I wanted to see the years when all these things happened, to put things in perspective, to frame the movie in history. I wanted to hear the name of the places they show.
And I really wanted to hear some great verses from Eminescu's superb poetry and even fragments from his writings. Same for Creanga's tales which are wonderful even today after 130 years though the local aspects of the language he uses are a bit difficult indeed.
Mihai (Michael) Eminescu had such a rich life, yet little is presented in the movie. Ion (John) Creanga's life is presented better.
Plus, the title is not inspired. It tells nothing to the audience.
The actors were great, I really liked them a lot, they really gave life to the historical characters. But the script, the atmosphere, the scenes - everything was too abstract for me. A linear time style approach would have been way better: the year they met, the historical events at that time, the political aspects of Romania as an emerging country.
But I remain in my heart with a few powerful scenes.
PS: Cats were so sweet. I didn't know Creanga liked cats and had so many cats (15 at one point in the movie). Cats make life sweeter indeed.
