Inside the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Day 7: Catalin Mitulescu’s Loverboy

Date:

And the movement known as Romanian New Wave which begin with 2005’s The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu is slowly tapering out. With less films making direct correlations to the Nicolae Ceauşescu dictatorship era, we now have modern days reflections such as this one – an Eastern Bloc problem that in extreme cases has women being treated as cargo and being sex trafficked, but in this case represents a disenchanted wasteful youth were boyfriends second as pimps and where vulnerable younger women are almost aiding and abiding in their own misuse. While everyone’s fate is pretty much pre-determined, what we have here is a slight look inwards – slight changes in character that authenticates that the relationship might be more than what it was intended to be.

Loverboy premiered in the Un Certain Regard section – the same section where the filmmaker premiered his 2006 debut, The Way I Spent the End of the World. Among the several folks who came in support of the feature, we find a pair of young thesps who’ll have a lengthy acting career in George Pistereanu and Ada Condeescu.

Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society), FIPRESCI and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

1 COMMENT

Share post:

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Popular

More like this
Related

TheyDream | Review

Frames That Mend: Caballero Unevenly Probes Puerto Rican Family...

The Devils (1971) | Review

Sympathy for The Devils: The Suppression of Ken Russell’s...

Ken Russell’s The Devils – 2010 Fantasia International Film Festival

Iconic director Ken Russell was in town to receive a lifetime achievement award from Fantasia for his 50-plus years in the business, a career that has spawned many genre classics including Altered States, Gothic, and The Lair of the White Worm. But it was the little-seen and hard to find The Devils from 1971 that proved to be Russell's most controversial work, and Fantasia managed to snag a copy to be screened on Russell's big night. In the video, Russell discusses the true story behind the film and receives his award with the grace befitting one of the great filmmakers of all time.

Club Kid | Review

Sex, Drugs & Unexpected Parenting: Firstman’s Debut Creates an...