beyond the hills
the times critic a. o. scott reviews
beyond the hills .
beyond the hills
seethes with astonishment and rage at a broken society marooned between the 21st century and the 16th .
cosmina stratan, left, and cristina flutur in “beyond the hills, ” written and directed by cristian mungiu .
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beyond the hills is gorgeously austere and often exhilarating in its its slow - burning atmosphere of dread and sorrow. it
beyond the hills is a film of great formal rigour and a furious indictment of religion as an instrument of patriarchal oppression .
' beyond the hills'. incited way too much frustration with its whiny protagonist that overshadowed anything it was saying about love .
cosmina stratan, left, and cristina flutur portray women reunited in a romanian convent in “beyond the hills, ” directed by cristian mungiu .
mtv wanted kristin to be on the hills at the same time as lauren .
she thought of being
the bitch
on the hills as a job .
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that’s what “beyond the hills” has in common with “taste of cherry, ” “d’est” and “the turin horse. ” that’s why it might legitimately be called a masterpiece .
even though heidi and spencer caused the bulk of the drama on the hills, kristin loves the couple .
he has no outright heroes or villains, with each character in beyond the hills (dupa dealuri) sincerely believing he is right - the ultimate tragedy being therefore unavoidable .
kc: i never filmed the hills when whitney filmed the hills. so by the time she left and i came in, it could' ve easily changed a lot .
laguna beach was more authentic than the hills, though it wasn' t all completely real .
unlike on laguna beach, producers would text lines for kristin to say while filming the hills .
conflict seethes through beyond the mountains and hills, infusing the feature with the unsettling air that can only come from knowing the truth of a tumultuous situation, but still wishing for change, acceptance and a reason to retain hope .
if you long for the bleak intelligence of an ingmar bergman film, where humankind is deeply flawed and god is indifferently silent and the landscape is cloaked in perpetual winter, then beyond the hills promises to be your cup of despair .
whitney port, who was in seasons 1–4 of the hills, recently rebutted your previous claims about the hills, saying the show wasn' t
staged .
what are your thoughts on whitney' s recent comments ?
and she' s prolonging her kids from watching laguna beach or the hills for as long as she can .
you introduced heidi and spencer, which caused the bulk of the drama on the hills. do you feel any responsibility for the drama speidi caused on the show ?
there is a kernel of an interesting story here: yifat' s desire to build bridges with palestinians and how her impulses are frustrated by the complex reality in which she lives. if only that had been the main focus of beyond the mountains and hills .
ms. flutur recalled a showing of the film at a festival in vienna where a member of the audience “was very angry such a thing could happen in romania in the 21st century. ” that, she said, is precisely the wrong lesson to take away from “beyond the hills. ”
i can' t see things being easier with mungiu' s beyond the hills. all credit to its distributors for not trying the hard sell and marketing it as
the romanian lesbian nun exorcism movie
– though technically, that wouldn' t be untrue .
as titles go, beyond the mountains and hills (me’ever laharim vehagvaot) is a rather poetic one, and it takes on several meanings in israeli writer - director eran kolirin’s latest film, which premiered in cannes’ un certain regard sidebar .
despite whitney port' s recent comments about the hills' authenticity, kristin still stands by her claims about the show being heavily manufactured .
eric d. snider: for me, “beyond the hills” was the kind of movie that gives “artsy foreign movies” a bad name. the stereotypes that make people wary of art - house fare — that it’s going to be long, slow, ponderous, and painful — are all apt descriptors. and i say this as someone who frequently enjoys movies that are some combination of long, slow, ponderous, and painful! when such “difficult” movies work, it’s because something about the overall experience makes the arduous or unconventional process worthwhile. “beyond the hills” gives no such payoff .
given the infamous series finale of the hills, we all know the show was heavily produced. was this the case for laguna beach? were there ever situations that the producers created just for the show ?
the tensions between the spiritual and the secular, groups and individuals, are examined in intelligent, creepily insinuating but not entirely satisfying fashion in “beyond the hills. ” set largely within the physical and psychological confines of a rural monastery, this latest work from gifted romanian writer - director cristian mungiu boasts the same formal control and somber realism [ … ]
erin kolirin’s third feature, “beyond the mountains and hills, ” is his most profound film yet, but also the most problematic. profound because he’s exploring the mixed feelings of so many israelis who try to rationalize their sense of personal identity against the dysfunction of the state: what does it mean to be a good person [ … ]
when it came time to cast “beyond the hills” mr. mungiu took a bold gamble. the role of the monk was no problem: he had written the part specifically for valeriu andriuta, a collaborator on two previous films who was at the time working as a gardener in ireland, telling him to grow his beard before even beginning on the script .
