Synopsis
Three episodes (“The Phone,” “Prospecting,” “Four Palms”) from the life of a film crew that is in production with the movie “Happiness.”
THE FIRST PART
THE SECOND PART
Directed by: Alexandru Tatos
Cast: George Paul Avram, Emilia Dobrin, Dragos Pîslaru, Mircea Diaconu, Constantin Drăgănescu, Geo Barton, Luminiţa Gheorghiu
Script: Alexandru Tatos
Producers: Vasilica Istrate
Cinematography by: Florin Mihailescu
Edited by: Iulia Vincenz
Sound: Marius Canini
Year: 1982
Category: feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 98 minutes
11,836 – Cinepub viewers at first part
5,816 – Cinepub viewers at second part
PLOT SUMMARY
In this interesting drama, three sequences which could have formed separate stories are linked together, like cars on a train, to give a larger perspective on the nature of reality and film. The three episodes are joined together by one film crew at work on two different jobs.
In the beginning, the crew is introduced as they juggle their dual roles as State-supported propagandists who laud their government and society, and as private movie makers working on their own film. Next, they are in a restaurant looking for suitable locations to film when the eatery’s owner, through no fault of his own, is induced to wax long and lugubriously on his miserable life.
In the last segment, two extras are in the background of a scene, sitting at a table in a restaurant. It slowly becomes apparent to one of them that the man he’s sitting with tortured him more than 40 years ago at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.
WHAT DIRECTOR SAID
“We tend to stop at appearances, bypassing the truth of reality and the truth of creation, which themselves are so relative. That’s what I tried to convey in ‘Sequences'” (Alexandru Tatos).
WHAT CRITICS SAID
“Tatos’s sequences (three in number) represent a rare species of Romanian filmmaker eager for the truth. He aims to prove that the artist’s sources of inspiration float in the air, and that the truth is always beyond appearances; the director who films the drama of loneliness is also sentenced to solitude, the head of the Buffet is a tragic character, the obscure extras on the set hide more vibrant dramas than the banalities filmed about people” (Tudor Caranfil).
AWARDS
- 1982 – ACIN – Award for directing
- 1982 – Costineşti – Award for directing and Special Jury Award for male performance (Mircea Diaconu)
ARTICLES
- Layers Alexandru Tatos’ Sequences (Secvente, 1982) – Alina Popescu – 2012 – eefb.org
- Sequences cu Alexandru Tatos – Ioan-Pavel Azap – tribuna-magazine.com
- „Sequences”. The eulogy of the ignored – Ionuţ Mareş – 2017 – ziarulmetropolis.ro
- Sequences (1982) – Bogdan JITEA – 2022 – iiccmer.ro
