User reviews

Two brothers meet after many years, one is a young drifter and the older a successful actor. We come to understand that they love one another, but when together are also sat in a broth of resentment and pettiness. The actor was the preferred son, the drifter is looking for permission to live, which his brother is unlikely to give him. I think the only reason for good people to live is for others, and Petre will become an architect if his brother simply wants him to.

What brings me back to the three extant features of Saucan? It's the restless camera, the overflowing characters, and a sense of eternalism. What I mean by this last piece is the sense of the world, as Einstein notably saw it, as being already in existence, past and future all one. I feel as if I'm God, watching these movies, like I'm admiring my handiwork, without any sense of suspense whatsoever.

This eternalism is emphasised by transcendental moments such as when Andrei wraps his lover in stars, by the echoing dialogue, and by music that would more usually be found in a science fiction movie. "Listen carefully stars", is a line from Petru, whose end we discover is literally tattooed on his arm from the start. A television documentary of young eaglets in an eyrie fighting over a scrap of flesh is a sort of parallel to a certain psychic vampirism that characterizes the relationship between the two.

The infamous Romanian dictator of the time, who does not deserve to be named, ordered the negative of the film destroyed, which it was. Vast butchery of the film followed prior to a release, although the director's cut has survived to this day through love and willpower. Saucan should have made many more films, what is left, glitters.