for long stretches “beyond the hills” also has an air of atemporality. the monk and his followers shun most of the conveniences of modern life, subsisting in medieval simplicity and isolation and cultivating beliefs to match, so when outsiders drive up in a battered ceausescu - era dacia or a cellphone suddenly rings, the effect is jolting .
after season 2 of laguna beach, lauren, of course, went on to star in her own spin - off series the hills that you eventually starred in. did mtv ever approach you to star in your own spin - off before you signed on to do the hills ?
stark as it was, 4 months... , set in the blighted ceausescu era, told a compelling, emotionally involving story of two women' s comradeship and determination. beyond the hills is similarly rewarding, although its spare, nuanced narrative doesn' t offer its rewards on a plate .
cannes - nuns on the verge of a nervous breakdown have a surprisingly strong cinematic pedigree stretching from the powell and pressburger classic black narcissus to bunuel’s viridiana, russell’s the devils and almodovar’s dark habits. the chief poster boy for romanian cinema’s new wave, cristian mungiu now adds to that legacy with beyond the hills, a serious - minded contender in the current cannes competition line - up .
“beyond the hills” is based on a pair of best - selling “nonfiction novels” by the romanian writer tatiana niculescu bran, a former bucharest correspondent and editor for the bbc. the books, in turn, are a dispassionate examination of a notorious real - life incident that took place in a romanian orthodox monastery near romania’s northeastern border with moldova, in the spring of 2005 .
from the man' s point of view, the hills don' t look like white elephants, and the hills certainly don' t have skins. the girl, however, has moved away from the rational world of the man and into her own world of intuition, in which she seemingly knows that the things that she desires will never be fulfilled. this insight is best illustrated when she looks across the river and sees fields of fertile grain and the river — the fertility of the land, contrasted to the barren sterility of the hills like white elephants. she, of course, desires the beauty, loveliness, and fertility of the fields of grain, but she knows that she has to be content with the barren sterility of an imminent abortion and the continued presence of a man who is inadequate. what she will ultimately do is beyond the scope of the story .
this is what i mean by “unstoppable momentum”: a pressure that is always growing and always feels internal — to the characters, the situation and mungiu’s direction — rather than being applied from the outside, as it would be in the ordinary suspense movie. if mungiu had allowed anything other than internal pressure to drive “beyond the hills, ” the story it tells might have seemed like only a sensational anecdote. (imagine how the new york post might fit the entire incident, with jeering condescension, into one paragraph of its “news of the weird” column .) as it is, though, “beyond the hills” has a solidity and integrity that you might associate with sculpture more than film. it feels like something that had to come into the world, and in no other form .
i don’t know if i want to give cristian mungiu’s beyond the hills more points or less now that i know it’s loosely based on a true story. i find it more incredible but yet less considered as allegory is, at best, demoted within the narrative, and at worst not present at all. i’m going for less .
kristin' s come a long way since her laguna beach and the hills days, which is one of the reasons why she wrote her new book, balancing in heels .
when you were returning to reality tv on the hills, mtv was promoting your return with the slogan
the bitch is back .
do you feel like you deserved to be called
the bitch
?
“beyond the hills” was filmed on location last winter, with mr. mungiu pushing his cast and himself to meet an ambitious deadline that would allow him to edit the film to two and a half hours to have it ready for showing at cannes. as a result he shot even in the midst of blinding snowstorms, a choice that helped give the film a bleakly beautiful look that echoes the mood of the story .
from the very first image, as voichita squeezes through a railway station crowd, beyond the hills is deeply claustrophobic, and you' ll want to take a deep breath when it' s over. but you' ll have been somewhere you could never have imagined otherwise – not just to an obscure corner of religious europe, but to murky, painful regions of the human soul .
