MONSTERS (2019) – drama film online

Directed by: Marius Olteanu
Script: Marius Olteanu
Cast: Judith State, Cristian Popa, Alexandru Potocean, Șerban Pavlu, Dorina Lazăr, Gabriel Răuță, Alina Berzunteanu, Alina Tarbă, Rolando Matsangos
Producer: Claudiu Mitcu, Robert Fița, Ion Ioachim Stroe, Marius Olteanu
Cinematography by: Luchian Ciobanu
Edited by: Ion Ioachim Stroe
Sound: Ioan Filip
Year: 2019
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 115 minutes

90,041 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

A long time married couple comes to decide within 24 hours, through encounters with strangers, that letting go might be their biggest proof of love.

AWARDS:

• 2019 – Berlin International Film Festival – Tagesspiegel Audience Award
• 2019 – Sofia International Film Festival – Grand Prize
• 2019 – TIFF – Romanian Film Days Debut Award
• 2019 – Filmski Festival Herceg Novi – Golden Mimosa Trophy for Best Screenplay
• 2019 – Black Canvas Contemporary Film Festival, Mexico – Special Jury Mention
• 2019 – Zona Festival, Belgrade – Best Film Award

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“This intelligent and sensitive movie about the tangled sex lives of beautiful, solemn and carefree people (who spend the third chapter sadly bent over their own relationship, x-raying or autopsying it), could perhaps have done with a little more curiosity about other things and other worlds. True, there’s the taxi driver character, clearly from outside their bubble, but there’s also a damf of middle-class infatuation in his relation to the communist mammy (Dorina Lazăr, the unforgettable actress in Angela goes further, here in a caricatured role), with her trinkets and her millieums, who keeps it one and the same that she wants grandchildren and is unable to understand the complexities of the scruples and anxieties of a bisexual in love in Generation X.” – Andrei Gorzo, scena9.ro

“The actors are wonderful. Even their bodies seem to synchronize in a familiar way, even though there is no longer any physical attraction between their characters. How sad it must be to love and be loved without being in love; how guilty and helpless you must feel when the one person who stands by you, knowing the truth about you – is at the same time the one person the truth hurts the most.” – Variety.

“The protagonists live the drama of loneliness-in-couple – as in Michelangelo Antonioni’s films, words are superfluous (or make things worse), things are consumed in regret, in city wanderings; even the bridge over the railroad at the end, on which the characters-martyr carry their sadness further, is Antonionian – a similar scene, anthological, took place in Cronaca di un amore (1950).” – Victor Morozov, agenda.liternet.ro

“For an intimate movie, concerned with the discreet flows passing from one member of the couple to the other, Monsters. has a lot to say about society: on the radio, a newscast announces (perfect timing!), the referendum on the “traditional family”, and another station broadcasts a religious service. The movie, which focuses on the social strata of beautiful and free young people (Dana and Arthur have no material difficulties, their worries are of a different nature), loses all its sharpness when it comes into contact with the others, who are all seen as intruders:an annoying neighbor (Gabriel Răuță) won’t shut up in Dana’s presence, perorating racist and snorting remarks, while – implausibly – his wife is about to give birth; the next day, Dana and Arthur endure the ordeal (Church + party) of a baptism: all their friends have children and they only discuss it.” – Victor Morozov, agenda.liternet.ro

“You really have to see it, see the movie, it’s totally worth it. ‘Monsters’ is a movie that follows us through festivals, from Berlinale to Istanbul. And it’s making waves. Three cleverly interweaving stories, a couple at times atypical, at others banal. The first plot, complex and with some humor, is convincing and touching, the second will stir up some controversy, as will the rather audacious poster, and the last one some question marks!” – Irina Margareta Nistor, romanialibera.ro

“The separation and isolation between the two is also evident visually: when they are not together, the image has a square format, crammed on the left, leaving a black box on the right (creating the expectation that it is to be filled at some point by another character). It is a city sadness augmented by the city lights, by a sleepy and sleepy Bucharest, from which other personal dramas emerge (a woman who falls on the street and refuses help, Dana’s neighbors looking for a taxi to get to the maternity ward, etc.)” – Georgiana Mușat, scena9.ro

“The movie doesn’t stake the discovery that Andrei is attracted to men. Things are laid out transparently, even if they reveal themselves dramatically along the way. The truth is out in the open, at least within the couple, and this leaves room for careful observation of the individual, as well as couple, dynamics of the protagonists. The focus is on the subtleties of their life strategies.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

