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Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu's excruciatingly intense drama is set in Bucharest in the mid-1980s, as Nicolae Ceaucescu and his evil dictatorship continue to reign. In a country where abortion is outlawed, a young college student, Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), finds herself in big trouble. Unsure what to do, she turns to her roommate, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), for help. On the day on which the film takes place, the pair connects with a black market doctor, Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), in order to take care of Gabita's pregnancy--but, of course, it isn't that simple. The resulting 24 hours reveals a harrowing descent into a world in which the possibility of tragedy lurks around every corner. Mungiu's decision to film every scene in a hyper-documentary style, with long, unbroken takes, ratchets up the tension to nearly unbearable proportions. Romanian with subtitles. Not Rated. 113 minutes. 
Twenty-five years after the initial release of BLADE RUNNER, director Ridley Scott uses archival footage to re-create his original vision for the sci-fi classic. Based on a story by Philip K. Dick, the film is set in Los Angeles in 2019 and stars Harrison Ford and Sean Young. This final cut is a bleaker, more cynical version of an already dark film, which might explain why the studio insisted on a softer, more optimistic ending when it was first released. While some superfans might take issue with some of the revelatory new twists, they will no doubt delight in the quality of the digital restoration. The special effects were already impressive for 1982, but these new touch-ups give them a look that appears just as sharp and imaginative as the sci-fi films of today. Rated R. 138 minutes. |
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