California Dreamin' (2007)

Excellent masterpiece by Cristian Nemescu. A genius of the romanian cinematography, and one of the world's best movie directors. Armana Asante is has an awesome role, like always, playing a US General, lost in the middle of nowhere...What better place for that, than Romania ! Razvan Vasilescu also makes a wonderful performance, confirming once again, his amazing talent as an experienced actor, prooving why he is one of Romania's top actors.

Cristian Nemescu's work of art brilliantly succeeds in capturing the pitoresque rural life of the Romania's villages, today, a country that is supposed to be an European one, but the mentality of the country people still remains one of the communist era. Full of witt and humor the movie has many funny moments, reminding you, if i may say, of the environment that Borat left back when he left Kazahstan. Too bad, that such a talented director like Cristian Nemescu passed away in such a short notice, at only 27 years old, leaving only a small part of his brilliant work behind him. May God bless his soul !

Fmovies: Hm... lets see:

This movie is kinda different , it takes you out of the American movie style(lots of shots ,as much action as possible but..for what?). Simple low budget movie that shows that you could make a good movie if you have good ideas! Somebody once produced a brilliant movie shot in one room, .. just one room! ..yes i'm talking about "12 Angry Men" , so "California Dreamin'" based on (i consider) a good plot with low amount of money it deserve to be watched.

Fugitive brief: *Action is placed in Romania, in a small village,year 1999. *Americans were passing through Romania to deliver NATO equipment *In a small village they were stopped by the Railway chief because they were not having any travel papers.(Alltough the railway chief was having orders to let them pass) *They remain in that village for a couple of days until the papers problem was solved (Railway chief explaining the Americans that they ain't better than the rest and need to follow Romanian law)

PS: excuse my English!

All of us, when tired, look for an easy and full of fun or action movie in a Hollywood style. However, once in a while, sooner rather than later, is not bad watching a movie that makes us use a little our brain in conjunction with our emotions. California Dreamin' is such a movie. First of all, you must take into account that this movie was not post-processed almost at all due to the tragically death of its director. It is useless to think how it would have been looked if it was finished by Nemescu. We have to look at it as it is. Even like this, movie was brilliantly directed making me remember of Antonioni's Blow-Out. Lots of people would not like it because it shows too much poverty or does not show all aspects of Balkan's life or just because is not a Hollywood movie. Let's be straight, no movie gives you a panorama about a region's life, for this you should watch News or read magazines. Movies give you a vision built by a group of people starting with the screenwriter and ending with its director. You may agree with it or not but this is not important. Important is if after a while it makes you think and if it does the movie was not useless. Others didn't like the movie being ambiguous but they forget that this is an art movie which is not giving you solutions, but based on presented facts you have to find the answers by yourself and no wonder if each person will find different conclusions because after all we are different from each other. Or this is the greatest merit of this movie: makes you think about a lot of things among which why life is so hard when can be easier. Obviously this movie was a hard option for Nemescu but eventually because of this option it is his postmortem triumph. In the end, this movie is not an image of Balkans but an image which can be applied to 80% of this world. The feelings and emotions included in it can be applied to 100% of this world. It is tragic Nemescu died after his first movie, but it is fortunate he left as legacy such a movie rather than a regular "big hit".

California Dreamin' fmovies. I think this movie expresses very well the mixture of feeling the Romanians always had for Americans: "hatred" because they didn't save us in the WW2 (topic presented in the movie as a "remember", for which full understanding i recommend that previously you read a bit of WW2 history), "fascination" - from the Romanian girls, because American soldiers are considered handsome, and as being a way for escape from a possibly unhappy life, "business interest" - from officials, because they could invest money and help the local communities to develop. Different people with different expectations from the same Americans. All these aspects are presented wonderfully by Nemescu, telling our story as Romanians, to the entire world. To understand this "story", you have to be interested in it, otherwise...you might not understand the movie.

Cristian Nemescu's Cannes award wining movie, California Dreaming manages to exceptionally underline the issue of globalization, bureaucracy, the international image of the United States and it's actions, opportunism; also some of the bitter realities of Romanian administration, politics, mentality and the servility regarding foreigners that is found in this country way of thinking; everything is spinning around an old local obsession from 1944 when all of Romania was waiting for the US Forces to arrive and liberate it from the occupants; the viewer is surprised several times by different cues(lines) that are more or less subtle and what is impressive is that with only one phrase some of the characters manage to create powerful images and scenes. The arrival of the Americans in the Capalnita Village it is seen by locals as a unique chance to live a better life and in their attempt to distinguish themselves, the villagers become capable to give rise to amazing actions never seen before in the community even though in the end all becomes so very ridiculous and ironically for both of the sides(the US Marines and the Romanians)but for different reasons: the Americans because of their unstoppable urge to leave and being stuck in the middle of nowhere and the villagers for their desire to lure and impress the new arrived guests. Another thing to remind is the brilliant black and white scenes mixed in the movie, which present a story from The Second World War, aspects which are essential for the viewer to understand the mentality of one of the most important character named Doianu, the one who actually starts the main plot. The overall impression is that of a movie with a great script, very well played, fascinating situations, but above all so very exceptional directed.

I never wrote any review so far, but after reading the other comments I felt compelled to do it. First of all, you must understand this was a work in progress, the movie remained unfinished. To all the users that made negative comments I say to try not to feel directly involved and to give the movie a objective note. Yes, there are some stereotypes involved and people from the Western countries must realize this is not who we are, neither we, as Romanians, nor other Balkan nations. There were a lot of movies that had similar plots, like "La vita e bella" by Roberto Benigni. This is a movie about war and it must be judged this way. Try to get past the black screens, like some user complained about, not giving the movie a fair interpretation. Things like that MIGHT happen in the future, maybe this movie should be watched by our politicians, as I consider it as a satire. What stroked me the most was the the evolution of Assante's character, beautifully portrayed. Above all, I recommend this movie for those who are fed up with Hollywood's blockbusters and the "they lived happily ever after" movies. The world needs from time to time a pure dose of reality.