User Reviews

After having recently seen "Un amour de pluie" I came back to watching one of my old-times favourites, "Drum in penumbra" ("Path in the Shadow"), and I was not only pleasantly surprised with the favourable comparison, but also with details about it that I had forgotten. Like "Un amour de pluie", it describes a holiday romance, but this is the only resemblance. The characters have a care-free time at the sea-side, talking openly to each other and revealing their innermost feelings, but, at least as far as Monica (Margareta Pogonat) is concerned, not intending to go any further. Radu (Cornel Coman), however, is a stubborn and inquisitive character, who wishes to delve deeper than that. After coming back from holiday, Radu keeps trying to find her and, he is introduced to her family and tries to round up her picture. It's absolutely amazing how the pace of the film and the actor's lines are combined to show these: Monica's two children (she married young and is divorcing her husband after 16 years of terrible marriage), who are growing up and need her less and less, and her old friend, who keeps pestering her into the relationship; but, on the other side, her conservative mother who keeps reminding her of her duty towards her children and that she should drop the divorce.

It would have been all too easy to allow the two to make a compromise and live happily ever after, but life is not a Hollywood film director. Monica and Radu clash several times, mainly because of their different views, and Monica understands that the only thing that they have in common is love, and that cannot endure in the face of everyday life demands. In the last scene, superbly played, she tells Radu it's time to end it and go their separate ways. That is not at all easy for her, her mother having just died, but it's beyond her to do what she feels it's not right.

All this said, the only observation I wish to make is that here, in this film, unlike any other romance that I've seen, the sense of right and just are so pervasive, that they manage to go along the usually simple love story. It's not meant to spice it up, but give it a "spine" (like Sidney Pollack says) and uphold it.

So, even if you're just interested in hearing a well-spoken language (the actor's diction as well as their grammar are impeccable), a good sound-track, beautiful images of sea and rain, or realistic shots of Bucharest in the late '60s, this film is for you.