Been having my own Radu Jude fest leading into his new one, Kontinental 25
Kontinental '25
Continues the string of Jude's recent work where everyday people have to examine what it's like being a cog in the global imperial capitalist machine. A bailiff for a real estate developer finds herself spiraling in the wake of a tragic encounter while evicting a poor tenant. Looking for a semblance of morality in the failures of capitalism/nationalism but all you find is the passive violence within. Tons of long takes arguing about morality and guilt, quoting Brecht, and ribbing Wim Wender's Perfect Days. How do the petit bourgeois process guilt? They mourn through the lens of how they feel about it for a bit then go on their vacation. Needless to say, I loved it. Missing the humor of Do Not Expect... but he probably didn't have much left after Dracula, which he shot at the same time.
I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians
Capturing the absurdity of present day is what Jude does best. Specifically, capturing how awful everyday people can be with stomach churning conversations where they believe their bigotry is rational and correct. A director is attempting to put on a true to history reenactment of the 1941 Odessa massacre but receives pushback from her bosses and locals as they don't see why Romania should be portrayed so negatively. The guerilla filmmaking feel of this closely matches Kontinental. The highly emotional arguments match Do Not Expect... Probably lesser than those two overall though.
Aferim!
This movie knocked me on my ass. A handsomely staged period piece with all of the acerbic wit and nasty provocations I love from Jude. Plays out like a John Ford Western by way of Hal Ashby's The Last Detail, as a constable and his son search the Wallachian landscape for a fugitive slave. Stylistically it may have very little in common with his recent stretch but thematically, the through lines are there. It's every bit as angry and baffled at the racism at the core of Romanian identity as his works set in the present. Maybe the funniest western ever made while still containing some truly horrific shit.
