NYFF podcast. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days.

In our first podcast from the New York Film Festival (through October 10), Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis talk with Charles Taylor, a columnist at the Newark Star-Ledger and a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Newsday, Slate and the New York Observer, about 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days [site]. To listen or download, click here.

You may notice that Aaron says this is "another" podcast, and yes, that's because there's a healthy batch of these to appear throughout the festival, each one a conversation with a different film critic. I'm posting this one now because the NYFF will screen 4 Months tomorrow afternoon and again on Monday evening. Earlier: Toronto and NYFF reviews and previews; and the first round of reviews from Cannes, where, of course, the film would go on to win the Palme d'Or.

Updates, 9/30: "Mungiu's film is not only an understated allegory for the inviolability of humanity and solidarity in times of profound crisis, but also a personal testament to a forgotten, recent past that has been suppressed from a society's collective consciousness in the wake of profound social transformation," writes acquarello. "In essence, rather than recreating an interesting, but archaic national artifact, the film remains contemporary and exceedingly relevant, not only in its attempt to exorcise and come to terms with an unreconciled history, but also as a cautionary tale on the preciousness of earned rights and personal freedoms that have been taken far too much for granted in a social climate of expected liberties, political herding, comparative wealth, and cultural apathy."

"[W]hat makes [The Death of Mr Lazarescu] such a freakish miracle is how it is both deathly serious and hilariously alive at the exact same time," writes Michael Tully. "I just reread Crime and Punishment and am more convinced than ever that [Cristi] Puiu's film is the closest to Dostoevsky cinema has ever come. Still, I can't recommend 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days highly enough. It is, without question, one of this festival's true must-sees."

Updates, 10/1: "It is no surprise at all that the tensions of a Dardenne-style social realism and the MacGuffins and unseen horrors of Hitchcock's brand of thriller would work so well together, but Mungiu makes certain by leaving no anxiety unexposed, no outrage unspoken," writes Tom Hall.

"It's a riveting, wrenching, horrifying and beautifully told story," adds Marcy Dermansky.

Update, 10/4: At Reverse Shot, Michael Koresky argues that 4 Months is "unerringly fixated on matters of female self-preservation, survival, togetherness and alienation." What's more, "Whether ensconced in grim realism or, at times, bathed in almost noirish shadow, 4 Months displays a true film artist at work.... Mungiu's instincts are on-target nearly scene for scene, but its aesthetic is not as rigorous (read: alienating, for some) as those in [Lazarescu and 12:08 East of Bucharest]; focused on character, motivation, and universal notions of marginalized sisterhood, 4 Months could bring the Romanian new wave a lot closer to mainstream art-house acceptance."

Update, 10/6: "[T]he final shot of 4 Months is devastating in its summation of what the film is really about: the tenuous bonds of youth - the friendships and love that are rumored to never again be so strong - that when tested will either snap along with what's left of your innocence or cement you together forever," writes Michelle Orange at the Reeler.

Update, 10/13: Online listening tip. Keith Uhlich talks with Mungiu for Zoom In Online and the House Next Door.

Update, 10/19: "Mungiu's technical choices (the film takes place over the course of a single day and grippingly feels it) and the fierce commitment of his cast are so impressive in the moment that they near-completely obscure the hollowness at the film's center; if we were to measure movies solely by immediate experience, 4 Months would be, most decidedly, a masterpiece," writes Keith Uhlich at the House Next Door. "Yet retrospect forces a more temperate and considered view, for 4 Months' heavily practiced mise en scène (by Mungiu's own admission it was repeatedly drilled and rehearsed - as it turns out, to within an inch of its life) finally emphasizes a deep disconnect between form and meaning."

Posted by dwhudson at September 28, 2007 6:02 AM