Combining a detective story with political philosophy and a dictionary makes "Police, Adjective," a delightful motion-picture experience. The fascinating, low-key film from Romanian writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu uses its slow pace and interesting camera work to examine the police world in Eastern Europe in clinical detail, with the dictionary as a vital prop.
Like many European filmmakers, Porumboiu and his director of photography, Marius Panduru, use the camera as an observer, not a participant. For long periods of time, the camera is locked down and the actors move in front of it, providing an almost stage-like experience. Too many American directors think that hand-held cameras are the ultimate tool, and that a camera that moves with the speed of a sprinter is an indication of directorial talent.
A mix–or rather, a blend–of styles allows the story to be of prime importance, and the old-fashioned two-shot, which often holds a story together, keeps the audience in step with the screenplay.
Cristi, played in world-weary, Raymond Chandler character style by Dragos Bucur, is a plain-clothes detective assigned by a patient chief (Vlad Ivanov) to follow, gather evidence and make a drug bust of a couple of young people kids who smoke dope in a schoolyard and have been fingered by a snitch (Alexandru Sabadac) who smokes with them. Cristi spends a lot of time following them, hanging out on street corners, observing and carefully writing reports. His conclusion is that there is no major crime, but that the snitch wants the other guy out of the way so that he can move on the girl.
Porumboiu keeps us in a grubby neighborhood, visiting grubby apartments, stores, even then police station. The fixed camera focuses on narrow corridors, mostly empty streets. Cristi watches. At home, he and his wife, Anca (Irina Saulescu), discuss the meaning of popular song lyrics; she's a teacher, and obviously interested in words. He looks at it as an idle mental exercise. Their discussion, however, is unlike many movie discussions over the dinner table.
But when Cristi refuses to arrest the dope-smokers, citing his conscience, the chief gets a dictionary and the word games begin. No sex, no violence, just a good story and a very interesting movie, with the writer quietly noting that the word 'police,' when used to form 'police state,' is an adjectival usage.
Opens today at the Tivoli.
–Joe