Red-125 The Romanian film "Marti, Dupa Craciun" (2010) was shown in the United States with the title, "Tuesday, After Christmas." The movie is co-written and directed by Radu Muntean.Many movies show female full frontal nudity, so the fact that this occurs in this movie is no great surprise. What is surprising is that the film opens with two of the principals in bed. They have obviously just made love, and what we hear and see is their casual, languid talk right afterward. The woman has no reason to cover herself, so we see the nudity within the first minute or two of the film. Definitely different.The man, Paul, is played by Mimi Branescu. (Apparently Mimi can be a man's name in Romania.) He looks and acts like an Eastern European George Clooney, although he's not as handsome as Clooney. We learn that the woman, played by Maria Popistasu, is Raluca, who has been having an affair with Paul for months. She is certainly young and beautiful. (In fact, all of her is beautiful, as we learn in the first few minutes of the film.) What sets Raluca apart from most "other women" is that she's a dentist. (I can't remember ever seeing a movie where one of the women actors is a dentist.) In fact, it was through dentistry that she and Paul met, because Paul's daughter is her patient. Mirela Oprisor plays Adriana, Paul's wife. She too is very beautiful, although that aspect of her appearance is played down in the movie. She too is intelligent, and she loves Paul.That's the basic plot of the film. Paul has to decide. It's Christmas, and, in the context of the film, one of the women is going to get Paul for a Christmas present, and one is going to get left by Paul as her present.The film proceeds almost like a documentary. We meet Raluca's mother, Paul's parents, Adriana's sister, and some family friends. Paul and Adriana take their daughter to Raluca's clinic. Obviously, Paul and Raluca are exquisitely aware of the awkwardness of the situation, but, equally obviously, Adriana is not.All of these essentially normal activities take place with the clock ticking--in Paul's mind and in ours. Either way, this is going to end badly for someone. We just don't know who that someone will be, and what will happen after Paul decides. It's not a great movie if you want violent action or broad dramatic strokes. It is a great movie if you want to see a portrayal of normal people in an all-too-normal situation.I enjoyed this movie and recommend it. The only weakness is that it wasn't clear to me what qualities Paul had that would make both women want him as their partner. He's attractive enough, apparently virile enough, and fairly well off financially. However, Raluca knows he's cheating on his wife. What makes her think he won't cheat on her? Adrianna knows that he's away a lot, and, even when he's there, he's not particularly loving or caring. Still, there it is. Two women want him, and only one will have him.We saw this film at the excellent Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House in Rochester. It will work well on DVD, because all of the important scenes take place indoors. I think it's definitely worth finding and seeing.

makeuplover69 Paul a married, middle aged, banker has a midlife crisis and is in a months long affair with his daughter's dental assistant. He struggles with staying with his wife and wanting to be with his much younger mistress.It is obvious from the beginning there is no spark left in the marriage and both Paul and his wife Adriana are just going through the motions of family life. They discuss their daughter's need for braces, her piano lesson schedule, and what to pick up at the supermarket. While their daughter brings them happiness the marriage seems mundane and lifeless.Paul has illicit trysts with his lover in her apartment and lies to his wife about being on the road for business. His lover gives him the freedom he desires and does not put any pressures on him to leave his wife. He comes and goes at will and that suits him to a point. When he is not with her he is thinking of her and finds excuses to see her.The best scene of the whole movie is when Paul confesses to Adriana about his affair and who it is with. It is a very emotional and traumatic time for Adriana who I believe gives the best performance.

mmguica Given the commonplaceness of the subject of the movie, one may have thought that the director would have liked to address the question of adultery from a possibly new (moral, artistic) angle. This was my reason for watching the movie, and I had to be disappointed.The characters had incredibly little depth, with the notable exception of the lover (the dentist) whom I found to give a very sensible performance. As far as the main character is concerned, there is very little struggle, care for other's feelings, humbleness. One may view his character as a depiction of the stereotypical "romanian man". The Romanian Man whose masculinity has to be praised, for whom it is completely normal to have both a wife and a lover, and who has to be congratulated if he decides to do anything about it. I am not sure how many such stereotypical "romanian men" are there in Romania (possibly few, but the character did ring a bell), but I would say the main character makes an interesting reflection on current society.As has already been remarked, the conversation is *boring*, there is no spark of life, of joy, of complicity among these middle-class busy people. No love either. Is this a depiction of Romania's today middle-class marital relations? Where all the conversation revolves around work and the last things we bought, but there's no talk of the soul? Is this why the action takes place around Christmas, the pinnacle of consumerism of the year? The reason that I am giving the movie 5 points is that the performances of the actors are, in fact, very good and the characters are natural and believable. The opening scene is truly refreshing and the scene at the doctor's carries a very palpable tension. The problem is the remaining hour...In conclusion, I found the above movie very plain, boring, and somewhat depressing for the reasons described above. Also, it was filmed in a very factual, realistic manner with no questions raised. So, then, my question is: what is the message of this movie?

ionutursu Don't let yourself be scared away by the scarcity and banality of the plot written on the main page here. It's not the fault of the person who wrote it, you simply cannot add more. It sounds like a story which has been told in books and movies for hundred and thousand of times. So what's so special here? The dramatic tension that builds up and the truthfulness to ... well, to life (I know it sounds quite mundane)are quite special. Don't expect blows and strokes a la "Damage" or "La paura", you won't find them here.After Christmas, after the time of (profane) rituals, conventions and mystifying is gone, Paul, the leading male character, hopes to begin anew, to be more truthful to himself, although knowing this will cause a lot of sorrow to some of his beloved ones. There is nothing exterior that forces him to confess the truth, knowing that this confession will bring an irremediable change to his life. Somebody else could live on, performing the same rituals and conventions (of family life, of life as a married adult with a child), Paul can't. It's up to anyone to decide how much convention and steadiness one is willing to accept feeling the growing "burden of the heart".This is probably director Radu Muntean's most cohesive movie up to date. With his previous attempt to make a Romanian-middle-class-drama, "Boogie", I felt that there is something (small, indeed) missing, there was still something round-up. Not the case with this movie, nothing too much or too less, my grouchy self piped down. Great performances by the main actors, incredible tense scenes (the bed scene, at the dentist's, visit to Constanta, confession, Christmas Eve), naturalistic dialogue, etc. Like in other young Romanian director's movies (Puiu, Mungiu, Porumboiu), expect quite a lot of long takes, minimalist soundtrack, no hyperboles, no black and white painting. Just truthfulness.