‘Crai nou‘ (2021) (distributed internationally with the title ‘Blue Moon‘) is a debut film, but Alina Grigore, its script author and director, is not a debutante in cinema. On the contrary, it can be said that she already has a creative path that is worth following and that this film represents another stage in the evolution of one of the most interesting filmmakers of the young generations of Romanian cinema. After studying acting at UNATC (the Theater and Cinema Academy in Bucharest), Alina Grigore made her acting debut more than a decade ago, being cast in movies and television series. After another period of studies in the United States, she tried her forces as a screenwriter. ‘Illegitimate‘, the film written by her together with the director Adrian Sitaru, proved her courage in choosing a controversial topic and in the stylistic approach of dealing with delicate themes. Now, I had the opportunity to be among the first spectators, at the film festival in Haifa and before the premiere in Romania, of ‘Blue Moon’, which can be considered her author film because she wrote the screenplay (based on her own stories) and also assumes the role of director. She does it again with courage and self-confidence. As in the previous film, this is the story of an unhappy family, a family torn by conflicts, stifled aspirations and the burden of old events that cannot be forgotten. It is an interesting and imperfect film, a film that arouses interest and provokes discussions, both in terms of theme and the way it is conceived.
‘Crai nou‘, the title in Romanian, reminds of the folklore traditions related to the new moon, the beginnings of love, the feminine desires and the search for the future husbands. The main heroine of the film, Irina, does not necessarily aspire to fairy tales love, but rather to escape from the family circle and the narrow social space in which she is forced to live. She is part of a fairly large family that manages a hotel in the mountains, in a picturesque area of Romania. The family is a bit dysfunctional, the relations are quite tense, her divorced father who lives in England for a long time and visits occasionally is called ‘the deceased’, Irina’s sister has relationships that are not well received by the family. The business is run by the girls’ two cousins, one of them, Liviu, quite violently, trying to control their private lives. Irina is perhaps the smartest of them all, but she doesn’t even know what she wants to do with her own life. She plans to leave, she prefers Bucharest to London where her father lives, but her attempts to escape are hampered by her own ignorance of the world outside the family perimeter. She may eventually be able to help her sister, but it is not clear if she will be able to take control of her own destiny.
The film benefits from the excellent cinematography by Adrian Paduretu. Each scene’s colour palette is adapted to the atmosphere, from the illustrated postcard images of the hotel in the mountains to the dark blue of the New Moon night, which justifies the English title of the film. It also uses long frames, many scenes being filmed with hand-held camera in one take, which offers authenticity and gives the actors time to express their feelings. Alina Grigore, herself an actress, works with actors according to a method that allows everyone to develop their characters and leaves room for spontaneity. Ioana Chitu is excellently distributed and her Irina is memorable. Mircea Postelnicu accurately executes the difficult role of Liviu, although here the script I think has a problem, the character does not seem to evolve, which obliges the actor to repeat his violent outbursts without adding anything from one scene to another. Vlad Ivanov also appears in a minor role, possibly wanting to be included in the cast to support the film. The whole team of actors plays authentically, but the balance between the ‘to-the-book’ precision of the scenario and the freedom of expression of the actors seems to lean too much towards the second direction. There are some ideas in the film that are certainly important to the director but which do not all cross the screen clearly and distinctly: social stagnation, the invisible ceilings that limit the role of women, the repression of genuine feelings in personal relationships, the conflict between the different points of view of women and men in relationships. With ‘Blue Moon‘, Alina Grigore proves that she is an innovative screenwriter and director, who has a lot to say and knows how to express herself in an interesting cinematic way. But the audiences risk to be confused by her too many cinematic searches. I think that the viewers and the way they receive the story and the messages should be the focus of her attention in the future films that she will make.