“4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” had the clarity — and to some degree the comfort — of hindsight. viewers could be soothed by the knowledge, unavailable to the characters, that the nightmare of communism would soon be over. “beyond the hills, ” unfolding in a place that seems both post - communist and pre - modern, is in many ways a more troubled and ambiguous film. it investigates a mystery that grows deeper the more clearly it is seen .
like 4 months... , beyond the hills offers more in terms of narrative and emotional weight than conventional visual pleasure – though if you' re partial to chilly realist starkness, you' ll be in clover. oleg mutu' s widescreen photography drapes the frame with blasted, snowy hillscapes, or frieze - like compositions of the sallow - faced nuns in their weird little pillbox hats .
that is the starting point of the romanian director cristian mungiu ’s “beyond the hills, ” which won two top prizes at the cannes film festival last year and opens in new york on friday. before long, however, the story takes a series of odd and increasingly menacing turns, as the viewer is plunged into a circumscribed world in which the word “iconoclast” recovers its original greek meaning, and exorcism is a tool that true believers wield in hopes of keeping apostasy at bay .
as with the
the exorcist
' s implicit praise of faith versus a monstrously rational medical establishment ,
beyond the hills
bursts to life when discreetly expressing a passion for… passion. even in scenes that aren' t set in blinding snow drifts, mungiu' s frame gives off a bitter chill to make your teeth chatter, all the better to offset characters whose sense of devotion burns so fiercely as to prove fatal .
mungiu’s other highly acclaimed film, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, ” was slow, like “beyond the hills, ” but with a crucial difference: though it moved slowly, it felt like it was indeed going somewhere. the new film gives quite the opposite impression, repeating situations of indecision and inertia so frequently that you start to fear the movie won’t ever actually arrive at its destination (whatever it may be). as for the running time, i think a movie should be however long it needs to be to tell its story effectively, whether that’s 80 minutes or 180. “beyond the hills” is too much of a chore to be effective (unless its purpose is to be a chore; more on that in a minute), so i don’t know if a 90 - minute version would be any “better” than the 150 - minute one .
as a storyteller mr. mungiu is both passionate and patient. “beyond the hills” is long and slow moving, absorbed in the routines of monastic life and the emotional currents that ripple underneath its surface and occasionally spill out into the open. the rhythms of the film, and the rough intimacy of the camera work, allow you to experience both the calm order that voichita finds soothing and the unbearable confinement that alina experiences. in other words, even as mr. mungiu maintains a detached, objective point of view, allowing the details of the story to speak for themselves, he also allows you to glimpse the complex and volatile inner lives of his characters .
erin kolirin’s third feature, “beyond the mountains and hills, ” is his most profound film yet, but also the most problematic. profound because he’s exploring the mixed feelings of so many israelis who try to rationalize their sense of personal identity against the dysfunction of the state: what does it mean to be a good person — or rather, to try to be a good person — in a society that doesn’t reward good behavior? problems come in the unbalanced way he expresses this idea, via a family uncertain of what they’re looking for as they fall apart at the seams. it also doesn’t help that the only arabs in the film are terrorists or potential rapists. certain to generate much heated discussion at home and abroad, “beyond” is likely to see modest international sales .
while not embraced with the quite the same degree of enthusiasm as “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, ” cristian mungiu’s follow - up still went over pretty well at the cannes film festival, nabbing both a screenplay prize and acting honors for its two young leads. but even that kind of endorsement doesn’t match the level of enthusiasm stuart has expressed for the film, which can be found in a widely circulated pull quote in marketing materials. you call “beyond the hills” a “masterpiece” loaded with “unstoppable momentum. ”
cristian mungiu ’s “beyond the hills” is a tough and engrossing work of realism, set in rural romania in the dead of winter, but it also has some of the shadowy magic of an ancient folk tale. at its heart are two orphan girls — one dark, one fair — whose destinies are entwined even as their paths in life have diverged. one of them has fallen under a malign and powerful spell, or maybe both of them have .
the result is a movie that is simultaneously analytical and empathic. based on the real - life case of an exorcism gone wrong, “beyond the hills” might have easily have succumbed to sensationalism or scolding, flattering the sophistication of an audience accustomed to regarding religion with contempt or condescension. but while mr. mungiu, inspired by the romanian journalist tatiana niculescu bran’s books about the incident (which took place in a moldavian convent in 2005), hardly casts spiritual authority in a flattering light, he also refuses to derive easy or comforting lessons .
quite absorbing despite its deliberate pace and running time, this is mungiu’s first feature since “4 months” won the palme d’or in 2007 and confirmed a creative renaissance in romanian cinema (he also produced the 2009 omnibus work “ tales from the golden age ”). while it may be unreasonable to expect lightning to strike twice, “ beyond the hills ” is so clearly a companion piece to “4 months” that it naturally summons comparisons: once again, mungiu explores the powerful bond between two young women trying to negotiate the boundaries of a particular prison .
