The film 4 months 3 weeks 2 days directed by Cristian Mungiu is a movie about friendship, responsibility, and love. This film talks about the secrets and experiences of our lives that cannot be told to others, which is about abortion. In 1966, Ceausescu's government introduced a law banning abortion. It was considered a crime for un-marriage women to have an abortion. With regard to the low birth rate of newborn babies, the new generation is a kind of “property” for the Romanian country. After the second world war, Romania lost lots of soldiers and people due to the poor condition in the post-war situation. The reproduction of babies is the most significant thing for the Romanian country. The anti-abortion law was not repealed until 1989. The death of the Romanian communist stateman brought an end to socialist rule in Romania. During that time, a large number of Romanian women died humiliatingly because of clandestine abortions. For that period of history, abortion was not only about some wrong and evil moral act, but also about betrayal and confrontation of the national system.
I am going to discuss the shot between 1:37:28 to 1:41:10, where Ottila is helping her friend Gabita to throw away the fetus. First of all, we can notice that the mise-en-scene is special. This shot is longer than other shots. Director uses a long take to depict the real feelings and the tense atmosphere of doing an “illegal” thing. There is some advantage for a long take shot. For example, it helps the audience to immerse in the scene with the characters, and also make the audience believe the importance of every scene. With this kind of technique, the audience can observe more details within the frame. Every props or setting has its meaning to contribute to the film. However, using a long take would also boring the audience, because the information is given too much, the audience will easily get bored and lost attention from the film.
I would like to dive this shot into 3 parts: first is the beginning when she walks to find a place to drop the fetus; then she hears the dog barking and run away; lastly is the scene when she goes to the tenth floor and drops the thing down to trash chute. I am going to talk about the setting, camera, sound, visual composition, character movements, etc in this shot.
At the beginning of this shot, Ottilia first walking alone on the street. The first thing audience can notice is that the setting is at night, and the street is barely with any lights on, and the whole color tone is dark and black. Have you ever think of why this shot should be done at night? In my opinion, I think “night” can create a secret feeling, and also in a sneaky way of doing something “dangerous” and “illegal”. In dark, you are not being noticed by others easily and can sneak out without alert others. The director uses light and shadow to sketch out the characters. The setting here makes the audience kind of have a creepy feeling and also intense. She walks nervously with her hard breathing. Her footsteps were heavy and quick. From the sound components in this shot, the audience can feel the important message for the seriousness of having an abortion during that time. In the earlier shots, where Mr.Bebe finishes the surgery and giving the instruction for how to deal with the fetus, he says, “ Don't bury it where dogs can dig it up, wrap it up nicely, take a bus, get off a high rise, go to the tenth floor, and throw it down the rubbish chute.” According to Mr.Bebe’s warning, Ottila is doing exactly the same thing after she wrapped up the towel. At the same time, she is also afraid of being caught by the police and sends into prison. the camera is hand-held in this shot. unstable shot can have a feeling of reality like we are really following her, and also makes the character feel the pressure of betraying the law. There was an interview with Cristian Mungiu in 2008, he mentioned that “Pretty much what I wanted to do was tell this film from the perspective of the main character. I was looking for natural ways to express the inner state of mind of this girl” (Tehrani,2008).
As the story developed, in 1:38:20, she meets the old man and asking him when is the last bus. From this conversation, we can understand that she wants to do this thing as far as she can. However, the man told her she has missed the last bus. Next, she keeps walking with intensity and saw a trash bin. The top light illuminates the trash bin in the dark. A thought comes across Ottila’s mind; what about just throw it into the trash bin? She hesitates, and take out the bag. At this moment, the barking sound of a dog appears and scares her away. The camera changes from long shot to medium shot. After she is being scared by the dog, she believes Mr.Bebe’s word. Medium long shot capture her terrified. Her expression of being shock can be seen from her breathing and facial expression. Next, we hear someone broke the glass and the police are whistling. She is afraid the police will find her and inspect her bag, so she hid in a building and took the stairs to the rubbish chute. The building is so old, and the condition was also poor during that period of time in Romania. The staircase is dark and does not have an elevator. She needs to even take stairs to the top floor. The climax ends with her mission of destroying the evidence. The camera follows her everywhere and attempts to transmit the excitement that the main character is feeling.
To sum up, from this film 4 months 3 weeks 2 days by Cristian Mungiu, we learn about how people in Romania in the 1900s living their life and facing the challenge which is against the law. Having an abortion is considered a serious crime under the rules of communist. The whole film develops in a sequence of telling not so much of what happened, but what could have happened in the second part of the story. This is what the camera work in 4 months 3 weeks 2 days. and that’s why I think Mungiu can receive the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the top award at the prestigious European film festival in 2007.
Bibliography
Berelson, B. (1979). Romania's 1966 Anti-Abortion Decree: The Demographic Experience of the First Decade. Population Studies, 33(2), 209-222. doi:10.2307/2173528
Filmmaker Magazine. (2012a, December 7). ONCE UPON A TIME IN ROMANIA. https://www.filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/winter2008/4months.php
Tehrani, B. (2008, January 27). Cristian Mungiu talks about"4 Months, 3Weeks and 2 Days". CineEqual. https://cineequal.org/1453-cristian-mungiu-talks-about-4-months-3weeks-and-2-days/
