WHEN EVENING FALLS ON BUCHAREST OR METABOLISM (2013) – drama film online

Directed by: Corneliu Porumboiu
Script by: Corneliu Porumboiu
Cast: Bogdan Dumitrache, Diana Avrămuț, Mihaela Sîrbu, Alexandru Papadopol, Alexandru Jitea, Gabriela Crețan, Lucian Iftimie
Producer: 42km Film, Les Films du Worso
Cinematography by: Tudor Mircea
Edited by: Dana Bunescu
Sound: Sebastian Zsemlye, Thierry Delor, Alex Dragomir
Music: Maria Răducanu
Year: 2013
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 85 minutes

55,190 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

We are in the middle of the film shoot. Paul, the director (played by Bogdan “Boogie” Dumitrache), is having an affair with Alina, an actress playing a supporting role (played by Diana Avrămuţ).

The next day, the last scenes featuring Alina will be shot. Paul decides to shoot a nude scene with her. He wakes up in the morning full of doubts and changes his plans: instead of filming the nude scene, he tells the producer that he is having an ulcer attack. Then he takes a day off to meet Alina. Gradually, the film becomes more and more intertwined with real life, and the filming takes an unexpected turn.

FESTIVALS

• 2015 – Making Waves Festival, New Romanian Cinema section 2013
• 2014 – Gothenburg Film Festival
• 2014 – Gopo Awards, Romania
• 2013 – Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland)
• 2013 – Sarajevo Film Festival
• 2013 – New York Film Festival
• 2013 – San Francisco Film Festival

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism” is a hyper-subtle anti-romance. – Andrei Gorzo, andreigorzoblog.wordpress.com

“It is an absurd comedy – focused not so much on the world of film as on the relationships that develop between people working in this industry, made from a (self-)ironic position towards the characters, without the caricature aspect – a hyper-realistic approach (born in Porumboiu from a relationship that I question between realism and formalism) based on a visible refinement in the minimalist composition of the 17 sequence shots, the dialogue, and the sound design — where the ambiance seems to have been extracted with a syringe — and on a refinement of Porumboiu’s older tendencies toward the abstraction of fiction.” – Andreea Mihalcea, agenda.liternet.ro

“There is a certain symmetry in the structure of the alternating shots: the car, the restaurant, the director’s apartment, and the makeup room, after which the cycle resumes, like a metabolism with its processes of growth (assimilation), in which love is highlighted, and decline (catabolism), in which what is not artistically sustainable is rejected and eliminated from the creative process. Each sequence speaks about art in one way or another: the frames are rough, there is no poetry in the images, poetic discourse prevails, which is often stupid, contrived, and affected.” – Roxana Pavnotescu, agenda.liternet.ro

“Like Cristi Puiu, Porumboiu creates a cinema of effects rather than causes, which are left to the discretion and imagination of the viewer.” – Roxana Pavnotescu, agenda.liternet.ro

“Love, sex, respect, devotion, and commitment are all landmarks that can form lofty sentences, one after the other. But life also presents them separately (separate from official lovers, separate from the love for the work you do), as we see in the conflicts between Paul and Alina. Which, paradoxically, complement each other, because their limits – so different – lead to the same place. In bed, where the inside and the outside, as much as people are allowed to experience them, come together. Action, free choices, irony, responsibility; artistic and, immediately, everything becomes political.” – Lucian Maier, agenda.liternet.ro

“This is Paul’s dilemma, how to capture the truth when the truth (the real) is fragmented by the film, a dilemma that turns into the truth of the last cell: as a director, he accepts that the truth is not necessarily his, that the truth of the film is also born from the actors’ performance, that the material is alive, that the characters once outlined on paper move on their own (which is what Porumboiu also says).” – Andrei Șendrea, agenda.liternet.ro