eight years ago the appearance of cristi puiu' s the death of mr lazarescu, a stoical, grimly funny story about the ghastly legacy of the ceausescu regime, won a major prize at cannes. it was soon followed by cristian mungiu' s 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days, which won the palme d' or at cannes and seemed to confirm that something remarkable was happening in the romanian cinema. now, after a longish wait, mungiu has made another feature, beyond the hills, a painful and exacting picture that confirms his position as a film - maker of the first rank .
editor’s note: critical consensus is a biweekly feature in which two critics from indiewire’s criticwire network discuss new releases with indiewire’s chief film critic, eric kohn. in this installment, kohn trades e - mails with the nation film critic stuart klawans and urltoken contributor eric d. snider about cristian mungiu ’s “ beyond the hills, ” which opens in new york and los angeles this week ahead of a national roll - out and video - on - demand release .
the physical locations used are ideal for conveying the sense of separation, even without actual walls: the greenbaums live on one side of a barren, unlit hill, the arabs on the other, with a no - man’s land between them where encounters are possible but always on uneven terms. is there a place “beyond the mountains”? the film implies that such a location is the very definition of “terra incognita. ”
beyond the hills
is an arthouse film from romania, yet, in its slow, lurching progress toward a tragic exorcism, it is a stylistic nephew of america' s
the exorcist .
william friedkin' s classic adaptation of a william peter blatty novel was pitched as popcorn entertainment for nervous christians, whereas director cristian mungiu' s embellishment of a true story (from the
non - fiction novels
by tatiana niculescu bran) ultimately laments superstition, ignorance and indifference .
beyond the hills is a disturbing watch but knowing that it is based on a true story makes the whole experience even more painful. like cristian mungiu’s previous film, the incredible and unforgettable 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days this is a disheartening portrayal of the friendship between two women where one tries to stop the other one from the ultimate descent into misery and despair. mungiu narrates this soul - shattering story with sadistic determination and by asking questions which are almost impossible to answer he creates a nightmarish experience which will put the viewers in a state of shock and confusion for days. mungiu’s style…
it’s the filmmaker’s fair - minded approach that ultimately gets the better of his material (adapted from journalist tatiana niculescu bran’s investigation of a real - life 2005 incident), compounded by a frustrating unwillingness or inability to penetrate his characters’ thoughts. there are deeper forces and mysteries to this tale than a strictly observational approach, however unblinking, can entirely capture. observing the situation at an icy remove, “beyond the hills” never builds the palpable menace and pressure - cooker anxiety of “4 months, ” and its dramatic progression feels obvious, even predictable, by comparison .
the tension between the two is almost as sizzling as the heat of the spanish sun. the man, while urging the girl to have the operation, says again and again that he really doesn' t want her to do it if she really doesn' t want to. however, he clearly is insisting that she do so. the girl is trying to be brave and nonchalant but is clearly frightened of committing herself to having the operation. she tosses out a conversational, fanciful figure of speech — noting that the hills beyond the train station
look like white elephants
— hoping that the figure of speech will please the man, but he resents her ploy. he insists on talking even more about the operation and the fact that, according to what he' s heard, it' s
natural
and
not really an operation at all .
eric, i’d like to dig into some of the reservations you have about this movie. in your review, you called it “an interminable one - note punishment” that “moves slowly and repetitively” and yet it seems that you liked “4 months” a lot more. what was it about “4 months” that worked so much better for you? and since you called out the new movie’s 150 minute running time, when do you feel that such a length is justified in a movie? would “beyond the hills” have worked for you if it ran 90 minutes ?
the tensions between the spiritual and the secular, groups and individuals, are examined in intelligent, creepily insinuating but not entirely satisfying fashion in “ beyond the hills. ” set largely within the physical and psychological confines of a rural monastery, this latest work from gifted romanian writer - director cristian mungiu boasts the same formal control and somber realism that distinguished “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. ” but mungiu’s slow - burning, scrupulously evenhanded portrait of religious hysteria rarely achieves that film’s gut - level intensity, leaving audiences with an accomplished but bleak 152 - minute picture that will require favorable critical attention to find an arthouse niche .
: the man who leaves and the man who comes back are not the same .
