What lies beyond appearances! -  “LIVE”, film review

 Vlad Păunescu`s name needs no introduction. He is a complete filmmaker, with an impressive career of cinematographer and film producer. A few years ago he built from scratch one of the most powerful production studios, Castel Film. And when I say „from scratch”, I want you to understand how a filmmaker took a look at a piece of land and started building a studio in his head, a studio that nowadays holds its own with the biggest studios in the world. If  I go back in time, in 1984 he took a stroll, as a cinematographer, next to the director Şerban Marinescu , in an incredible set design for those times, an entire slum area with dozens of houses, tramway rails and even a moving tramway. That was the set up for the film Miss  Aurica. He was walking around, together with the director, searching for the best angles to shoot from, because it was the first time when this huge set was supposed to be „tamed”; none of the shots of the film were supposed to carry the theatrical, pretentious feeling. That film was a bet that both Şerban şi Vlad won. He collaborated with other important directors such as Dan Piţa (Orientation Course, Chained Justice, sand Cliffs), Nicolae Mărgineanu (Back from Hell, Flames on the Treasures) or Constantin Vaeni (Traveling in Front of the Wolves).
Back then there was no video assist. So, the very first person to see the framing was the cinematographer. In a certain way, we can say that he was a second director. it`s not by accident that many cinematographers made their debut as film directors as well; and they didn`t stop there: with their films, they brought a huge impact in the history of the Romanian feature films: Nicolae Mărgineanu`s debut was „A Man in the Overcoat”, but then he came with his important works, such as „Luchian”, „Back from Hell”, „The Forest Maiden”. Iosif Demian had his directorial debut together with Andrei Blaier for the feature film Calamity, then he directed by himself „A Girl`s tear” and „Rainbow bubbles”; Dinu Tănase  brought the wonderful „Concert from Bach music”, „Three Days and Three Nights”, „Doctor Poenaru” and especially „At the End of the Line”. And these are only three of the personalities from the cinema field that I meant to mention with regards to Vlad Păunescu` directorial debut.
     Live starts with a post-neorealist touch and becomes a psychological film, with glimpses of film noir every now and then; the author intends to make a real investigation in the backstage of a TV station, but actually refers to the backstages of the entire Romanian media. The film tells the story of Ema, the successful TV presenter of an investigation program. The topic she intends to cover for hes show is extremely hot and will cause a political earthquake. By her way of acting, Rodica Lazăr reminds me of Krystyna Janda from Wajda`s famous film, The marble man. Ema`s struggle is very tough, she gets inside a huge mechanism and will find out, minute by minute that a lie can become a truth because actually nobody cares about the truth. The more the characters are uglier, meaner, more immoral, the more the setting becomes more luxurious.
These characters spend their lives in posh mansions, have the most expensive cars, actually spend their mean lives in a world which is parallel to the reality. Only Ema knows and a man who has been there for her, all her life and who lived to be a magnate (the character played by Tudor Chirilă), because they both started in an orphanage: Ema, a child  with no parents and him, a simple driver at the orphanage. The characters around Ema, that will weave something like spider web around her are played by Constantin Chiriac, Adrian Titieni, Doru Ana, Claudiu Bleonţ, Andrei Huţuleac.
      In order to find ot the truth, Ema is willing to put everything at risk and in the end she`ll win the battle, but it`s just a battel, because the director doesn`t stop at telling a single story, he goes on describing a world where dozens of this kind of cases exist around us. After all, this films is about what we experience nowadays: we live in a world of confusion, with mixed-up and messed up values, a world in which what used to be a fault now is looked upon a s a quality, a world in which the politician tends to become a compromised concept and Vlad Păunescu has the courage to speak about all this. An exciting script, characters depicted through actions and lines, a structure in which the flash back is essential, here are some of the assets of the script signed by Vlad Păunescu and Mihai Mănescu. The cinematographer Adrian Silişteanu attaches a huge importance to the visual structure to which the sets and costumes created by Călin Papură şi Oana Păunescu bring a great deal. The moral promiscuity evolves in luxury. The characters are dressed with exquisite taste, everything arround them is flawless; only the moral law inside of them is the heaviest burden.
The editor Dan Nanoveanu sets the pace of a policier to the film and the music composed by de Petru Mărgineanu adds a suspense feeling to it.
A special mention goes to the changes that a very interesting actor, Tudor Chirilă, goes through; at the beginning of the film he is around 20 years old and by the end of it, he is 60; and his changes are not done only by means of the make up, or by the way he moves, but also by the way his eyes look. The look of the 60 year old man, an influential media magnate, is a very tired one, maybe tortured by remorse, without any parkle.
Visually speaking,  Vlad Păunescu`s film  is glamourous. Semantically speaking, the whole story is a nightmare.
I will never say that Vlad Păunescu is making his debut now, because I will always remember his directing suggestions for films like, Miss  Aurica, Those who Pay with Their Lives, Traveling in Front of the Wolves or Flames on the Treasures. The feature film LIVE will open a new chapter in Vlad Păunescu`s creation, in the sense of his becoming a total author.