Synopsis
The story of reconstructing a simple incident, a fight between two young men, undertaken by the police, turns into a crime.
Directed by: Lucian Pintilie
Cast: George Constantin, Emil Botta, George Mihaita, Vladimir Gaitan, Ernest Maftei, Ileana Popovici, Stefan Moisescu, Nikolaus Wolcz, Ion Radulescu
Script: Horia Patrascu, Lucian Pintilie
Producers: Mihai Opris
Cinematography by: Sergiu Huzum
Edited by: Eugenia Naghi
Sound: Andrei Papp, Eugen Zaharia
Year: 1968
Category: feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 100 minutes
18,849 – Cinepub viewers
PLOT SUMMARY
A prosecutor, policemen and teacher bring the students Vuica and Nicu to a restaurant to re-enact their drunken brawl there, and have it filmed to show the effects of alcoholism.
WHAT CRITICS SAY:
Made in black and white, the film premiered on January 5, 1970, in Bucharest, but was soon banned. Noteworthy are the exceptional performances of actors George Mihăiță, Vladimir Găitan, George Constantin, Emil Botta, Ernest Maftei, Ileana Popovici, Ștefan Moisescu – the most valuable in their entire film careers. The film was only re-aired in 1990.
It is the first film, as a work of art, which, with an ironic, malicious, and cynical tone, introduces us to the Romanian moral and spiritual inferno, the labyrinth of mockery, the Romanian-specific and degraded version of the Balkan spirit. The pretext is the hypocritically educational reenactment of a minor offense by the prosecution and the police, with the support of a team of filmmakers. Lucian Pintilie proposes, in essence, an incursion into the Romanian collective subconscious, which he accomplishes with the same sense of concrete detail, meticulous notation, of the characters, and of emotional, behavioral, and mental confrontations.
Constructed like a reportage, like a documentary film, like an investigative film, like an existential case file film, like a chronicle, “Reconstituirea” is, through its aesthetic value, an epic, a fresco of the Romanian moral and spiritual inferno. It is a film with a dense overlap of layers, with multiple philosophical meanings and significations.
ARTICLES
- Vladimir Gaitan, From “Reconstitution” to “The Last Corrupt” – 2012 – Mihnea Columbeanu – cinemagia.ro
- Reconstitution – 2021 – Adrian Guta – observatorulcultural.ro
- Reconstruction or the Film of a Film – Eva Sîrbu – aarc.ro
- Ceausescu, film critic – Reconstitution – 2008 – Lucian Mircu – agenda.liternet.ro
- Vital, regenerative shock – Reconstitution – 2016 – Marian Rădulescu – agenda.liternet.ro
