TRANSYLVANIA
France, 2006, 103 minutes, Colour.
Asia Argento, Amira Casar, Birol Unel.
Directed by Tony Gatlif.
Tony Gatlif has a passion for music, especially ethnic music and songs which he arranges (and composes in the vein of the country where his plots take place). This is to the fore with a musical tour of the countryside of Romania.
He has also been fond of gypsy stories and road journeys. Again, Transylvania is a journey. As regards the gypsies, we have prejudice against them as well as showing their kinder and more hospitable side.
The plot is archetypal but a bit thin. A woman comes from France to find the man she loves and who has made her pregnant. She is played by Asia Argento, on of the least maternal actresses one could find (xXx, Madame Du Barry in Marie Antoinette). She is an intense, sometimes savage, screen presence and sometimes unleashes this on screen here. Amira Casar appears as he close friend and mentor but then disappears, her place being taken by a travelling tinker who buys gold from the locals. He too is a wild man, (the powerful lead of Head On).
Gatlif, of course, captures the spirit of this dilapidated post-Communist countryside as well as the age-old traditions both pagan and religious (Orthodox). He prefers over-the-top zest for life than comfortable and quiet drama.
1. The reputation of Tony Gatlif? His interest in gypsies? Wandering people? Different countries? Road movies? Ethnic music? This film combining all his interests?
2. The Transylvania locations, the countryside, the devastation after the communist regime, factories? The rural countryside? The rural towns? Modern, ancient?
3. The importance of the music? Gatlif and his compositions, arrangements? The traditional gypsy music, the music of Transylvania? Sacred music? The insertion of the songs and the dancing into the film?
4. A road film, the journey of the three central characters: Zingarena, Marie, Tchangalo? Their interactions? Crises?
5. The portrait of Zingarena: her name, the overtone of gypsy, Italian background, living in France? Asia Argento’s screen presence, fierce, intense? Her searching for Milan? Her pregnancy? Her reliance on Marie? The encounter with Tchangalo? Going into the town, the deserted town, finding the people, the bar, the search for Milan? Finding him – and his rejection of her? His running away from her? Her reaction, fierce sadness? Letting Marie go, the decision to stay in Transylvania? On the road, people giving her help? Travelling with Tchangalo? The various experiences – and the ritual exorcism, standing in the basin, the milk poured over her? Her pregnancy? Giving birth – and the difficulties? Her calling the peasant women witches? Her being content with the birth of the child? The bonds with Tchangalo, accompanying him, the music, falling in love with him? His return? Her future?
6. Tchangalo, his buying gold from the peasants, offering the money? Their selling and bargaining? His intensity? Drinking, drinks for everyone in the hotel? Dancing and intensity? His interest in Zingarena? The encounter on the road, travelling together, their experiences together? The exorcism? His continuing to buy various objects? The lantern and setting it alight with the electricity poles? His fear at Zingarena and her birth, his escape? His return? A future together?
7. Marie, her helping Zingarena, the search in Transylvania? The bond between the two women, her being a mentor to Zingarena? Their interchangeable appearance? The crisis, her trying to get Zingarena back to France, arranging the ticket? Zingarena’s disappearance from the car?
8. The guide, her knowledge of Transylvania, helping the two women, questioning people? The abrupt way in which Zingarena terminated the arrangement?
9. The picture of Transylvanian people? The old people in the town, their heritage under the communist regime? The older traditions as visible in the singing, the dancing, the objects they were selling? The bars? The pianists, the performers? Milan and his virtuoso performance? The processions, the traditional dances? The religious ceremonies and music?
10. The gypsies, their friendship, taking Zingarena in? Her dressing like a gypsy – and people’s reaction to her? The Transylvanian people and their attacks on gypsies? Spurning them? Prejudices?
11. A glimpse of an eastern European culture? Its past, the transition to the present? What hopes for the future?
