www.business-review.eu Business Review | June 9 - 15, 2014
14 CITY
DON’T MISS
FILM REVIEW
Le Samouraï DEBBIE STOWE Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Starring: Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier On at: Cinema Eforie, Sunday 8 June, 16.00 and Wednesday 11 June, 20.00. In French, with subtitles in Romanian
Delon walk to freedom: wanted man Jef Costello evades the Parisian police
debbie.stowe@business-review.ro
FOUNDING EDITOR Bill Avery PUBLISHER Anca Ionita EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Fodor JOURNALISTS Otilia Haraga - senior journalist, Simona Bazavan, Ovidiu Posirca, Oana Vasiliu COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe PHOTO EDITOR: Mihai Constantineanu
ISSN No. 1453 - 729X
LAYOUT Beatrice Gheorghiu ART DIRECTOR Alexandru Oriean
Courtesy of MNAC
A shabby Paris hotel room, an achingly beautiful man lying on the bed smoking and a philosophical quote – what better way for a French film to start? “There is no solitude greater than a samurai’s, unless perhaps it is that of a tiger in the jungle,” reads the citation, attributed to The Book of Bushido. C’est très profond, non? But the book is bogus, existing only in the imagination of director JeanPierre Melville – a foretaste of the artfulness of this atmospheric 1967 film noir starring Alain Delon. Delon has often been accused of being a rather wooden actor, carving out a career on the strength of his looks rather than his talent – a French Keanu Reeves, si vous voulez. If there is any truth in that, then the role of taciturn, inscrutable Jef Costello seems an ideal fit. Delon plays a hot man – I mean, a hitman – cruising the streets of Paris in a sharp suit and a stolen car carrying out wetwork for local gangsters. He’s aided and abetted by long-suffering girlfriend Jane (Nathalie Delon) who provides him with alibis for seemingly very little gratitude or reward. Contract killers – they’re so inconsiderate. But then one job gets complicated.
The cops – led by amiable inspector François Périer – are sniffing around Jef, his paymasters have stiffed him and a witness, nightclub pianist Cathy Rosier, is covering for him for unclear reasons. Zut alors! In the nearly half-century since its release, Le Samouraï has become a classic and much-referenced work. Most recently, Ryan Gosling’s unforthcoming killer in 2011’s Drive and George Clooney’s expat assassin in 2010’s The American have been compared to the character of Costello. The 1999 Jim Jarmusch crime-actioner Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker, paid even more overt tribute. And Michael Mann’s Heat (1999) shares the French-Italian noir’s compare-andcontrast approach to the cops and killers. Melville’s movie betrays interesting influences of its own: there’s a Hitchcockian feel to the long wordless sequences, tracking shots and meticulously composed set pieces. The story also shares the British director’s misogynistic and marginalizing treatment of the female characters – even though the nightclub pianist is such a pro that when a gun is thrust in her face she doesn’t miss a single note! But then women rarely thrive in film noir. As with Hitchcock, there are comic touches too. These come mostly through some dry one-liners, the lion’s share of which goes to Périer, whose wryly affable approach to crime-fighting is juxtaposed with Jef’s deadpan style of crime-committing. Mostly, though, Le Samouraï’s pleasures lie in its tense atmosphere, and the thrill of an exquisitely crafted film: the neat structure (Jef pays three visits to the same nightclub, which demarcate the story’s three acts), and the brio of the set pieces, including a suspenseful cat-and-mouse metro sequence. The main characters’ motives, meanwhile, remain a mystery. Delon’s unreadable, unsmiling visage yields no clue to Jef’s innermost thoughts. It sure looks good, though.
SENZART EXHIBITION
See hear: the Mem-Non project is structured as a visual soundscape
National Museum of Contemporary Art Until November 30 SenzArt, dedicated to individuals suffering from visual and hearing impairment, aims to promote contemporary art as a facilitator of communication on different levels of perception and with various means of expression. The exhibition of interactive multimedia installation includes: Mem-Non by MartinEmilian Balint; Simte Pulsația! by Cătălin Crețu; Poesia Domestica by Matthias Neumann in collaboration with Cristina David; and FluO by Paul Popescu. Mem-Non is an interactive environment that combines principles of chromatic mimicry found in nature with synesthesia. Structured as a visual soundscape, it offers visitors a multilayered sensorial experience through complementary perception. The project Simte Pulsația! gives sensory impaired individuals the opportunity to “feel” and experience – by means of interactive art – dynamic, pulsating processes and unconventional audio-visual spacing methods. A colorful canvas of 88 shapes will be projected onto the floor, while repetitive, pulsating music is played over speakers. The audience can therefore experience a multitude of interactions between the audio and visual processes.
Poesia Domestica offers an investigation of architecture that excludes the visual element. Following a condensed trajectory of architectural production, the work is guided by the generic steps of design and building: from site analysis, through design conception, development and building, and finally usage and human interaction with the space. The resulting work emulates a domestic environment in complete darkness, developed in collaboration with a Bucharest resident who is blind. A series of discreet sounds will be played throughout the rooms, adding an aural element to the environment. FluO is a multi-sensitive water string instrument modulated by those interacting with it, emitting sound as the streams of water are touched. It takes inspiration from the classical harp, which engages the user in an intimate and virtuous interaction. FluO, say the creators, challenges the limits of sensorial perception through a technological metaphor that questions the interpretation of reality and the simplest natural phenomena like gravity, generating an ambiguity that takes the observer into an upside-down world, similar to the dream and fantasy worlds of childhood.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George Moise SALES & EVENTS DIRECTOR Oana Molodoi SALES & EVENTS Sales managers: Ana-Maria Nedelcu, Oana Albu, Raluca Comanescu MARKETING Ana-Maria Stanca, Ana Maria Andrei, Iulia Mizgan PRODUCTION Dan Mitroi DISTRIBUTION Eugen Musat
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