Having seen the original film back in the '80s and having read the books it is based on, I had a pleasant surprise watching this film yesterday. Not only does Stere Gulea manage to reestablish the former atmosphere (the beautiful black and white cinematography has something of the old Romanian film school, but also the newer influences of slow panning and panoramic shots), but he also brings in the disquietude of the mid-40's (very well depicted in the books as well as in the memory of my older family members who witnessed it first-hand), the confusion, the insecurity, the brutality of a new regime that demanded obeisance in rough terms - luckily, keeping in line with the former film, physical violence is almost absent or only generally hinted at in the course of the film. The characters have aged and, although I myself along with others, would have wished the former protagonists to be played by the same actors (some of which are still alive), now I see why the director chose other people for the present film. There are quite a few epic threads, the main one following young Niculae's struggle to graduate and find a job as a teacher, then switching to journalism and fiction writing - at this point, the director chose to intermingle the character and the narrator, using fragments from Marin Preda's autobiography "Viata ca o prada" ("Life as a Prey"); the other, old Ilie Moromete's struggle to understand and cope with the new order of things. One critic reviewer stated that "Moromete is a representative of those willing to surrender without a fight", an assertion that I find untrue and showing the inattention of the aforementioned reviewer. Quite the contrary, Moromete not only fights (his strategy, apparently strange, coming out in the end and reminding me of an old Oriental tale called "Kismet"), but also understands that, having no place in the new world, his extinction is only natural. Everything happens very fast, some crucial sequences pass by unemphasized, some other barely hinted at, more for the pleasure of literature connoiseurs, than for first-time viewers. I did enjoy watching, but I doubt the young audience found the undertones as alluring as I did. My advice for them is to read both volumes of "Morometii" ("The Moromete Family") as well as "Viata ca o prada" and to watch the original "Morometii" before watching the new film.
