Silent Wedding
Silent Wedding
| 21 November 2008 (USA)
Silent Wedding Trailers

In a small village of Communist-era Romania a young couple wish to marry, but Joseph Stalin dies the night prior to their wedding ceremony forcing the bride and groom to marry in silence.

Reviews
Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.
Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Bardlerx Strictly average movie
PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Armand fragile, fascinating, delicate, cruel theme. and impressive way to say a painful story with humor, wise and art to present an entire universe. in fact, exercise of Mălăiele fascinating science to build a perfect product , exercise of Balkanian nuances, testimony about a dictatorship, slice of Ionesco style, wonderful trip in heart of absurd and fear. an extraordinary experience. or only a remember as warning. nothing special. basic elements, real good cast, atmosphere of many Romanian movies. and a little magic. a sweet difference. and bitter air of an old picture. a spider web in spring wind. that is final impression. and a tragedy as page from ash book of memory. nothing more. but in final, emotion is great and the tear has as root a very small smile.
eu_cristina The story is an interesting one, especially for those who know a little more about communism and the horrible things communists did to people. Unfortunately, the movie is not, by far, as good as the story. Maybe it was intended this way, but, to me, it looks like an amateur movie. The actors did their jobs just fine, but the movie seems to be made out of pieces, as if it was too long and they had to cut a little bit here and there to make it fit. So the action is full of inconsistencies. In the end, I have just had the feeling that there should have been more. I didn't get attached to any of the characters, as I usually do when I really like a movie, and the compassion I felt for the people in the village was completely wiped out by the misplaced scene in the end of the movie.The story is a very painful one, and it's a shame that the movie is only scratching the surface!
andreeeei This is maybe the best movie I have seen. It made me get an IMDb account to rate it 10 stars. I don't care about technical judgments about this movie. It's a Romanian emotional roller-coaster which pictures our recent history in a tragical and comical frame. It's one of the few movies I have ever watched at the cinema where at the end of which lots of people applauded. Romanians are recognizing themselves in the story and they find coherence in their identity and this makes the movie a masterpiece and a great service to the people of this country.One more thing that I appreciate in this movie is a reparation done within the history of the subjective experience. People from the village were at best ignoring communists and poking fun of them if they were not hating them. Nobody was happy to give away their land and village men knew what communism can bring, since they saw it with their own eyes when they fought on the Eastern front.Most people hated communism and they tried to live a normal life in silence, just like it happens in the movie. Humor was maybe the best survival resource.I live in Romania and I know from personal experience and thorough study what Russians did bring under the name of communism. I don't try to convince anyone that the so called communism was criminal and implemented locally with the help of the weakest links (like in the movie), low educated people with low morals, since there is enough literature today for anyone that has any doubt. Of course, as somebody mentions here, Romanians too did their horrible crimes on the Eastern front, but this does not mean that what the people like the ones in the movie endured, did any kind of humane justice. The people that fought on the Eastern front are a good source, since they were regular soldiers, not vicious criminals and even if they were vicious criminals, they could anyway still have seen the "benefits" that "communism" has brought to Russia.I understand why some people consider it propagandistic, but in my view this is a good artistical work upon the subjective experience and life of ordinary Romanians in 1953.
Mihnea the Pitbull The script is full of good ideas and intentions, all in all about half-fulfilled: the story-line is somewhat linear, and lacking many of the important joints of a well articulated scenario - but, on the positive side, it's entertaining and rich in content, able to combine into a well balanced recipe the tragedy and comedy.To my extremely agreeable surprise, Horatiu proved himself a true director. All his hesitations and uncertainties are of the "inherent to a debut" type - and remarkably few in number. Definitely, he shows a good critical sense, trimming away many of the script's faults, or even speculatively converting them into positive qualities. Further, he has a powerful visual sense, and a solid capacity of synthesis.One has commented about the movie's "theatralism" - it deliberately departs realism, by recourse to many stylish exaggerations, significant and expressive as such, but of an unlikelihood bordering impossibility. So it is, but this seeming failure remained only one step away of being converted into what it actually purported to be: a daring mean of expression, in the best vein of elaborated style. It would have been enough to insist a bit more on the present-day mayor's narrative about the depicted happenings, stressing the fact that everything is seen through the distorting lens of one's own affective memory.Still, it's undeniable that Horatiu creates a world of its own, bringing it to focus with extreme expressiveness... It's hard to forget the tasteful beauty of the erotic scenes - topped by the splendid image of Meda Victor being literally "drowned in wheat" by Alex Potocean's thrusts. And the top-scene, the "Mute Wedding" itself, arrives to be a successful tour de force. Definitely, it's a movie to be seen - and savored with relish.