“A few hours after watching it, I still thought the film was, first and foremost, a love story without a happy ending between a man who is too passionate about himself and his job, suddenly awakened to life, and a hyper-realistic woman, willing, for a moment, to admit that there are people whose dreams are worth living for. (…) But no. It is, first and foremost, about cinema. About the danger that even professionals of the gaze face of losing the freshness of their vision. Of confusing the main plot and characters with the secondary ones, of cutting wrongly, of losing the essential and privileging the derisory. And like them, the people who live off images, we, the others, are subject to the same sins.” – Mihai Brezeanu, agenda.liternet.ro

“It is a deeply self-referential film (for example, the reference to Antonioni’s film Blow Up is not accidental, considering that the character Cristi – from “Police, Adjective” – just like the character Thomas, ends up doubting what he believes through what he sees), self-ironic (the moment when Paul insists on filming a nude scene in real time is deeply touched upon in the script) and, last but not least, a demonstration of the ingenious mobilization of a minimum of artistic means to achieve maximum aesthetic effect. A stopover in Porumboiu’s mind — as the world of cerebral cinema.” – Sebastian M. Ceolca, agenda.liternet.ro

“It’s really a film for the public, no matter how implausible or ridiculous it may seem. It’s an obvious invitation to dialogue that Porumboiu proposes, and at the same time a response to those who don’t like New Romanian Cinema because they don’t understand it. The focus of NRC films is undoubtedly aesthetic, and the desire of the directors in this group is not to wallow in the horizon of ready-made productions, but to take the discussion to another, higher level, while also assuming the role of educators of the audience. In the absence of a specialized magazine that would make accessible or explain in layman’s terms what NRC has been producing for more than 10 years (as Moise Guran does, for example, with the economic field), it seems that the role of mediator is still played by NCR, through films such as Metabolism.” – Iosif Prodan, agenda.liternet.ro

“The film has a subtle, deliberate irony towards its own world, but at the same time it is as serious as can be and highlights the obstacles that the creator encounters on his way to a masterpiece, a process that Porumboiu goes through in an exemplary manner. It is also a cinematic exercise, undertaken by a filmmaker who is often not appreciated at his true value.” – Ion Indolean, agenda.liternet.ro

“Metabolism. Meaning circulation, movement, digestion not only of food, of an emotion, but also of an idea, a place, a profession that permeates you, subjugates you, saturates you. Interesting.” – Cristina Zaharia, agenda.liternet.ro

“The poster for Corneliu Porumboiu’s latest film shows us a bent fork. “There is no spoon”, thinks the film buff who has, of course, seen “The Matrix”. But when you watch Porumboiu’s film, you come across an anthological discussion about cutlery and you realize that it goes beyond the idea of illusory reality to focus solely on cinema. On its philosophy and syntax, on the impossibility of cinematic language to convey everything the author wants, on what it means to be a filmmaker. A difficult film, but the taste it leaves at the end is harsh and pleasant.” – Iulia Blaga, hotnews.ro

“If we were to rush to say that the film “When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism” is the ‘poetics’ of the Romanian director and place it alongside Fellini’s “8½”, François Truffaut’s “Day for Night”, or Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories”, we should note that our filmmaker avoids the temptation of self-portraiture. That is, he does not use the tool of self-reflection to show us an alter ego, usually described in a favorable light. His director is not a kind of guru to whom all the members of the team come to confess, as in Truffaut, nor is he a man who steals lines and biographical details from those around him, but does so charmingly (in Fellini), nor is he a filmmaker in a creative crisis who actually aspires to be a kind of Fellini (in Woody Allen). Porumboiu does not embellish, like everyone else, who shows how magical, exciting, or funny the world of film is, but, on the contrary, he demystifies it and describes it with a certain distance and austerity.” – Dana Duma, Film Magazine no. 1/ 2013, aarc.ro

“However, Porumboiu intellectualizes every bit so much that the film has no room to breathe and forces the audience to work hard to grasp the playful humor woven into the story.” – Jay Weissberg, Variety, variety.com