”the one who leaves and the one who comes back are not the same. ”
like an israeli american beauty, beyond is very much about what lurks beneath the facade of a seemingly perfect family — the frustration and disillusion, but also the bonds that hold people together through thick and thin. while that isn' t the most original theme to tackle, kolirin adds a more compelling element by focusing on the politically charged atmosphere of contemporary israel, including the constant hunt for terrorists and the bomb scares faced by residents on a daily basis .
romanian new wave director cristian mungiu’s beyond the hills is an oppressively stark and hauntingly solemn examination of the crisis of faith in people and the clash between worldly desires and religious vows, depicting a seemingly mundane albeit intriguing story that is as powerful as his bleak, cinéma vérité masterpiece 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days. it also inexorably flirts with the topic of blind piety, a deed that could do more harm than good even if the intention is of righteousness and innocuous concern. at first, the film reminded me a lot of black narcissus, but with a twist on the relationships of the lead players and a deliberately languid pacing, not to mention a sparser, technicolor - free surrounding. …
we’ve established that this movie takes its time, but haven’t really explored much about what happens in it. eric hinted at mungiu’s apparent disdain for the orthodox church, but to me the movie leaves this element somewhat vague. is it the church itself or this particular church in the filmmaker’s crosshairs? in other words, is this movie truly an indictment of an entire institution or specifically about people who work within its constraints to destructive ends? i’m reminded of the recent debate swirling around “zero dark thirty” and various critics’ attempts to figure out whether the movie celebrates the use of torture to achieve satisfactory results. “beyond the hills” also finds a group of religious ideologues torturing a helpless victim in the alleged service of what they believe to be a commendable goal .
it would also be too glib to say that mr. mungiu places blame on the orthodox church, romanian society or something more abstract, like the modern world or human nature. but all of these forces are implicated in a precise, rigorous drama that is also an earnest attempt at social criticism and philosophical inquiry. like this director’s breakthrough film, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, ” which was set in the last years of the ceausescu dictatorship, “beyond the hills” depicts a world that seems to have been organized to undermine solidarity and stigmatize decency. and like the earlier movie it explores this terrifying moral landscape by examining the fragile friendship of two young women who are neither innocent victims nor fearless heroines .
extremely long and harrowing, beyond the hills has been accused of being deliberately slow. but i found it riveting to watch and fascinating to think about afterwards. it' s morally adroit in the way that the difficult, contrarian, ungrateful alina is turned into a sympathetic character after first appearing to be merely an unbalanced troublemaker. the film ends on an ambiguous image, devastating in its simplicity. a battered police van, its confused passengers brought to the city as witnesses to inexplicable events, has stopped in a potholed street. the driver has just heard that the public prosecutor they' re going to see is tied up with the case of a young man who' s murdered his mother and published photographs of his crime on the local social network. a passing vehicle splashes filthy slush on the van' s windscreen, which the wipers are attempting to clear as the film fades to black .
i might begin by saying these films would be unwatchable for ordinary moviegoers, and so the lonely, embittered critic needs to elevate them above all doubters and detractors — but that would be too cynical a self - judgment. although i might be wrongheaded, i remain convinced that open - minded people, even if they are well - socialized and unaccustomed to art - house fare, might nevertheless fall head - first into any of these pictures, despite the patience with which the filmmakers observe the world, the modesty with which they allow information to emerge and the restraint with which they manage the turning points of the plot (if any). i can testify to having seen a thoroughly unprepared civilian become mesmerized by “d’est, ” and i fervently believe that other civilians could be similarly enthralled by “beyond the hills. ”
click here to read about the czech documentaries selected for the competition of the 53rd karlovy vary iff .
hills like white elephants
is set in spain. an american man and a girl are sitting at an outdoor café in a spanish train station, waiting for a fast, non - stop train coming from barcelona that will take them to madrid, where the girl will have an abortion .
kristin cavallari: laguna beach was definitely not as manufactured as the hills was for me. laguna beach was more putting us in situations where we normally wouldn' t be in or hanging out with people we wouldn' t necessarily hang out with. in the hills, i knew sort of this character that they wanted me to play. when i decided to come on board, i made a decision and i was like ,
ok, this is my job and i' m going to separate my hills life from my real life .
it happened on laguna beach where you don' t know what' s real and fake and i saw cast members who couldn' t distinguish what was real and what was fake anymore. it was kind of scary to see so i kept them very separate so that i didn' t go crazy .
