Title: Child’s Pose

Director: Calin Peter Netzer

Starring: Vlad Ivanov, Florin Zamfirescu, Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache.

The Romanian drama directed by Calin Peter Netzer premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival where it well-deservedly won the Golden Bear.

‘Child’s pose’ isn’t just a powerful tale of corruption and guilt in modern Romania. It’s an in-depth analysis of a pathological relationship between a 32 year-old son, Barbu, and his domineering mother, Cornelia Kerenes.

The Yiddish-like-mater sees a chance to regain control over her adult son, by using her connections to try and stop Barbu from going to jail, when he faces manslaughter charges for reckless driving.

The movie is full of emotional shades. It starts with very quiet tones and has a crescendo that explodes into a spectacular outburst of gut reaction. The Romanian actress Luminita Gheorghiu, gives an astounding performance as the intrusive mother, enhancing the acting of the other cast members who play with her. The dialogues are beautiful, frank, passionate, lucid and sharp, acted very rawly and emphatically.

Calin Peter Netzer, as member of Romania’s new wave in cinema, opts for a human drama laid out against the backdrop of a cold and uncaring society, captured by a suave move of the camera. His movie surely underlines the country’s emergence as a factory of hard-hitting cinema in the post-Communist era.

Technical: B+

Acting: A+

Story: A-

Overall: A-

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Childs Pose Movie Review

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *