Search found 1 match: Lillian Gish

fuck.

i'm not ever gonna put myself through this again, but as a dank miserablist screed against institutional inadequacy pervading all levels of a nation's archaic infrastructure.... fuck.

you could argue that, in his haste to be all-encompassing, mungiu fires a few wayward shots at targets too far beyond the story's purview--but methinks he largely integrated them into the screenplay with minimal contrivance. regardless, admirable that no character here is spared or martyred; empathy and implication go hand in hand, as mungiu refuses to let his righteous fury reduce the film into a pat symbolic parable, despite allegations to the contrary. pretty sure some of the people dismissing it as a one-note atheist diatribe are, ironically, projecting their own atheism onto proceedings.

the viewer isn't spared either. it's all about cosmina stratan, man. girl had some lillian gish kinda spell over me in that final half hour, despite barely being involved in the action or conversation by that point - just hovering in the background watching over proceedings, looking like she's aged a hundred years. i didn't want to meet those bloodstained daggers jabbing out despairingly from her sockets, but they kept following me around the screen. i hope it's not the last we see of her, and i kind of hope it is.