Memento Amare

‘Memento Amare’ is a modern fairytale, where nothing is hard to understand what is going on, and when you do understand, it is way too late to do anything about it. This story really made us feel both homesick even if we were in the comfort of our own house, and estranged even if we are surrounded by friends and family, but most of all made us feel empowered even if we are weak on a daily basis. Lavinia Simina took a subject that had some serious coverage over the last few months, and made it into a film that is here to break the unspoken barriers.

First of all, what we appreciated the most in ‘Memento Amare’ was the atmospheric mood of the film. From the beginning till the end, there is an artistic vibe of insecurity we’ve only seen in good novels or poetry books, where the author managed to keep this vibe for the whole book without letting the reader feel lost at any point. Simina’s film has the power to keep the viewer engaged in front of the screen, being so natural in its approach in any possible aspect.

The characters were impressive, having some roles that weren’t the easiest to be played on screen. One scene that really caught our attention was when the construction workers were having lunch, and they were talking about their problems and their lives in such a way that we had serious doubts whether they were actors or real construction workers earning both some cash and experience.

The transcendence from black and white to color was brilliant for a fact – for some viewers, the two sides of the story may not have been so clear, but with this simple yet effective technique, everyone can understand where this story is coming from, and most importantly, where it is heading to. We were also impressed by the dose of realism ‘Memento Amare’ highlighted, mainly through the dialogue that seemed to be very well documented. Everything was clockwork and natural, reasonwhy we never had the feeling the dialogue may fall apart at any point, and this is something we rarely can say about a feature film.

‘Memento Amare’ is the kind of movie we want to include in a highlight reel of this festival, and by thinking of it now we may do it soon. To take a story from the news and transform it into an edgy yet cool movie, well, that is a challenge only good directors can take, and Lavinia Simina proved us that she can easily do it without much effort.