in this case, it’s one built on the unyielding foundations of religious dogma, a subject that should resonate well beyond the boundaries of the unconsecrated orthodox monastery where the film is set. in this remote moldavian enclave, consisting of a simple chapel and a few huts cut off from electricity or running water, a strict but not unkind local priest (valeriu andriuta) oversees an order of young nuns who refer to him as “father” or “papa. ”
stuart klawans: it’s a form of critical three - card monte, this business of calling a new film a masterpiece. the red card — the one bearing the carefully thought - out analysis — is supposed to be moving around on the cardboard box, but somehow, under cover of the m - word distraction, it never flips up. so you are right to call me on my having resorted to the term. while admitting that my memory is faulty, i can recall only three other instances in the past 25 years of reviewing when i have slapped the masterpiece label on a new film: “taste of cherry, ” “d’est” and “the turin horse. ” i remark on the relative infrequency of these dodges not to excuse myself for them but to open a question: what do these films have in common with “beyond the hills” that would prompt me to throw up my hands and say, in effect, “listen, just trust me, they’re great. ”
the film new europe (fne) association is the networking platform for film professionals in the cee / see / baltics region. the webportal and fne newswire was chosen as the main tool to achieve the network’s objectives of the sharing of know how, visibility of regional cultural diversity and finally the voice of the region .
priest: the man who leaves and the man who comes back are not the same. see more »
at times, he and dp shai goldman (the kindergarten teacher) transform such incidents into visual poetry, such as in a memorable sequence where rina directs her students through a shelter drill like a choreographer working a team of ballet dancers. but there are also moments when the rhythm, despite an efficient 90 - minute running time, seems to drag, and though beyond offers a decent payoff during the third act, it takes a while to get there and loses some intensity along the way .
here we are with the final version of the game! in this version we have changed all the intro, 1st chapter’s puzzles and some puzzles from chapter 2, plus a few storytelling details throughout the game. these changes were necessary for the consistency of the game mechanics and storytelling of the game. in addition we improved the ui and some graphics and introduced the title “a new beginning” which reflects the storyline of the complete game .
beyond the hills is less fun than any film about lesbian nuns and their psychotic ex - lovers ought to be. but it is an engrossingly serious work, and confirms mungiu as a maturing talent with more universal stories to tell than those defined by romania’s recent political past. venue: cannes film festival, (in competition), may 18 production company: mobra films cast: cosmina stratan, cristina flutur, valeriu andriuţă, dana tapalaga director: cristian mungiu producer: cristian mungiu executive producers: pascal caucheteux, gregoire sorlat, vincent maraval, jean labadie, bobby paunescu, jean - pierre and luc dardennes director of photography: oleg mutu sales agent: wild bunch rating tbc, 150 minutes
mungiu lavishes attention on backdrop details that underline the particular character of the story .
the ebro a river in northeastern spain; the second longest river in spain .
beyond the mountains and the hills is about a family that is connected, yet each have their own secrets. at the heart of it is david who has recently retired from the army, and is trying to find his way in the rest of the world. there is also the mother, a teacher, and two teenaged high school kids. as most of us do, they each have their own problems and must find ways to deal with them. however, watching the mother navigate an inappropriate relationship, or how the son reacts to it just isn' t interesting. watching the daughter is even worse, as she' s just another teen making decisions which are based more on rebellion than on logic. at least the father' s arc is a little interesting. after failure in business, he unloads his gun into nothingness, only to find out the next day someone died on the hill he was shooting at via gunshot wound. all these individual arcs lead to everybody having a feeling of guilt, but not really leaning on each other for support. and as a movie it was just not involving enough to keep you interested in each person' s guilt .
i certainly don’t disbelieve viewers who say they had a profound and enriching experience with the movie. i’ve been on that end of things several times, championing a “difficult” movie whose detractors said, “you’re reading too much into it” or “you’re just pretending to like it because you think you’re supposed to. ” that attitude is maddening, and all you can say in response is: “i’m sorry you didn’t get it. ” that’s what i have to concede on “beyond the hills”: i apparently didn’t get it. if there is depth, drama, and tragedy in what felt to me like a stilted, grueling treadmill of boredom, i couldn’t find it. but more power to those who did! maybe i’ll have that experience on that next one .
in the story, hemingway refers to the ebro river and to the bare, sterile - looking mountains on one side of the train station and to the fertile plains on the other side of the train station. the hills of spain, to the girl, are like white elephants in their bareness and round, protruding shape. also notable is that
white elephant
is a term used to refer to something that requires much care and yielding little profit; an object no longer of any value to its owner but of value to others; and something of little or no value. throughout this dialogue, the girl' s crumbling realization that she is not truly loved is a strong undercurrent that creates tension and suppressed fear .
moving at an unhurried pace mungiu lavishes attention on backdrop details that underline the particular character of the story, such as the rudimentary conditions the nuns live in (no running water and no electricity), the unpaved roads and the frozen winter landscape .
