Abstract
This chapter discusses the implicit remembrance demonstrated by vertical enclosure in Cristi Puiu’s Stuff and Dough (Marfa si banii, 2001), Cigarettes and Coffee (Un cartus de kent si un pachet de cafea, 2004), Aurora (2010) and The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu (Moartea domnului Lăzărescu, 2005).
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- 1.
Furthermore, the generational conflict depicted in Cigarettes and Coffee confronts the socialist colonial and the capitalist post-colonial world within the same sequence, thus referencing the socialist system while shooting in the capitalist present.
- 2.
Fetesti Street lies in the heart of Titan-Balta Alba , which, besides Berceni and Drumul Taberei, forms the largest socialist district of contemporary Bucharest. Its construction started in the 1950s through the demolition of the neighbouring areas, but the main period of building operations was between 1965 and 1984. Thanks to the metallurgical and heavy industrial areas nearby (hence the name), Titan provided work for thousands of people. By 1970, Titan-Balta Alba contained more than 48,000 apartments and a population of 144,000 inhabitants in an area of 700 hectares (Turnock 1974, 346). Today, Titan-Balta Alba is the only neighbourhood that contains no visible features of the natural landscape (Stoiculescu et al. 2013, 67) and, because of the large, socialist concrete blocks that prevail over its environment, it is often called the ‘communist bedroom’ (dormitor communist) as the area has little to offer but prefabricated homes that, with their small number of rooms and narrow constellation, can best be used for sleeping only.
- 3.
The film is framed by a song played at the beginning and at the end, interpreted by Margareta Pâslaru, a husky-voiced singer prominent on the Romanian musical stage of the ’80s (Popa 2011, 115–129). Also, the film is loaded with mannerisms of wooden language from socialist times.
- 4.
Puiu’s usage of the colour red is also remarkable in the scene. Lăzărescu wears a half red-half black pullover and is put between his red homemade booze and a red pot on the gas stove. The red colours can relate to the narrative events of the film; however, it is more likely that Puiu intended to open up the depth of the space with the intensity of the colour, thus motivating the spectator to look at the details in the frame.
- 5.
As mentioned earlier, the cellular, disciplinary mechanism is emphasised by the graphic installation of the pro-filmic and screen space, the deep focus technique and the lateral depth of field, which, as Branigan’s (2006) cognitive categories suggest, are essential tools of realistic representation.
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Batori, A. (2018). The Cinema of Cristi Puiu. In: Space in Romanian and Hungarian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75951-7_6
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