Child's Pose

Synopsis: Class and ethics come into play when a wealthy, well-connected woman, Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) has to face the tragic consequences of a car accident involving her 35 year-old son, Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache). Cornelia is prepared to do whatever is necessary to save her son from a prison sentence despite his clear culpability for an accident that has a fatal outcome for a far less privileged boy and his family.

An intense character study of a middle-aged woman in deep emotional distress, Child’s Pose is entirely shot using a hand held camera. Multiple close-ups of Cornelia’s face, which reveal her extreme maternal anxiety and draw from us a complex response of simultaneous empathy and revulsion for her neurotically controlling behaviour. In the lead Gheorghiu commands every shot and is rarely off screen yet the director manages to give us a sense of the world which she inhabits.

Cornelia's son, Barbu is an inadequate man-child who treats his mother with contempt, despite her efforts to help him, efforts which for him are the last straw in a life-long relationship of subjugation . He also has difficulty sustaining a relationship with his long-suffering partner, Carmen (Ilinca Goia), due to his insecurities and phobias. That his mother can’t stand her doesn’t help. Following the accident his mother massages his back in an almost sexual way, insisting he stay with her rather than return home to Carmen. She squeezes him fresh orange juice and begs to be allowed to get him whatever he wants although sneering ingratitude is her only reward. This sort of treatment many mothers may consider appropriate for a distressed 15-year-old boy but would probably draw the line at for a 35 year-old. Therein however lies Cornelia’s all-consuming neurosis which is made palpable us by Gheorghiu’s unsentimental performance.

The only humor in this otherwise bleak film comes from Cornelia’s husband (Florin Zamfirescu), caught between mother and son and constantly aiding and abetting their unhealthy dynamic. He calls his wife Controlia rather than Cornelia and goes about his business with a henpecked weariness that perfectly highlights the emasculation of his male function in the family.

Whilst Child’s Pose provides insights into post-Ceausescu Romania, where everything it seems can be bought and sold if you know the right people it has broader implications for modern families in which parents lack a basic moral compass and overindulge their children, solving every problem for them and buying them opportunities that they have not earned.

 

 

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