SNAPSHOT AROUND THE FAMILY TABLE (1980) – romantic film online

Directed by: Ada Pistiner
Script: Ștefan Iureș
Cast: Aleksandr Kaliaghin, Anda Călugăreanu, Dorina Lazăr, Estera Neacșu, Radu Panamarenco, George Bănică, Lujza Orosz, Raluca Zamfirescu, Liviu Rozorea, Ștefan Sileanu, Sorin Postelnicu, Marian Râlea, Boris Petroff, Ion Fiscuteanu, Alexandru Amzulescu, Ștefan Niculescu, Marin Moraru (voice)
Producer: Ion Bucheru, Virgil Duda
Cinematography by: Anghel Deca
Edited by: Maria Neagu
Sound: Andrei Coler
Music: Jean Lăzăroiu
Year: 1980
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama, romantic
Duration: 82 minutes

3,204 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

The architect Filip Halunga (Aleksandr Kalyagin – voiced by Marin Moraru) leaves his family to live with Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu), a designer much younger than him, attractive and nonconformist. Halunga remorselessly leaves his family, only to return to his marital home after his new girlfriend tires of him.

AWARDS:

• 1981 – Avellino – “Laceno d’Oro” award
• 1980 – ACIN – First Opera Award (Ada Pistiner)
• 1980 – ACIN – Editing Award (Maria Neagu)

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“The movie ‘Snapshot around the family table’ (premiered in June 1980) remains, decades later, a compelling testament to exceptional talent. The director’s unique ‘Snapshot’ in the feature-length film with actors was a lucid and careful ‘x-ray’ of the everyday, of life without horizon.” – Călin Căliman, istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro

“Ada Pistiner, with an original cast (…) has practically made a movie very receptive to the sounds of reality, to the ‘broken’ sound of the evoked time.” – Călin Căliman, istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro

“Adei Pistiner’s film is a convincing proof that the best films of the ’70s generation meant, both in a cinematographic and in a social-political context, gestures of attitude.” – Călin Căliman, istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro

“Pistiner’s film refuses at every turn to fulfill the fantasy and confirms that beyond the closed horizon of a repetitive, stagnant life, there is only another dead end.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

“The parallel between Filip’s new (and increasingly dysfunctional) relationship and the mother-daughter moments (painful yet warm) is clear. Both offer, sequence after sequence, an X-ray of hope and chronic disorientation following the breakup.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

“In the film’s final moments, we get the meta-cinematic commentary promised in the title. The daughter and her boyfriend (Marian Râlea) go to the cinema. Outside, a few printed film frames are displayed in a showcase. One of them shows a festive dinner table, a static frame where everyone seems happy. Later, as they gather for dinner with Clara (where Filip is also present, suitcase in hand), Râlea’s character amusingly recounts a scene from the film they saw. As they laugh — some more reserved, some more openly — each gets a freeze-frame where they seem, at least somewhat, content.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• The director attended the Institute of Theater and Cinematographic Art (now UNATC), a place she said was an oasis of freedom for her and her colleagues, a free place, without creative restrictions.
• “Snapshot around the family table” is the first and last feature-length fiction film by Ada Pistiner, a documentary filmmaker who has been affirmed since the late 60s.
• Although little known to the general public, the movie is a cult movie for filmmakers.
• The voice of Aleksandr Kaliaghin, a well-known Russian actor (from “Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano” and others) was dubbed by actor Marin Moraru.
• Anda Călugăreanu (the actress and singer who played Nușa) said that the experience of this movie was extraordinary, and that she also appreciated the collaboration with Aleksandr Kaliaghin.

LINES:

• “My face when it’s still is not my face.” – Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu)
• “If you didn’t know this silly little fact, that the one who gave me life took his own life, how would you have tasted the fun in my family?” – Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu)
• “Everything in life is about taking the funny side of things. And if you’re a woman, be careful when you laugh, laugh like this: ha-ha-ha-ha-hi-hi-hi-hi, don’t make a cat’s paw-grab at your eyes.” – Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu)
• “Mom, wait! I’ll make the coffee! Aren’t I the main coffee girl?” – Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu)
• “You and Daddy loved each other. How did you end up here? He never thought of me!” – Drina Halunga (Estera Neacșu)
• “I don’t hear any cuckoo, my dear. I’m a heavy sleeper.” – Savel (Radu Panamarenco)
• “The guilty pay. When there’s only one. If it’s two, then each pays a plate.” – Mihai Oancea (Boris Petroff)
• “No, Dad, we were never friends. Nor were we acquaintances, to visit us. We were family.” – Drina Halunga (Estera Neacșu)
• “Filip. How could I have called you? Me, that one?” – Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu)
• “You don’t even dress like an archivist.” – Nușa (Anda Călugăreanu)

ARTICLES:

• The end of the decade: the table snapshot – istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro
• Snapshot around the family table (1980) – istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro
• Girls on film: Snapshot around the family table – filmmenu.wordpress.com
• Ada Pistiner interview – arhiva.unatc.ro

This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre.
Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.

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