Lucian Pintilie retrospective at Facets

The Oak

When it comes to the films of Romanian director Lucian Pintilie, I'm a beginner myself; most of his canonical works aren't available on video, and unless I've missed something, his last feature to receive a U.S. release was 1994's An Unforgettable Summer, starring Kristin Scott Thomas. But beginning today, Facets is hosting a retrospective of the filmmaker's work, which garnered international attention with Reenactment (1968), a satire that took on the country's Communist regime. Of what I've seen, the most impressive title is The Oak (1992), a high-energy, pitch-black comedy that begins with a manic teacher (Maia Morgenstern) setting out to donate her late father's body to science and follows her daisy-chain journey through a bureaucratic wasteland in which everyone is corrupt or incompetent. It's showing tomorrow at 3 and 7pm; the showtimes for the series are here.