A Princes Film production, with participation of Canal Plus and CNC. (International sales: Celluloid Dreams, Paris.)
Directed by Tony Gatlif. Screenplay, Gatlif, Kits Hilaire, Jacques Maigre.
Stephane ..... Romain Duris
Sabina ..... Rona Hartner
Izidor ..... Izidor Serban
Adriani ..... Florin Moldovan
It would be easy to put down "The Crazy Stranger" as just a colorful dollop of ethnic stereotypes attached to an unremarkable story. But Tony Gatlif's final part of his loose trilogy on Gypsy life (started with "The Princes" in 1982 and continued with the docu "Latcho Drom" four years ago) is an often genuinely intoxicating brew that puts much emotionally retentive Euro fare to shame. The pic, which drew an unprecedented four-minute standing ovation at its Locarno preem from the usually polite Swiss-Italian audience, also introduces a powerhouse talent in young Romanian actress Rona Hartner, and could notch up some respectable arthouse business in selected territories in addition to small-screen sales.
The French-based helmer, of Algerian and Gypsy descent, has veered from the bleak and uncompromising to the colorful and exotic in his various depictions of Romany life. "Stranger" is a satisfying conclusion to everything he has to say on the subject, as well as his smoothest movie to date.
Setting this time is wintry Romania, whither arrives young Parisian Stephane (Romain Duris), obsessed with tracking down a legendary folk singer, Nora Luca, whose voice he carries with him on a tape. Arriving in a village at night, he falls in with an old drunk, Izidor (Izidor Serban), and ends up sleeping under his roof. Next morning, Stephane becomes an object of curiosity in the community, and is immediately dubbed a crazy gadjo (stranger, or outsider).
Speaking only a few words of Romany and zero Romanian, he communicates with the locals via Sabina (Hartner), a lusty young peasant woman who's returned home from a bad marriage. She quickly warms to the modest young Frenchman, while Izidor eases his transition into the suspicious, tightly knit community. But just when Sabina and Stephane are about to exchange bodily fluids, things turn nasty with the arrival of Izidor's son, Adriani (Florin Moldovan), a Gypsy Mafioso just out of jail.
Pic trowels on ethnicity by the cartload, with lotsa sequences of bighearted Romanies singing, dancing, smashing plates and basically missing no opportunity for a barn dance. But in its latter stages, as local tensions between Romanians and Romanies are re-ignited, the movie takes time out for more serious social points, not all of them pro-Gypsy. Though warmhearted, they're portrayed as equally bigoted and xenophobic as the local Romanians, and driven by the emotion of the moment rather than by any fixed moral standards.
Duris is good as the initially reserved Frenchman, but it's Hartner who fires the picture, whether mooning some jeering locals, engaging in breathtaking dirty talk with Duris as their passions mount, or spontaneously dancing for him while he dutifully records a song in a bar. Serban, too, is immensely likable as the crafty old Izidor.
Gatlif's direction is fluid and mobile and his pacing deceptively skillful, given the thinness of the material. Tech credits are all pro.
With: Ovidiu Balan, Dan Astileani, Valentin Teodosiu.
(French, Romanian and Romany dialogue)
Camera (color), Eric Guichard; editor, Monique Dartonne; music, Gatlif; art direction, Brigitte Brassart; costume design, Mihaela Ularu; sound (Dolby), Nicolas Naegelen. Reviewed at Locarno Film Festival, Aug. 10, 1997. (Also in Montreal Film Festival.) Running time: 100 MIN.
Contact Derek Elley at
derek.elley@variety.com