Ana, mon amour, screenplay by Calin Peter Netzer, Iulia Lumanare and Cezar Paul-Badescu, based on the book written by the latter: Luminita, mon amour

Ana, mon amour, screenplay by Calin Peter Netzer, Iulia Lumanare and Cezar Paul-Badescu, based on the book written by the latter: Luminita, mon amour

Calin Peter Netzer has already achieved acclaim, notoriety and prestigious prizes, among them The Berlin Film Festival top award- The Golden Bear- for his excellent Child’s Pose, and Ana, mon amour has won the Silver Berlin Bear, which means that the writer-director has joined the other masters: Cristian Mungiu, Cristi Puiu and Corneliu Porumboiu on the sacred Olympus of Romanian and International Cinema.

Ana, mon amour is a challenging, interesting, provocative, intelligent, perhaps somewhat salacious, innovative- indeed, some scenes are probably a first in mainstream cinema.

Ana and Toma are the main characters of this out of the ordinary narrative and they meet while they study Literature in the capital of Romania, Bucharest, while he is from about one hundred and twenty kilometers North- West, the town called Pitesti, and she is from Botosani, in Moldavia.

The young woman has some traumas haunting her from the past, some of which we have to guess and others are revealed slowly, as she talks to her boyfriend, but further details are given to an analyst that helps her recover.

Toma and Ana become a couple, but they face adversity and opposition from both his and her parents, the biological father of the woman having left for Germany when she was just a baby, the man her mother later married becoming a sort of a child molester, or on the fringe, touching her inappropriately while giving her a bath, at the age of twelve (?!) and sleeping in the same bed.

When they visit her parents, after the initial interrogatory regarding what Toma does, what about the parents, his plans and more details like that, a big fight erupts and vicious dialogue transforms into a clash, with serious insults- “if you leave now, you whore, you are never to return here again…”

There are humorous elements throughout, like the pajamas of the adoptive father that Toma is offered, when he is supposed to spend the night in the same room with the parent who has some serious trouble at the legs that he is massaging intensely with some medicinal ointment.

Toma’s parents have their own issues and the visit to their home is just as difficult, with different insults, accusations and threats flying, the father calling the “Moldavian” partner various terrible appellatives and invectives, stating that he would give money to the son who wants to “keep” this creature…

So far, the complications, tensions, rejections are familiar territory, even if there are dense references to philosophy, oneiric and surrealist literature, religion- with a visit to the priest played by the best local actor today- Vlad Ivanov- and one of the best actors in the world- a man we can see in the subway, walking on Victory Avenue.

In another scene, the young couple and his parents are waiting in one of the huge crowds that form regularly, whenever there is a “special” saint’s day and men and women gather from afar to enjoy the miracles supposed to be performed on that day, and Ana gets sick, curses are not in sync with the occasion, but this is not the only moment when various beliefs clash- one friend is very liberal, talks with admiration about the liberal Nordics and their limited contracts that are in contrast with the local insistence on old style marriages and frequent religious fanaticism.

This family friend is mocking his wife and her exaggerated fundamentalism, the attacks that priests launch on masturbation- that he thinks would help his son as he grows- and the hypocrisy surrounding many taboo subjects, in the end teasing and confronting Ana, who is conservative, maybe even retrograde.

There some elements that are unique, not in the least “déjà vu”, in fact, it is “du Jamais Vu”, for we tend to see in the film sex scenes more and more nudity, both male and female, it is more and more explicit and yet this motion picture introduces a scene where, after they have intercourse, the hero ejaculates and this is…on the screen.

Aside from movies with the American President’s girlfriend- well, one of a multitude- Stormy Daniels, this was not something you could see in a non-rated film and we can understand that boundaries have to be pushed- after all, most of the last century was so prudish and censors banned anything that looked remotely like sex.

Furthermore, there is also a scene where the man is pleasuring his lover in ways that are provocative and they also seem to represent novelty and they push the envelope, introducing what some would applaud as being fresh, expanding the horizon and exploring new territory, while others will surely be horrified, appalled and terrorized by the novelties.

Finally, there is a rather long scene which deals with another aspect of humanity, the decadence, vulnerability of sick men and women- Toma comes home, to what looks like a room in a students' ‘dormitory, only to find Ana unconscious, with some bottles of pills near her and with…faeces all over her behind, which the incredibly devoted man cleans, with her underwear- takes time to do this, while some in audience may feel sick- and then takes the loved one in his arms, takes her to the showers which are used in common and again takes pain, long, long moments to clean the bottom of the woman he definitely feels for…

Right?

After what looks like a nadir, Ana recovers and she is not only functional again, but she has a baby and it is Toma who takes care of him, while they are supported by the mother, whereas in the past it was the man of the house providing the income, one of the reasons why they fight, Toma being very jealous, following his wife through the city and imagining she is betraying him.

Ana, mon amour is an intriguing, at times somewhat hard to watch film, creative, out of the box, destined for an elite and not for a huge box office, available on HBO on some latitudes, meaningful, intelligent, philosophical, demanding – maybe in the same category with the Palme d’Or Winner The Square- courageous and thought provoking.