“The frame that opens the movie, a long trav on the platform of the North Station, already establishes the reading. As the camera glides along the platform, a myriad of passengers pass in front of the lens. Without a precise target, the question hovers in the air: who are we going to stop on? At one point, a young woman walks parallel to the lens for a few seconds: the story could be hers. But the camera loses her and stops only at the end of the platform where, behind the train, Dana’s silhouette can be seen. We have a similar execution in the way we first reach Andrei. The camera starts in a tracking shot, from the back, with the trainer of a fitness gym. It sweeps around the gym and finally reaches the protagonist, who is just one of the workout participants.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• Born in 1979, Marius Olteanu is a director, screenwriter and producer. He graduated in Directing from the “I.L. Caragiale” University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts in Bucharest (2004) and from the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the UK (2008).
• His most recent films are the short films “Tie” (2015) and “No Man’s Land” (2017), which have been selected in more than 30 festivals, including Busan, Tallinn, Namur and TIFF. Marius Olteanu is also a photographer.
• “Monsters.” is the director’s feature film debut.
• The tour lasted 27 days and is based on real stories, with the author interviewing couples who have been married for 5 or 10 years in his desire to document the film as well as possible.
• “Monsters. was the only Romanian film project present at the Berlinale in 2019.
• The director started working on the movie in 2016: “I started writing the script in 2016, this in the context that at that time there was already the short film “Tie” (2015), which is part of “Monsters.” Reworking the first part, however, involved rewrites, with the characters having a different scope, a different length and a relatively different journey. I was glad to be able to go back to them, as they were characters I cared very deeply about and felt deserved to be delved into.
• The film team enjoyed the support of the National Film Center (almost half of the budget) and other sources of income (“the cinema tax paid by companies, sponsorships and prizes at various project pitches – the prize offered by Les Films de Cannes a Bucharest, namely Orange, was very helpful, an award that influenced the whole festival life of the film” – Marius Olteanu).
• The Romanian Orthodox Church forbade filming in the place of worship, which astonished the director, he says.
  • Asked about his motivation for making the movie, Marius Olteanu replies: “I was interested in what happens to the relationship between two people in the long term. Maybe also because for me the term ‘long’ has never been too much of a long term. I still find it a wonder for example how my grandparents were able to stay together for 60 years. With the facts of today’s world it seems impossible to me. And yet I think that in many of us that ‘happily ever after’ has birthed some ‘monsters’, a need for something beyond what this world of unlimited choices seems to offer.”
• To make sure the actors truly internalized the role and what it would really entail for a couple to save their relationship, he took them to a psychotherapist.
• Asked about the choice of title, the director says: “I realized after the dozens of screenings I attended that everyone has their monsters. For some they are the main characters, for others the judges, for others the representatives of ‘normality’, for some they are the spectators themselves. I anticipated these reactions when I chose the title, and yes, I think that despite the fact that many said it was too harsh, it also sums up well what the characters feel about themselves and the label that others, viewers or secondary characters, stick on them without batting an eyelid.”
• Originally, the actress to play Arthur’s grandmother was Stela Popescu. “Everything was perfect. I went to Tallinn with a new short film, No Man`s Land, and I got a message one night that Stela Popescu had died. At first I thought it was a bad joke,” the director told Metropolis Newspaper. The role of Arthur had also been written for Sorin Leoveanu.
• About the connection with the Romanian New Wave, the director said, “Apart from the performance of the actors – I would say that the acting remains in a realistic zone, or at least that was the intention – the movie is not in the realistic zone, formally (sonically and visually).”

LINES:

• “Taxi, miss?” – Taxi driver (Alexandru Potocean)
• “I took his keys. If that stupid idiot gets in the car, she’ll be a wreck. She’s looking for her earrings in the middle of the road.” – Taxi driver (Alexandru Potocean)
• “If you sell the apartment, we, the owners’ association, have a say.” – Popescu (Gabriel Răuță)
• “All assholes make babies.” – Taxi driver (Alexandru Potocean)
• “You know, it’s easy to judge people superficially.” – Dana (Judith State)
• “You don’t look happy. That’s why I thought someone was cheating on you” – Taxi Driver (Alexandru Potocean)
• “After you didn’t say anything on the app, I thought you were a rag like the others. I went to my mom.” – Alex (Șerban Pavlu)
• “The Romanian came out of him.” – Alex (Șerban Pavlu)
• “Seriously. I really like the coliva de mor.” – Arthur (Cristian Popa)
• “You finish that coliva… and then maybe we can do something.” – Alex (Șerban Pavlu)
• “You know that saying? Bad moment, nice col cologne.” – Arthur (Cristina Popa)
• “I don’t know if I told you, but I don’t kiss.” – Alex (Șerban Pavlu)
• “Now I feel like kissing you because I know I can’t.” – Arthur (Cristina Popa)
• “Please, if you don’t mind, stay dressed… and put your socks on. It would be even cooler if they were white.” – Alex (Șerban Pavlu)
• “What would you do if I told you I fucked Vlad Stanciu?” – Dana (Judith State)
• “With a second baby, you’re not nervous. It’s more about organization.” – Alina’s husband (Rolando Matsangos)
• “You don’t want to fit in, that’s it! I understand!” – Mamaie (Dorina Lazăr)
• “Today you are, tomorrow you’re not. The safest sure thing is a child.” – Mamaie (Dorina Lazăr)
• “If there was honey everywhere, there’d be beehives on a horse’s ass.” – Mamaie (Dorina Lazăr)

ARTICLES:

• The feature film “Monsters.” by director Marius Olteanu, screened in 80 Parisian cinemas – icr.ro
• Marius Olteanu, director: “I think we’ve been trained to be jerks. I’m ashamed that sometimes I feel like I’m suffocating myself walking down the street.” – culturaladuba.ro
• Monsters, a movie by Marius Olteanu – cnc.gov.ro
• “Monsters.”, by Marius Olteanu, best debut film at the International Film Festival of India – news.ro
• Marius Olteanu-directed “Monsters.” has won the Best Debut Award at the 50th International Film Festival of India – forbes.ro
• Director Marius Olteanu goes with ”Monsters.”. To Berlin – radioromaniacultural.ro
• Review: “Monsters.”, directed by Marius Olteanu, a micro-history of the fear and insecurity that accompany love – adevarul.ro
• Marius Olteanu: “Monsters.” talks about partial truths – ziarulmetropolis.ro
• “Monsters.”, directed by Marius Olteanu, selected for Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – adevarul.ro
• On intimacy in today’s prejudiced society – suplimentulduldecultura.ro
• In the Night – „Monsters.” – agenda.liternet.ro
• Interview Marius Olteanu, award-winning Romanian director at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival: “Monsters.” Aesthetically breaks away from the New Wave and does it assumed and with some joy – g4media.ro 
• Marius Olteanu: “The lights never go out when the engine is screaming” – romanialibera.ro

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