The Place - excellent movies vs. the crap you're normally allowed to watch

Last week, when a friend invited me to a movie premiere, I didn't know what to say. It was an event at the French Institute in Bucharest and another actor friend had gotten the invitations. Not my sort of thing at all, you see. When I say 'movie premiere' I probably mean at the mall, with popcorn and noisy seat neighbors.
But this was something quite different. You could tell from the moment we entered the building – complete with passing through metal detectors (it was the French Institute, after all). Then, we gathered in this beautiful courtyard place, with cute wooden benches and nice garden paths. And immediately, you could tell it was going to be different from your average cinema night. Why? Well, mainly the people. I'd guess I was the youngest person there. I don't know if you have people like this where you live, but here, there is a certain group of people, older people generally, grandmas and grandpas, who have an air of class around them. Quite wonderful really, because you can tell from simply looking at them that they're remnants of a lost age. Yes, I'm talking mainly about communism here. You can see in people that they take a lot of pride in going to the theater or attending such “cultured” events as the one I'm describing. And there is something within them, a deference for the arts that you don't see in young people today.
I know, I sound old, but that's the impression these people have left me with.
Anyhow, there were a lot of those in the audience that night. Not to mention actors and other artists, who again hold a “status” in Romania, founded or not. But the point is that this premiere thing was attended by classy people, mostly. Or at least, the Romanian equivalent. And myself. :D
I'm not saying that classy people don't go to the cinema or indeed, that the people who do go aren't classy, but it is worthy of note, I think that there were a lot of fancy people there.

It was the premiere of a movie called 'The Place', by Italian director Paolo Genovese. I see now that on IMDb, it has a 7.1 rating, which is, I think, undeserved, but also part of the problem. See, in my opinion, the movie deserves a much higher rating because it is truly an excellent movie.

The fates of an apparently random group of strangers who each come into contact with a mysterious figure who they believe possesses the power to grant any wish, in return for which they must carry out a task he assigns them.

A seemingly simple premise, but up to so much interpretation... Just imagine that the entire movie (105 mins) takes place at a table, in a cafe. That is it and apart from a few angle changes, that is all you see, for the whole film. Or is it?
Somehow, the characters that come in manage to paint so many worlds outside the cafe, so many lives and troubles unfold in your mind's eye. It's a great movie because it paints a picture, without actually painting it. It lets your mind do all the work, fill in all the colors, add smells and noises. And it plays to the heart.
Most of the dilemmas of the characters are ones that millions of people are going through, their desires are common ones and I'm sure that at some point in your life, you've had at least one of those desires.
Which begs the question, would you fill out one of the stranger's tasks, in order to get your desires?

One of my favorite parts was when, one of the characters, horrified by the stranger's grim task, asks how he can assign such monstrous challenges. At which, the stranger replies,

Because there's always someone willing to do them.

It's a fantasitc reflection of the human condition. It's one of those movies that makes you think. (I'm really not willing to tell you more because you really should see it)

And you know what the killer part is?

It's not in cinemas. Movies like this never are, are they? Simply because the average movie-goer doesn't want to sit in a room for two hours and come out thinking. Or maybe he does, but why would we – that is, the people in charge – want those little rascals thinking about their lives? Who knows what they might come up with...No, better to just give them some mindless drivel of a movie that allows them to sit in the dark for a couple of hours, wasting their time, and come out none-the-wiser.

Or maybe it is. While writing this,I had the pleasant surprise of finding out they are showing 'The Place' in our local cinemas. You know how many showings there are today, over the whole city? 4.
In the evening. And one of them is at the French Institute place, which, not being affiliated to a mall doesn't get a lot of movie-goers.

I was curious to see what else the cinemas are offering, since this one had literally no promotion on the cinema website. There's the new Mamma Mia movie. Essentially, a couple of hours where you listen to Meryl Streep and other such A listers prance around singing old Abba songs while “acting” in a ferociously simple and stupid plot. This one has 55 showings across town today.

Then you have Skyscraper, which doesn't really even deserve a name. It's just another Dwayne Johnson action movie, where he runs around, some stuff blows up, he has to save someone etc. Basically the same movie he's already done a few billion times, but hey, who's counting? Well, I hope somebody is, this one has 51 showings.

There's the third Hotel Transylvania, which personally, I thought was a terribly dull movie. But that needn't matter, you know how many showings there are of that one, across town? A whooping 65 showings.

Now, compare that to 4. Doesn't really seem fair, does it? But then again, why show a movie that might actually get people's wheels rolling?
Also, these ones have a much more famous cast. How can some little known Italian actress compare to the likes of Meryl Streep? Regardless of talent or the hard work she put in the movie...
I think these are the only two criteria they used, because on IMDb, HT and Skyscraper have ratings of 6 something, so lower than 'The Place'. As for Mamma Mia, it ranks in at 7.3 (probably undeserved), but quite close to 'The Place''s 7.1.

It sure makes you think... Makes you wonder why we so often allow someone else to dictate what we see.

Thank you for reading,

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