4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni și 2 Zile (2007) or, Illegal Abortion in Romania

7/05/2013

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni și 2 Zile (2007) or, Illegal Abortion in Romania

♥♥♥

+ Best Romanian Movie of the Year

The poster for Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days spells dire Human Drama and stark gloom

In the late 1980s in dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania, a woman wants an abortion, which is highly illegal, and she therefore has to pay a man to do it in secret.

The setting of red Romania before the fall of Communism is desolate and ugly and sad. The film provides an insightful portrait of the conditions in the joyless, late years of the gruesome dictatorship. The story presents no real surprises, and all of its characters are more or less insufferable, fanciful or just stupid bastards. I did not sympathize with any of them, which I think is a major problem for nearly any film.
Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu (Beyond the Hills/Dupa Dealuri (2012)) has been hailed as the spearhead of the new 'Romanian Wave', a critically somewhat overestimated phenomenon of the last about 7 years. 4 Months was written with consultancy from Razvan Radulescu (Shelter/Podslon (2010)).

Related posts:

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here's an interview with director Mungiu talking about the film

Cost: 600k €, approximately 0.8 mil. $
Box office: 9.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 12.25 times the cost)
[4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 113 minutes. Mungiu wrote the script in a month. Most of the shooting was done in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The film opened #46 to a strong 51k $ opening weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked #40 and in 47 cinemas (different weeks), grossing 1.1 mil. $ (11.2 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 2.9 mil. $ (29.6 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and the 3rd biggest was Spain with 1 mil. $ (10.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. The film won both the Palm d'Or and the FIPRESCI award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival under president Stephen Frears (Philomena (2013)). It was also named the year's best film by Sight & Sound magazine and won the Best Film and Best European Director awards at the European Film Awards. It figured on many critics' top 10 lists of the year, and even on A. O. Scott's top 10 of the decade as #7. Mungiu returned with Tales from the Golden Age/Amintiri din Epoca de Aur (2009). 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8.4 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)

7/05/2013

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni și 2 Zile (2007) or, Illegal Abortion in Romania

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