Christian Mungiu: The Hollywood Interview

Writer/director Christian Mungiu (right) and cinematographer Oleg Mutu on the set of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.



CHRISTIAN MUNGIU COUNTS THE MONTHS, WEEKS AND DAYS
By
Alex Simon

Few films in recent memory have made as big a splash at the venerable Cannes Film Festival as 39 year-old writer/director and co-producer Christian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, a harrowing look at 24 hours in the life of a young woman (Anamaria Marinca) in Communist-ruled, mid-1980s Romania, and what she must go through to abort an unwanted pregnancy, at a time when abortion was a capital crime in the Soviet-bloc country. With this, his second feature film, Mungiu captured the festival’s International Critics’ Prize, The French National Education Administration Prize, and the most-coveted award at the festival (some would say the most-coveted film prize in the world) The Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) for the best film of the festival. (Warning: if you haven’t seen the film, there are potential spoilers ahead).

Like many great stories, this one was based on fact. “The film originated from a true story that a woman had told me about 15 years ago,” Mungiu explains. “What really struck me was that the key moment she remembered most was not being raped by the abortionist, but when she was in the bathroom and discovered how things differ when the are for real, rather than when they are theoretical. I thought that this scene was a big part of making the film an honest portrait of what I remember also about living in Romania during this time.”

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Romania has changed considerably not only in terms of its laws (abortion is now legal), economy and lifestyle, but also in terms of its physical landscape, so creating an authentic “look” was challenging. “An ‘80s film set in Romania is now ‘period,’” Mungiu explains with a laugh. “It’s funny: it would be much easier to make a film set in the ‘80s in New York or Los Angeles, which I’m sure have changed very little since then in terms of the architecture or the amount of cars on the road. There are now seven times more cars in Bucharest than during the 1980s, and the city is also covered with the sort of brightly-colored advertising you see in western countries. During the ‘80s, there was no light on the streets, two hours of programming on a single TV channel, and hardly any petrol for cars. Just a very gray, bleak atmosphere.”

Much of the buzz the film has generated has also revolved around the two lead performers: Marinca, and Vlad Ivanov, who plays Mr. Bebe, the abortionist. “Vlad was the only actor I had in mind to play Mr. Bebe. I had worked with him on a commercial the year before, and was amazed by his strength and attention to detail,” Mungiu says. “During the shoot, he was capable of delivering up to ten pages of dialogue without dropping a single word!” Mungiu says, shaking his head in admiration. With Marinca, things proved a bit more complicated. “Anamaria had just won a BAFTA award for her first film, and was living in London, so I had to pay for her to fly back to Bucharest to audition. A bit foolish, looking back at the cost and the very low budget we had. Plus, when she arrived, I was very disappointed, because the real Anamaria is not my character at all,” Mungiu says. “But, the next day when we read scenes together, the transformation was extraordinary. It was like my character was being channeled through Anamaria’s mouth. It was amazing, and the entire film rests on her shoulders, so she was exactly who and what we needed.”

With the number of striking films that seem to have emerged from Eastern Europe in the past few years, Mungiu gives a self-depricating laugh when asked to comment on the so-called “Romanian New Wave.” “I believe these filmmakers have stories to tell,” he explains, “and they know how to tell it simply and honestly without trying to look ‘smart.’ They abstain from the spectacular in favor of being believable. I think this makes the Romanian New Wave films quite personal, powerful and different from many of the art house mainstream. It helps that we are also all producers, not just writer/directors. So within the limits of our small budgets, we have complete freedom creatively in telling our stories.”