In Clejani, a village in Wallachia (south of Bucharest), two or three elderly Roma musicians are the last custodians of traditional village music. With them will disappear ballads and ancestral stories: tales of the haidouks, the outlaw-heroes of medieval Romania, initiation stories, and love songs.
For fans of history, this glimpse of Munich society in the 1920s will be a much-treasured event. The story revolves around an art-gallery manager who puts on a show featuring the scandalous works of a woman artist who committed suicide.
Claude, a militant anarchist, is caught stealing and is shot by a policeman while fleeing the scene. Dodo, a hairdresser, is hit by one of the stray bullets.
Pierre is a womanizing photographer, with a slight mean streak. For whatever reason, Camille, an artist in her own right, finds him entrancing and easily succumbs to his devious efforts to get her into bed.
A luxury home, a handsome husband and terrific children. But it all comes crashing down when she is accused of being a mastermind behind a brutal triple-homicide and is arrested and handcuffed in front of her own children.
Comments
Have you watched La ballade du serpent yet? What did you think about it?