“In his dry, hyper-dry way, Porumboiu pokes fun at this macho insistence on the courage to let viewers, as an artist, see into the depths of your being. By watching Paul’s endoscopy for minutes on end, aren’t we looking deep into his being for minutes on end? A director couldn’t turn the camera on himself any more than Paul does. And the punchline is that the endoscopy was faked: Paul’s self-exposure is a big fake.” – Andrei Gorzo, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• Corneliu Porumboiu was born in 1975 in Vaslui. He graduated from the National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC) where he studied film directing. His short films made during college won awards at major film festivals such as Cannes and Montpellier.
• In 2006, he released his first feature film, 12:08 East of Bucharest, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Quinzaine des Realisateurs and won the Camera d’Or for best debut film and the Label Europe award from film distributors. The film went on to win numerous other awards at festivals around the world.
• In 2009, his second feature film, Police, Adjective won the FIPRESCI prize and the jury prize at Cannes, where it was screened in the Un Certain Regard section.
• During production, the film was initially given the working title “A 9-Minute Interval” before being finalized as “When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism.”
• Director Corneliu Porumboiu explained that his desire to reflect “the birth of a film” and the real constraints of cinema (including those related to 35 mm and storyboards) inspired him in the creation of the film and its characteristic long-take aesthetic.
• The production was filmed in four locations in central Bucharest, including an apartment on Lascăr Catargiu Boulevard (the home of the character Paul) and the Ambasador Hotel (where Alina is staying).
• Some scenes with important dialogue — including “philosophical” discussions about cooking — were filmed in two distinct restaurants in the city, one Italian and one Asian.

LINES:

 • “No man has a beautiful body.” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “No matter how well-proportioned a man’s body is, the harmony is ruined by the penis. It’s a mistake from an aesthetic point of view.” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “In 50 years, no one will watch movies anymore.” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “To what extent do you think Chinese cuisine was influenced by the fact that they ate with chopsticks?” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “In terms of features, I think I look more like a Greek woman. Except that I have green eyes.” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “I think you have something Jewish about you.” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “I want you to dry off in 10 minutes and get ready for the shot.” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “If you didn’t like my reaction, you should have told me.” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “Anyway, the script is very good.” – Laurențiu (Alexandru Papadopol)
• “I’ll call you for a casting. If you want, of course.” – Laurențiu (Alexandru Papadopol)
• “And you think of him what he thinks of you, that you both write good scripts.” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “I think you’re both good directors. (…) Obviously, for me, you’re better.” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “Are you jealous that I might be in his movie?” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “Who’s Monica Vitti?” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “But do you know who Antonioni is?” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “I’ve never slept with any of them (actresses).” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “You’re not the first director I’ve slept with.” – Alina (Diana Avrămuț)
• “Why didn’t you invite me to your room?” – Paul (Bogdan Dumitrache)
• “Do you think I didn’t realize you rigged this endoscopy?” – Producer Magda (Mihaela Sîrbu)

ARTICLES:

• Press release: “The film about a film shot on film”, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “When evening falls on Bucharest or metabolism”, by Andrei Gorzo – andreigorzoblog.wordpress.com
• Review: “When evening falls on Bucharest or Metabolism”, by Dana Duma – Film Magazine no. 1/ 2013, aarc.ro
• Review: “When evening falls on Bucharest or Metabolism”, by Iulia Blaga, hotnews.ro
• Review: “The Metabolism of Art and the Artist”, by Roxana Pavnotescu, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Production, film”, by Lucian Maier, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Playing at realism”, by Andreea Mihalcea, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Nothing dramatic. Chronicle of a chronicle”, by Andrei Șendrea, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “B-88-VAD”, by Mihai Brezeaznu, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Making a film”, by Sebastian M. Ceolca, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Intermezzo – Making a film”, agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Porumboiu, auteur”, by Ion Indolean – agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Bring out the best in those around you”, by Cristina Zaharia – agenda.liternet.ro
• Locarno Review, hollywoodreporter.com, by Bodyd Van Hoeij

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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