Reviews

May be for the foreign viewer it's more easy to watch this film and to appreciate the work of the director. There are two parallel stories in the film. 15 years gone since the fall of dictatorship in Romania and French journalist arrives in Bucharest in attempt to find the child of the participants of these tragic events... December, 1989. Jolly sailor Marinika goes to Timishoara to his bride, but people's revolt is started and the troops are ready to use the weapons against the rebels...

Sergiu Nicolaescu shows us how the machine of the state cruelly destroys the people who are standing on its way to power and control over society. There are many dark and shocking scenes in the film but the most sad part of it is about modern day Romania/Eastern Europe. Rich houses of new elite and poor abandoned children are living in the underground in their neighborhood. And the machine of the state still is ready to work.

The playing of actors sometimes looks a little bit naive, as in TV series, but in general it works for the idea of the film. The film is quite dark and in the same time the film is humane and sincere. From my point of view it's one of the best and serious works by Sergiu Nicolaescu. Film won Golen Knight festival award in Russia in 2006.

Little is known about real biography of great Renaissance poet Francois Villon but by the end of the film I started to believe in his image created by Sergiu Nicolaescu.

On the one hand - the images of the Francois Villon and his lovers are taken from Paris of the 1980s and sometimes the film could remind you of theatrical play staged for TV. On the other hand - minimalistic dark colours and dark scenes are working for the idea of the film and general impressions from it are positive. Sometimes the events are developing slowly and dialogues are quite long, but I could agree with one of the previous reviewers - Sergiu Nicolaescu tried to create a kind of fresco or meditation about Medieval world. The fresco influenced by the poetry of Francois Villon, French cinema of the 1950-early 60s (films with Jean Marias), paintings by Peter Breugel and Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.

The film hardly could be compared with Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman or treated as true reconstruction of life in Medieval France but it's still interesting because it's rare full length film about great poet and it was made with love to Francois Villon and with due respect to the spirit of his poetry.

In 2010 this film was released on DVD in Iceland under this title. Hrafn Gunnlaugsson shows us the story of the blacksmith from the 17th century (truely from Early Modern times, but that's no problem here, because the director shows us Europe as traditional society). By the twist of fate former honest blacksmith turns into the executioner, meets his love, but the life in that epoch is too complicated and means of solving problems are too cruel and too simple. Hrafn was influenced by the paintings of Rembrandt and films by Bergman and Tarkovsky. The director recreated the atmosphere of the epoch very impressive. Though this film shows us the dark sides of our life, it was made with true humane feelings.