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)

(Black Comedy) 16 years after the Revolution and just days before Christmas, a local television station in Bucharest has invited several guests to share their moments of glory, as they allegedly stormed city hall, chanting "down with Ceasescu!," before Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife fled the presidential palace by helicopter so many years ago. An alcoholic history teacher and a lonely retiree, who moonlights as Santa, are forced to answer questions from dubious viewers who aren't convinced that the Revolution ever took place in their city.

The cover of this DVD screamed HILARIOUS!

Well, it lied. I'm not sure what was supposed to be funny. I was neither laughing out loud, happily bemused, or gently tickled. Which of these characters is comic? The alcoholic professor who borrows money everywhere and lacks a spine? The cantankerous old man who has lost a dearly loved wife? The talk show host who cannot get either his guests or staff to cooperate as he attempts to build a TV station in some small town? While there could have been a human comedy here, that isn't what I saw.

These are small people, who once grappled with great events. And while the premise sounded promising, the results were far short. Was the professor actually at the square that day? I don't know. But it seems as if his memory is fueled by alcohol and regret. Who knows? Does it matter? Did the old man participate? After the fact, when others came streaming out to celebrate the overthrow of Communism. Someone else did the work; they were hangers-on and bystanders, like most of us. And maybe they wish they weren't. Courage, especially in Communist countries, was, and is, a rare commodity for a reason--the brave often ended up dead.

Post Communist Romania does not look like a happy place. The film is gray and grimy. The houses are squalid. The streets are empty. Everything looks cheap, shabby, and crowded. And then, at the end, the snow starts coming down, and for a day at least, the world will look to be a lovely place. But the overt symbolism of the lights going off and coming on was a little heavy handed, with too much time spent watching those lights. Poignant, maybe. But not hilarious.

So, if the theme of this movie is that people like to remember themselves more heroically than they actually were, well, then I guess that's true. Not a lot there, though the material was available, and this small film about small people never really generated the traction necessary for me to care. October 9, 2008

Start the Revolution Without Me

"12:08 East of Bucharest" is a droll Romanian comedy that deftly examines how the citizens of that country look back on one of the pivotal events in their nation's history.

The movie takes place 16 years to the day (December 22, 1989) after the Communist government, led by dictator Nikolai Ceausescu, was overthrown in that country. Now, Jderescu, the host of a local TV talk show, is hoping to commemorate that anniversary by examining what role his own town might have played in that seminal event. The issue Jderescu hopes to settle is whether a revolution actually took place in their town or whether the citizens simply waited till it was "safe" - i.e. after Ceausescu had already fled the scene by helicopter at precisely 12:08 PM on that fateful day - before venturing out in protest. Jderescu has chosen to have two "common folk" guests on his show to discuss the matter - an alcoholic history teacher named Manescu, and a cranky retired old man named Piscoci. Manescu at first tries to pass himself off as a hero, claiming that he and a group of friends headed over to the town square before the downfall of the government, but conflicting testimony from some of the callers to the show begins to call into question the truthfulness of his story.

"12:08 East of Bucharest" feels a bit like two movies combined into one. The first is a casually paced, noncommittal look into the everyday lives of three citizens of this town. We see Jderescu having breakfast with his wife, making phone calls to re-confirm the guests for his show, and spending time with his mistress, a beautiful young reporter at the station where he works. Manescu struggles with a hangover from the night before, visits the bar to pay his tab, apologizes to a Chinese merchant he insulted while drunk, and contends with a bunch of recalcitrant students who would much rather be setting off firecrackers in the hallway than learning about the Romanian Revolution (though they all seem to know about the French Revolution well enough). Meanwhile, Piscoci divides his time between fighting with his television set and buying a Santa Claus suit for an upcoming children's party at which he`s been asked to perform. Writer/director Comeliu Porumboiu has filmed this section almost entirely in medium and long shots with virtually no close-ups or cutting within scenes. The advantage of this naturalistic approach is that it allows the scenes to play out in what feels like real time, while the disadvantage is that it distances us somewhat from the characters, making it harder for us to identify with them and the things we see them doing.

Still, this section helps us to better understand why a man like Manescu might feel compelled to place himself center stage at an event of such profoundly historic magnitude. Perhaps it affords him the opportunity at long last of being an active participant in history, rather than a mere teacher of it. We all create new identities for ourselves, Porumboiu seems to be arguing in his film, for who among us wants to be known as nothing more than a face in the crowd, a person ground down to nothing by the prosaic realities of our humdrum existence? Heck, even Jderescu, the talk show host, is finally unmasked on-air for the mere textile worker he was in the years before the revolution. Apparently, personal reinvention is not something exclusive to movie actors and rock stars anymore.

However, it's when we get to the talk show itself that the movie truly begins to engage our interest. As caller after caller deflates Manescu's attempts at making himself out to be the hero he probably wasn`t, we get the sense that Porumboiu is implying that the issue itself may not even be worth debating all these years later. Just because Manescu and his fellow unarmed citizens didn`t risk their lives by confronting the Communist military doesn`t make them bad people. Still, there`s no denying that Manescu's appearance on the show brings to the surface a whole host of feelings on the part of the general populace regarding the part each of them played in the revolution. By opening up this dialogue, the movie, I imagine, serves a healing function for the Romanian people. What matters for the rest of us is that the movie raises these issues with so much genuine humor and compassion that the dilemma becomes instantly recognizable for viewers the world over. August 11, 2008

CORNELIU PORUMBOIU, OPUS 1

*** 2006. Written and directed by Corneliu Porumboiu. Two prizes in Cannes and a European Film award nomination in the Best Screenplay category. In a small Romanian city, a TV journalist invites two guests for his afternoon talk-show. The debate will be about this unanswered question: was it or wasn't it a revolution in the town sixteen years before, in December 1989 ? Well, I liked the black humor of the film, I liked the Romanian language that is so close to French and Italian, in short I liked the first half of the movie. The second half of 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST which features Virgil Jderescu's TV program is in my opinion of lower quality and fails to create, in the viewer's mind or heart, empathy or simply some interest for the situation or the characters involved. A DVD zone discovery. July 1, 2008

'The Human Comedy'

In America it's frequently a topic of conversation: "Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated?" Most likely for another generation it will be, "Where were you during the events of 9/11?" For Romania's `12:08 East of Bucharest,' television talk show host, Jderescu (Ion Sapdara), asks the big question: "Was there a Revolution?" Referring to the events of Christmas, 1989, when Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, was executed, Jderescu questions two guests during a panel discussion, seeking the true nature of those events. His guest experts are Emanoil Piscoci (Mircea Andreescus), the elder, and Professor Tiberia Manescu (Teo Corban), the younger, two dullards who understandably have difficulty making a commitment to their testimony. The core of his interview attempts to show where they were and what part did they play during those life-changing events.

Part human comedy, part gentle satire, the film zeroes in on the lives of these three men with all their mundane wrappings to reveal an amusing and honest portrait of regular people during revolutionary events. What I like about this film is that it uses a feather rather than a mallet to debunk the romantic notions of bravery and folklore to get at the truth of the matter.

Before the interview we find Jderescu, an alcoholic who drives up debt and has a superficial friendship with a Chinese fireworks salesman. Noting that, like Italy, Romania is prone to celebrate Christmas with firecrackers, the film finds opportunities to show annoying pranksters taking advantage of a noisy novelty during a central holiday--like we do for the Fourth of July. The Professor comes across like a paper tiger as he tries to intimidate his students, yet assigns them an elective term topic about The French Revolution. Meanwhile, Emanoil is readying his worn Santa Claus suit.

Also marking the anniversary of Romania's independence from Communism, the movie first makes us care about it's participants; then, it has them stumbling over each other on television. There's no good in giving samples, but Virgil states explicitly there is to be no profanity while they are on the air. The second funny factor is the call-in format. Several people call the host; some of them are acquaintances who contradict the testimony of the allegedly expert witnesses. Arguments ensue as Virgil tries to mediate the increasing chaos.

Besides a warm and funny script, '12:08 East of Bucharest' has an easy hook. The film identifies its characters so easily that the most subtitle intolerant will find the movie richly rewarding. Just like 'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu' before it,' (but not as real-time taxing) the acting is almost documentary authentic. I can think of Ion Sapdaru as being the comic Romanian equivalent of Bob Newhart, except that misses the target. Instead of a man with a plastered smile, a blushing face, and sputtering speech, we see him stumble with a composure that begins to unravel in real life measures.

To make a comparison in the U.S., it has sometimes been said that more people have bragged of attending Woodstock than actually were there. And that is the heart of this movie. Without a mean-spirited bone in its body, `12:08 East of Bucharest' pokes fun at the difference between human folklore and human fact. May 15, 2008

a delight to watch

The original title of this film can be translated as Was There or Wasn't There? which is the name of the fictional TV programme in the film. Even today Romanians puzzle over this question. Was there or wasn't there a revolution in 1989, Romania? And you watch this film and you keep waiting for an answer, and waiting...and then you realise what matters is that the real/fake revolution got the ball rolling. People can now freely ask: was there or wasn't there a revolution?

12:08 East Of Bucharest is a delight to watch. Finely scripted, the dialogue is never anything less than sharp, to the point and amusing. As a viewer, I found myself going along with the three main characters (the sad old man desperate to be heard, the TV host lost in a meaningless world, the professor drowning his regrets) and feeling like they're people I've met somewhere along the way, people I could relate to. So incredible is the acting (as pointed out, by respected reviewers, the timing of the actors is immaculate) I never once doubted the scenes that I was presented with or the ideas. And what better compliment is there than that? Don't let the title put you off. Don't let the lack of publicity put you off. If you're a fan of European cinema, great cinema or original comedy you must watch 12:08 East Of Bucharest.

Bogdan Tiganov - author of The Wooden Tongue Speaks: Romanians: Contradictions and Realities May 13, 2008

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