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Cannes 2009 Day 4: Porumboiu’s Police, Adjectiv is an Example on How to Hash Out a Minimalist Film

A good percentage of films that make up the Un Certain Regard section each year work with lingering cameras, long takes and a non-moving camera. You had on one side the Tsai Ming-Ling or Hou Hsiao Hsien kind, and then you have this formula embedded with a wryness coming from the likes of Aki Kaurismaki and Roy Andersson. Police Adjectiv falls somewhere in between.

Eric Lavallée

Published on May 17, 2009

A good percentage of films that make up the Un Certain Regard section each year work with lingering cameras, long takes and a non-moving camera. You had on one side the Tsai Ming-Ling or Hou Hsiao Hsien kind, and then you have this formula embedded with a wryness coming from the likes of Aki Kaurismaki and Roy Andersson. Police Adjectiv falls somewhere in between. The Camera D’Or-winning director of 12:08 East of Bucharest employs a technique that uses minimalist dialogue, and fancies a narrative that once again laughs at bureaucracy but is self-referential and laughs out their own selves. Punch-lines are delivered when intended and in the most un-dramatic fashion possible. Review Coming Soon!

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).