Audience Member
Tudor Giurgiu's energetic and sly direction perfectly captures all the flavours of 1990's Romania in this tongue-in-cheek funny, yet flawed satire. Starring Andi Vasluianu, Romanian cinema's go-to actor for a confident and charismatic every-man, Of Snails and Men is not your run of the mill 'save the company' comedy, it's more of an incisive commentary on the macabre comedy that Romanian politics used to be in the grim transition from communism to capitalism. Fearless, creatively written and well acted as it is, the film, though, lacks in consistency, due to its loose structure and abundancy of chaotic pacing shifts.
Ultimately, even though everyone involved clearly had a lot of fun making this film, due to the production's shortcomings regarding form and structure, the subject feels a tad unexplored, in spite of all the breathtaking accuracy of the times and laugh-out-loud scenes.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I saw this movie in Alicante, Spain with Spanish subtitles on December 1, which happened to correspond with the Romanian Unification Holiday. I believe that it is the first Romanian film that I have seen. Growing up I learned to appreciate European films through the films of Fellini, Bergman and others. De Caracoles y Hombres (Of Snails and Men), is a very well thought out comedy, which, for me, brings back memories of some of the classic Italian "comedy in the face of adversity" films. The film is based on the actual story of the closing of the ARO four wheel drive vehicle factory in the Romanian town of Campulung in the 1990s, which resulted in the layoff of thousands of Rumanian workers. The workers are told that the factory will close, but that it is to be sold to French investors who are to convert the factory to a snail cannery and that 300 of the 3000 layed-off workers are to be re-hired. The main character, George Petrescu, who is married with a child but has a reputation as a Don Juan, hatches a plan to enable the workers to buy the factory, and to continue making vehicles. He experiences problems in getting the workers and their wives to commit to the plan, and his life is complicated by his lover (the beautiful Monica Birladeanu), who is a secretary at the factory. The humor derives from the combination of events, including a visit by Michael Jackson to Rumania, and the interactions between the French and Rumanians. Underlying the humor of the film there is the grim reality of the rapid changes that the fall of communism and the rise of the global economy have brought, not only to eastern European countries, but also to much of Southern Europe, as many large factories have closed. A number of Spanish critics compare this film to "Bienvenido Mr. Marshall", but for the American audience, I would compare it with the "Zorba the Greek".
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
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