The most elaborate structure is by far that of Pompiliu, the intellectual of the group. He is a clerk with the City Hall, a social category so superannuated in the classical comedy that there's hardly anything to add to the profile of this type of hero. Besides this (as I dare call it) typological disability, there's also the epical charge of the character as such, built according to a series of generic and cliché traits, as Pompiliu is at the same time a Dacian supporter, patriot, distrustful in the State structures and bucolically cautious. But these flaws as such are the ones which turn recognizable some of the individualities nowadays. Despite this encumbrance of the common flaws, the character not only refuses to remain stuck in the area of the penny dreadful melodrama, but he also magisterially lifts himself to the profile of a neoChekovian construction, of overwhelming complexity and sensible veracity. How is this achieved? Through an acting so refined, that it only exposes the simplest lines of structure of the character, revealing no glimpse of the huge effort this typology entails. These are a few aspects which do not come easy to the common director, or to the common actor. First of all, we can take into account that purity of character which preserves specific details without having the personality of the actor alter it to the smallest extent. Any part played by Rebenciuc, for example, or De Niro, bears the unmistakable stamp of the mentioned actors, which in fact represents the very charm of their characters. As technique, such a personal acting has nowadays become obsolete. As has the one of the actor who leaves no trace behind, because that means the person had assumed the part of a "man without traits" and feels that it's their duty to play blankly – ostentatiously lacking any type of nuance. Things are different with Papadopol. He highlights an amount of traits representative of a character obsessed with the general conspiracy theory, flawlessly avoiding the previous templates (the paranoiac, the exhilarated, the resigned etc). Pompiliu is a pure man, who is aware of the dangers as aberrant as widely spread of the ordinary environment, but he defends his ideas without intemperance or exaggeration. He is simply an ingenuous man, knowledgeable about some secrets. He does not plan on persuading anybody and does not set himself up as a guardian of justice. This representation of a frequent human type becomes difficult, as precisely the renowned techniques (exaggerating flaws, demagogy, exaltation) ease the work of the actor and usually lead to the success of the typology. However, Negoescu renounces that simple part, those successful comedy techniques, which in itself can be considered an indisputable triumph, since it is a well-known fact that all these elements have already been degraded by cheap performances, such as TV shows. He took the path of most resistance, with the typical character displaying dominant traits, credible to normality only through its manifestations. And Papadopol did not only understand this, but he also knew how to channel his talent into the same direction, creating a character cleansed of all previous clichés. He does not resemble anyone else. He's a character saddled with all the obsessions of the mediocre man, but without turning this burden into a caricature. Papadopol does not poke fun at his character, he actually loves it, an element which rarely reaches this level of perfection in performing as Papadopol as reached. That aspect bears the mark of Negoescu, but one that Papadopol accepted from conviction, driven maybe by a common perspective regarding the character. Pompiliu takes pride in the history of the Dacians, he disavows the films of the miserabilism brought by the year 2000, loathes superstitions and the lack of respect on the part of the passenger, who, from his point of view, had lied to him. He remains convinced that the game organized by the Lottery is corrupted. But all these are expressed in the reasonable manner of an ingenuous person, who is well-meaning not by circumstance or for the sake of film's aesthetics, but because the actor plays his part impeccably. Two lottery tickets is a fresh comedy, an intelligent film, where the social irony is edulcorated through a mature directional vision and through an acting performance of exceptional quality.
Doina Ruști
Doina Ruști