· the priest grates on alina for the first time, carrying on about the sinful gender confusion in the west — and at this stage she lets him run on .
david is discharged from the army after serving for 27 years. he returns to his family after being distanced from them for years and tries to find himself in his new civilian life. he believes that he will find his way in some managerial position in the private sector, but he has difficulties adapting to the pace of the “new israel”, a competitive culture obsessed with success and money. more often than not, he finds himself alone at home, watching a morning tv - show or listening to the radio. when a friend suggests working as a salesman, he sees this as an opportunity to get his foot into the door of the business world and make something of himself. but it soon turns out a bitter failure. also the rest of the family gets deeply into trouble: his daughter tries to overcome boredom and futility by reaching out beyond the mountains and hills, and becomes entangled in an emotional and political mess. his wife, a school teacher, embarks on an affair with one of her students, humiliating herself, and subsequently provoking her son to a violent act of vengeance. good people living in a bad reality, helplessly caught in the maze of today’s israel .
kc: mtv didn' t come to me to star in my own reality show but they came to me to go on the hills numerous times. i kept being like ,
no, that' s lauren' s thing — i' m not going to do it .
but with her leaving, obviously, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up .
it is a wonder that this story was published at all. when it was written, authors were expected to guide readers through a story. in
hills like white elephants ,
though, hemingway completely removes himself from the story. readers are never aware of an author' s voice behind the story. compare this narrative technique to the traditional nineteenth - century method of telling a story. then, such authors as dickens or trollope would often address their readers directly .
· the exorcism ensues, and is as grueling as the film needs it to be .
hop, skip, and jump worshops – the product and the process by david m. israel
persuasively, and in convincing detail, a steadily escalating conflict grows between the father and the recalcitrant alina. it threatens the stability of the monastery and then spreads out to involve the nearby town. the run - down local hospital is involved, along with alina' s former foster family and the police. lurking outside officialdom are hints of exploitation and abuse in the form of sexual predators and traffickers who are preying on orphans and vulnerable teenagers with the community' s tacit consent. on the face of it, the battle is over voichita and alina' s attempt to make her quit romania. but beyond this, and much deeper and less personal, is a challenge to a rigid, unreasonable and unreasoning authority. alina is physically ill, probably suffering from tuberculosis, and mentally troubled, possibly schizophrenic. in the climactic scene she becomes the object of a brutal exorcism that is at once horrific and farcical. but in accepting her position as outsider, outcast and, ultimately, martyr, she exposes the hypocrisy, petty cruelty, indifference and lack of charity in a whole society .
but as david embarks on a new phase of his life, trying his hand at marketing dietary supplements, his household starts to fall apart, especially after he frustratingly fires his gun into the “hills” of the film’s title and winds up killing an innocent palestinian. as it turns out, the victim had met ifat just a few days before, and while the young girl goes off on a guilt trip that will take her into dicey territory, rina begins having an affair with one of her teenage students (yoav rothman) — in a subplot that will eventually connect with the greater story of david’s unraveling .
first, it describes the landscape lying just outside the apartment complex where a clan of four lives in relative harmony, at least for the time being. second, it signifies the horizon toward which the father of the house — a recently retired army officer — must turn as he faces semi - retirement and an uncertain future. finally, it designates the hidden menace faced by the rest of the family as they make life - changing decisions that will hurdle them into the unknown .
1. the master (paul thomas anderson, usa) (review) 2. tabu (miguel gomes, portugal / germany / france) (review) 3. amour (michael haneke, france / germany / austria) (review) 4. holy motors (leos carax, france / germany) (review) 5. beasts of the southern wild (benh zeitlin, usa) (review) = berberian sound studio (peter strickland, uk / germany) (review) 7. moonrise kingdom (wes anderson, usa) (review) 8. beyond the hills (christian mungiu, romania / france / belgium) (review) = cosmopolis (david cronenberg, canada / france / portugal / italy) (review) = once upon a time in anatolia (nuri bilge ceylan, turkey / bosnia & herzegovina) (review) = this is not a film (jafar pahani & mojtaba mirtahmaseb, iran) (review )
es: i hope kael was lying about never watching movies a second time. if she was telling the truth, she was being needlessly stubborn and limiting her own edification. i love the experience of re - watching something and finding new things to appreciate. i used to write a regular column where i’d re - watch films several years later that i either loved or hated the first time to see how my feelings changed. usually they didn’t change much. but occasionally there’d be a movie where the passage of time between viewings or my own experiences in the interim (or both) caused me to see it in a different light. it doesn’t mean i was “wrong” the first time; it just means i’ve acquired new information or experiences that alter my perspective. my sour memories of “beyond the hills” are too tender for me to be in a hurry to re - watch it any time soon, but reading impassioned defenses of it makes me curious to give it another shot at some point. if people see amazing things in a movie in which i saw nothing, why wouldn’t i want to try — at least try — to see those things too ?
