12.08 East of Bucarest (2006)

Part of the Feature Films

Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
Certificate: BBFC 15
Length:
Format: Unknown
Language: Romania/France
Country:
£4/3 Part of the excellent Romanian cinema revival, this film received the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Festival in 2006. Not to be missed. At the beginning of “The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,” Karl Marx famously observes that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. He forgot to add that the commemoration of history can raise farce to a whole new level of absurdity. This, at any rate, is among the insights offered by the Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s acutely funny first feature, “12:08 East of Bucharest.” “Was there, or was there not, a revolution in our town?” This question (summed up in the movie’s Romanian title, “A Fost sau n-a fost?”) is asked by Mr. Jderescu (Teo Corban), a television talk-show host who has hastily assembled a panel of nobodies to look back, 16 years later, at the events of Dec. 22, 1989. Their town, Vaslui, where Mr. Porumboiu grew up, is depicted, not without affection, as a drab, rundown place where it is hard to imagine very much happening at all. Mr. Porumboiu’s film is, at first glance, as rumpled and unassuming as its weary, fatalistic inhabitants. Though it is modest, almost anecdotal, in scale, “12:08 East of Bucharest” is also characterized by a precise and sneaky formal wit. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times

Other films in the Feature Films:

16

Film: Les Amants Reguliers

16 Jan 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Les Amants Reguliers, aka Regular Lovers, P. Garrell, 2004, 178mins, 35mm

20

Film: Les Amants Reguliers (2004)

20 Jan 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Les Amants Reguliers, aka Regular Lovers, P. Garrell, 2004, 178mins, 35mm

21

Film: Les Amants Reguliers (2004)

21 Jan 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Les Amants Reguliers, aka Regular Lovers, P. Garrell, 2004, 178mins, 35mm

08

Film: 10 Canoes (2007)

8 Jul 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Film-making like this is a rare experience. This movie tells of nature as life itself. Set in a timeless Aboriginal land, culture and landscape , we are lead through a beguiling story… “And there's plenty happens in this story…there's a stranger comes and one of them wives goes missin' and there's a man with a belly big as a mountain. There's sorcery and magic too, and a wrong spear in the wrong body, and more spears and bad spirits. And even that's not everything that's happening in this story.”

11

Film: 10 Canoes (2007)

11 Jul 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Film-making like this is a rare experience. This movie tells of nature as life itself. Set in a timeless Aboriginal land, culture and landscape , we are lead through a beguiling story… “And there's plenty happens in this story…there's a stranger comes and one of them wives goes missin' and there's a man with a belly big as a mountain. There's sorcery and magic too, and a wrong spear in the wrong body, and more spears and bad spirits. And even that's not everything that's happening in this story.”

15

Film: 10 Canoes (2007)

15 Jul 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Film-making like this is a rare experience. This movie tells of nature as life itself. Set in a timeless Aboriginal land, culture and landscape , we are lead through a beguiling story… “And there's plenty happens in this story…there's a stranger comes and one of them wives goes missin' and there's a man with a belly big as a mountain. There's sorcery and magic too, and a wrong spear in the wrong body, and more spears and bad spirits. And even that's not everything that's happening in this story.”

21

Film: Bikini Beach (1964)

21 Jul 2007, 10 p.m.

second in the fantastic Beach Party double Bill

22

Film: Puberty Blues (1981)

22 Jul 2007, 7:30 p.m.

An Australian cult movie about surf teenagers with, I guess, the Puberty blues…

26

Film: Big Wednesday (1978)

26 Jul 2007, 7:30 p.m.

A day will come that is like no other… and nothing that happens after will ever be the same

27

Film: Riding Giants (2004)

27 Jul 2007, 7:30 p.m.

Their boards are bigger, their waves are bigger, their teeth are bigger, their hair is bigger, their butts are bigger…

28

Film: 12.08 East Of Bucarest (2006)

28 Oct 2007, 8 p.m.

£4/3 Part of the excellent Romanian cinema revival, this film received the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Festival in 2006. Not to be missed.

21

Film: Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

21 May 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Peckinpah's masterpiece of grit and filth. A work of genius.