California Dreamin'
Director: Cristian Nemescu
Starring: Armand Assante, Jamie Elman, Razwan Var At
the 60th Cannes Film Festival, which ended in May , Razvan Vasilescu and Maria Dinulescu , the Romanians swept away two awards, one of which focused on the best film award in the unit , which was obtained from "California Dreams". In addition to "California Dreamin'", "Nesfarsit" is the Romanian name and suffix of the film, literally translated as Endless, which means "unfinished".
As the first reaction of ordinary people when they see the film, the title of the film is indeed related to the well-known song "California Dream". Wang Jingwen's "Chongqing Forest" has become popular in the world and Asia. In the film, Doiaru's daughter learns English in order to better communicate with her beloved American soldier, and the lyrics of "California Dream" are used. But its meaning is not as simple as the title of a song. In the film, the California dream is also projected as a father and a daughter's different attitudes towards America and life - even the American dream that came in the opposite direction and was separated by decades.
The film has two parallel stories, both set in the Romanian town of Capalnita, one on the eve of Germany's defeat in 1944, and one during the Kosovo war in 1999. The former is more like a flashback of memory, which explains the protagonist's dissatisfaction. The latter is the main content of the film. The U.S. military unexpectedly stopped in the town, and the upper and lower groups complained that Doianu refused to let the passing U.S. military pass on the grounds that he had no passing documents. Ironically, he was the only one who had an opinion on the Americans. , the other people in the town were curious and enthusiastic about the unexpected arrival of the US military, they were well entertained, and they served delicious food and drinks together with women.
In layman's terms, "California Dream" can be called a modern Romanian version of "Old Beauty is Coming". For example, it has a carnival-style plot development and an awkward and speechless ending, but it is not as tragic as the suffering Chinese farmers. Its characters and story settings are indeed very reminiscent. It is also an unexpected arrival, there are also communication barriers, and it also reflects the attitude of ordinary people towards "alien", and even each has only one symbolic character with a sharp resistance attitude.
In terms of overall style, "Dream of California" uses a large number of hand-held motion shots. The plot uses language barriers to enlarge the gap between each other, bringing out a story within five days and a stubborn ending, which was added in 2004. In post-NATO Romania, the views on the United States from "Dream of California" are even more precious. If it is mentioned in "Three Weeks and Two Days in April" mentioned by the younger brother: Romanian movies have finally returned to the mainstream Western sight after disappearing for a long time. And Romanian film directors are by no means simply catering to such curious and curious sight captures. At least in "California Dream", it is easy to find satire and embarrassment everywhere, and the contradiction is precisely aimed at the Western mainstream. If the introduction alone is delusional, in California Dream, which is not an "anti-war film", the Americans disappeared for a long time and appeared in the eyes of Romanians (whether for one person or a group of people) ), behind the United States is the Western mainstream. Capanita is the symbol of the entire Romanian country, and Doianu alone has become a heterogeneous incarnation of this Eastern European ethnic group, which creates a huge contrast.
Doianu waited for decades, expecting nothing and only believing that only he can control happiness, when the Americans who planned to hit their Romanian neighbors came by, at the wrong time and in the wrong place. The wrong ending, for daughter Monica, the regret of the Americans after leaving is the same - the Americans did not take her, but took another close relative.
"California Dreams" is also special in that it is both the debut feature feature and the only work of director Christian Nemesgu, who died in a car accident at the age of 27 in August 2006. Also killed was the videographer. At the time of the incident, the film was in the process of post-editing, and now what the audience sees is the 155-minute long version edited by editor Catalin Cristutiu according to the original script, so it adds "Not Done" - in other words, this is not a standard version of the director's own hand.
The fact is that at the end of the film, when multiple story lines are intertwined, it does become a bit messy when it indicates that the climax is about to come, and then there is a fierce fighting, and an unfinished ending, and these are all used up. 155 minutes - more than the usual reasonable length for a standard feature film. Unfortunately, the director's cut version will only be a dream, a perfect dream that will wake up if it doesn't reach it.
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