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
this story was rejected by early editors and was ignored by anthologists until recently. the early editors returned it because they thought that it was a
sketch
or an
anecdote ,
not a short story. at the time, editors tried to second - guess what the reading public wanted, and, first, they felt as though they had to buy stories that told stories, that had plots .
hills like white elephants
does not tell a story in a traditional manner, and it has no plot .
karlovy vary: the spot of the 22nd ji. hlava idff made by jean - luc godard has been officially released at the 53rd karlovy vary iff. the 2018 ji. hlava idff will take place…
· the police, bored and indifferent, come for the whole crew, and voichita, who had been so determined to remain in the religious life, climbs into the van dressed in secular clothes .
in an episode dedicated to the show within the show, “glow” illustrates its grand capacity for storytelling, and the very good tv podcast breaks down how .
i love the patience with which the director tells his stories - okay, maybe there’s a little too much patience here - and the way he’ll allow his camera to sit on his actors. it’s spielberg - lite to me - long takes where the performers come to the camera or the camera might come to the performers, they might step into or out of the frame, the camera itself might reframe. there’s a steady command which contrasts with the madness and and teeth gnashing of particularly the last 40 minutes. and make no mistake, this film damn near becomes a full - on horror movie by the end .
let’s admit, though, that the priest’s set - up represents an entrenched, strikingly backward strain of religiosity in romania. the question is whether a local, quasi - official institutionalization of this religiosity is any worse than the local, fully official institutions of the medical profession, the child - care and educational system, the emigration and labor authorities or the police. and while we’re assessing the culpabilities, we might as well throw in the behavior of private citizens, such as the foster parents who have taken such good care of alina, and of the operators of those boat cruises in germany, where the full range of a young waitress’s job description is left to the imagination .
fne’s objectives include visibility for the region and audiences for films by providing a special focus on the region .
that said, during the latter part of the 1990s, this story became one of the most anthologized of hemingway' s short stories. in part, this new appreciation for the story lies in hemingway' s use of dialogue to convey the
meaning
of the story — that is, there is no description, no narration, no identification of character or intent. we have no clear ideas about the nature of the discussion (abortion), and yet the dialogue does convey everything that we conclude about the characters .
thus we come to the title of the story. the girl has looked at the mountains and has said that they look
like white elephants .
immediately, a tension between the two mounts until the man says ,
oh, cut it out .
she maintains that he started the argument, then she slips into apology, stating that, of course, the mountains don' t really look like white elephants — only
their skin through the trees .
cannes wouldn’t be cannes without a little flag - waving, and what about the brits? loach is the only homegrown director competing for the palme d’or, and considering both that he won it in 2006 for ‘the wind that shakes the barley’ and that the ‘ the angels’ share ’ is said to be a lighter affair than much of his work, a second win is unlikely. the lack of other british filmmakers in competition was not unexpected: no other world - leading filmmakers from the uk have films ready to unleash on the world.
beyond the hills ( romanian : după dealuri ) is a 2012 romanian drama film directed by cristian mungiu , starring cristina flutur and cosmina stratan . the narrative follows two young women at an orthodox convent in romania . the film premiered at the 2012 cannes film festival , where mungiu won the award for best screenplay , and flutur and stratan shared the award for best actress . it was selected as the romanian entry for the best foreign language oscar at the 85th academy awards , making the january shortlist . 
beyond the hills (romanian: după dealuri) is a 2012 romanian drama film directed by cristian mungiu, starring cristina flutur and cosmina stratan. the narrative follows two young women at an orthodox convent in romania. the film premiered at the 2012 cannes film festival, where mungiu won the award for best screenplay, and flutur and stratan shared the award for best actress. it was selected as the romanian entry for the best foreign language oscar at the 85th academy awards, making the january shortlist.
beyond the hills (romanian: după dealuri) is a 2012 romanian drama film directed by cristian mungiu, starring cristina flutur and cosmina stratan. the narrative follows two young women at an orthodox convent in romania. the film premiered at the 2012 cannes film festival, where mungiu won the award for best screenplay, and flutur and stratan shared the award for best actress. it was selected as the romanian entry for the best foreign language oscar at the 85th academy awards, making the january shortlist.