POLICE, ADJECTIVE
Romania, 2009, 113 minutes, Colour.
Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov.
Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu.
One needs to take good notice of the title, both words, otherwise some might expect all police whereas the really interesting part is adjective, since the film is concerned with words and language.
While there is a basic, slight plot about police work in Porumboius' home town of Vaslui (the setting for his Camera D'Or winning film about the day Ceacesceu was deposed, 12.08 East of Bucharest,), most of the action (used loosely because much of it is long shots of Cristi, the central character, on surveillance) is in routine police work, checking information, writing reports and discussions with bosses. Cristi becomes convinced that the pot-smoking student he tails, denounced by another student, is not the source of drugs for the group and does not want to arrest him and have him imprisoned on less than solid evidence.
Not heart-stopping or adrenalin-pumping action. No, this is routine work presented objectively, sometimes like an observing documentary, set in ordinary streets with ordinary people, rather than extras, passing by. One feels that this is entirely authentic.
But, one night when Cristi has a late supper and his wife is listening to a popular song on the internet (loudly), he questions the meaning of the lyrics, for example, 'what is a field without the flower?'. He is generally an imagination-free policeman. The discussion moves to the meaning of images and symbols. Cristi doesn't get it but, on going into the bathroom to clean his teeth, he realises 'what is a toothbrush without the toothpaste?'! Another time, he and his wife discuss some spelling and how the Romanian Academy can define the norms for words. Much of the dialogue consists of people correcting others about what they exactly mean when they say something.
The culmination is Cristi's meeting with the boss and his refusal to set up a sting on the unsuspecting student. It is a matter of conscience. The final scene, one long take, plays like a theatre piece with words and silences as the boss asks Cristi to define conscience and then demands a dictionary so that conscience can be looked up, then law, then morality and then police, so that Cristi will understand, if possible, the relationship between morality and law and the necessity of law prevailing over 'conscience'. And that is what we are left with.
An 'arthouse' film that will please those who love language – and precision in language.
1.The film as a police drama, as an essay on language? The two words of the title?
2.The Romanian renaissance, the range of film-makers, their work, their tone?
3.The provincial city, the suburbs, grim, the streets, school, offices, bars? The exteriors and interiors? Realistic, documentary-like?
4.The ordinariness of the setting, the people in the streets, naturalistic? The office, meals, the interviews, talk? The documentary-like effect?
5.The visual style of the film, the long shots, the theatrical style, dialogue and silences?
6.The basic plot: Cristi, surveillance of the student, tailing him, going to the office, writing reports, investigations, checking on details, meetings? His relationship with his co-workers? With the boss? His not being such an important functionary?
7.The importance of language, plain talking yet being misunderstood, people clarifying what others mean? The lyrics of the song and Cristi’s negative reaction? The discussion with his wife? The joke about the toothbrush and the toothpaste? The meaning of words, the spelling of words, the Romanian Academy? The secretary and her sensing sarcasm in Nelu’s comments? The various meanings of words and phrases, people’s reactions? The final resorting to the dictionary? The analysis of words – and their effect on Cristi and his conscience?
8.Cristi, his age, talk of his marriage, the honeymoon in Prague, noticing the different laws on drugs, his wife, listening to the song, his eating his meal, arguing with his wife, the second meal, the discussion of spelling, the academy, her comments on the case, wanting him to change his pullover? A sense of realism?
9.Cristi and his surveillance, patience, work at the desk, discussions with Nelu and going to the meetings, his research and bothering the researchers, Gina as secretary to the boss, the meeting with the boss? Cristi’s character?
10.The issue of conscience, his intuition about the young man and his possible innocence, not wanting him to get seven years of prison on slight evidence? His looking into the case, speculation about Victor, his brother, the young woman, the drugs, the girl’s brother and his visits to Italy? The discussions with Alex and puzzling about his denouncing his friend? His making the report? Not wanting to set up a sting?
11.The arguments with the boss, the boss’s lecture, the analysis of the words of conscience, law, morality, police?
12.The sudden ending of the film, leaving all this meaning for the audience to ponder, for Cristi to draw a conclusion about his behaviour, applying the law, even though he thought it would change, the role of law? The issues of the relationship between conscience, law, a person’s rights, morality?
