CHILD’S POSE/ POSITIA COPILULUI

Romania, 2013, 119 minutes, Colour.
Luminata Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Ilinca Goia, Vlad Ivanov.
Directed by Calin Peter Netze.

For audiences who are drawn in immediately to this film, its visual style and techniques, its portrait of a 60ish woman, there will be no problem. For audiences who are not immediately drawn into the film, who find the hand-held camera work and the simple moving of camera to focus on one person in a conversation and then on the other, they should wait for 10 minutes or so when there is a sudden announcement of plot development the changes the whole film.

The Romanian title of the film is not just simply a child’s pose, rather it is a technical term for how the victim of a road accident is positioned on the road. In this film, the victim of the accident is a child.

The film received many awards, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin film Festival of 2013. As the film progresses, and the delineation of characters becomes more powerful, and as the moral dilemmas become more focused, as well as critique of Romanian class distinctions, there is little doubt about the power and quality of Child’s Pose.

There have been many possessive mothers portrayed on screen, but the performance of the Luminata Gheorghiu is outstanding. Right from the start, when she is talking to her sister-in-law and complaining about her son’s seeming disdain for her, we realise that she is a woman who is focused on herself, on her own feelings, and has a world view that centres on herself. We see her in conversation. We see her at her birthday party, mixing with the socially wealthy in Romania. We see her present at an opera Masterclass. She has a comfortable life, separated from her husband, but still possessive of her adult son.

With the news of the accident, she goes at once into self-serving mode, ringing police authorities with whom she is acquainted, challenging the police in their own precinct, dominating her son and wanting him to change his official statement, especially about the speed at which he was driving when he overtook a car and the accident occurred. She even arranges a meeting with the other driver, wanting him to change his statement, and manoeuvring with him for a payoff. She goes to clean out her son’s apartment, has a meeting with her former husband, her son and his partner, whom she does not like at all.

As the film goes on, we realise what a smothering monster she is, told by her son’s partner that she is ‘not the nicest person in the world’, an understatement.

And, yet, with the performance, and while we despise so much of what she does, we do realise that there is a concern about her son that evokes, or could evoke, some sympathy.

The son is a weak character, showing the results of his mother’s control of him, her ’smother-love’, not at all living up to her description, at length, of what he was like as a boy and as a growing adult.

Much truth is told in conversations, especially about the son’s partner and her sexual relationship with him and his not wanting children, a shock to the mother. Eventually, the son speaks more plainly to his mother. The culmination is a visit to the parents of the dead child, a very powerful sequence with all concerned – and some final emotional moments where the audience sees what is happening but does not hear and has to assume that there is some resolution to the film.

The director’s use of the hand-held camera is still dominant in the film, but one is so drawn in by the characters and the situation and their handling and mishandling of it, that attention is devoted predominantly to the characters and their self-revelation.

1. Acclaim for the film, awards? The Romanian film industry, its strong reputation in the early 21st century? Subjects, style?

2. The title, the boy who was killed or Babu? The implication of the title in the positioning of the body in an accident? Seems of mothers and parents?

3. Camera style, hand-held, moving from subject to subject in conversations, dark scenes, a sense of naturalism, realism? The editing? The musical score?

4. The portrait of Cornelia as a person, as a mother? Her initial chatting with her sister-in-law, her complaint about her son, her focus on herself? The criticism is of her son’s relationship with Carmen, her unhappiness? Separation from her husband? Confiding in her friend? At home? The party, her friends, her position in society? The presence of the masterclass? A rage, life, style? Summoned from the class? The news, its effect, her phone calls, her stubbornness, her emotional response, contacting police chiefs? Concern about her son, about herself? Going to the police station, the arguments with the staff, domineering? Concerns about herself? All the action focused on her? Talking with her son, the situation? Wanting him to change his statement and the speed at which he was going? Her tidying his house? With her husband, the dinner, the comments that she dominated her husband, party in her hands, the reaction? With her son, the tensions? The arguments about the accident? Going to see the witness, his explaining with diagrams the reality of the accident, the overtaking, the hitting of the child? The discussions of the bribe, her control? His one-upmanship? Meeting Carmen, her attitudes, discussions about her son, Carmen’s role? Carmen and the reality, explaining Babu is not wanting children, his sexual behaviour, the reason for the separation? Babu not letting Carmen let his mother in? The decision to go to the house of the family? The argument with Babu, his barbs against his mother, in the car, asking Carmen to go into the house with her, sitting with that parents, her version of her son, over praising him, offering the cash, the father’s refusal, wanting to go to the funeral, the father advising against? Talking with the mother, the son who survived, Cornelia losing her only son? Babu going to the gate, meeting the father, the audience seeing them at not hearing them talk, the handshake, the reconciliation? Babu getting back into the car, his mother with the commission, leaving?

5. The situation of the accident, the Babu and his tailgating the driver, the comparison of cars, wanting to overtake, the driver and his going slowly, Babu overtaking, hitting the child? The child crossing the freeway, his father is upset, blaming himself for not telling his child not to cross? Babu and his lack of responsibility? Coping, the law, the moral issues, the police in the investigations, the accusation is that the police were corrupt?

6. Babu, his life, his mother describing his childhood, boyhood, studying for his degree? His life, the reality, cowardly, the relationship with Carmen, her daughter liking him, not wanting children, his sexual behaviour, but his getting out of the car and shaking the hand of the father?

7. Barbers father, support, the phone calls from his wife, but not intervening?

8. Carmen, her relationship with Babu, her child, living with him? Attitudes, her life, the separation, her explanations? Accompanying Cornelia into the house?

9. The family, the anger, the father with the bat and his attack at the police station, at home, listening, refusing the cash, not wanting them to go to the ceremony? The talk with Babu and the handshake?

10. A form of social realism, critique of Romanian society, classes, responsibility, manipulation of the law?

11. A powerful portrait of a dominating and possessive mother?