Radu Muntean’s One Floor Below is a slow burner leading to a dramatic outburst
POINTS: 7
Sandu Patrascu (Teodor Corban) is a middle-aged, middle-class ordinary man. Together with his caring wife, Olga (Oxana Moravec), they have a car-registration business and a teenage son, Matei (Ionut Bora) who is into video games and spends a lot of time online. And they also have a pet: a golden retriever named Jerry.
One day, on his way home, Patrascu overhears a fierce argument between young Laura (Maria Popistasu) and her next-door neighbour, Vali (Julian Postelnicu) who, like Laura, lives one floor below him. Judging from what they say, it’s easy to guess they are lovers. Precisely when Vali leaves Laura’s apartment, he sees Patrascu standing on the stairwell. They just greet each other, while Vali’s expression shows he knows his neighbour is more than aware of both the argument and the affair.
Later that day, Laura is found dead. While there’s no evidence of her being murdered, it’s highly likely that that’s what happened. So the police come to the building and start interrogating all neighbours. Perhaps out of fear or indifference, Patrascu never tells the police about what he’d heard and seen. But will his conscience bear such a decision in the long run? What if Vali proves to be dangerous to him and his family as well?
One Floor Below, the new film by Romanian auteur Radu Muntean (Boogie, Tuesday, after Christmas) is built upon some of the usual traits of a good deal of New Romanian Wave of cinema: a minimalist narrative with a thin storyline, a set of aesthetics anchored in extreme naturalism, a no-nonsense depiction of everyday life, an austere mise-en-scene, a very leisured pace, an observational approach to the characters’ actions and thoughts, and understated dialogue. Sometimes, as is the case here, in the very end you have a dramatic outburst bringing the slow-burner to a climax.
Thematically speaking, Mun-tean’s opus is a reflection on a sense of moral and responsibility that arises from Patroscu’s dilemma: to tell or not to tell. Instead of going for a predictable psychological approach — which would have clarified much of the conflict — the focus is on the behaviour of the protagonist whose soul is far from easy to decipher. That’s why Corban’s finely calibrated performance, which takes advantage of a well-developed character, is never that revealing about what he thinks. By working with the bare essentials, the filmmaker manages to address the essence of things. In its metaphorical resonance of how a society at large responds — or doesn’t respond — to the harm done to others it will ring a universal bell.
However, the level of tension is rather uneven and so the dramatic progression doesn’t always fuel the story with the necessary energy. As you watch One Floor Below, you may feel that, halfway through the second act, the formula becomes repetitive, and so you may lose some interest. In terms of the story, at times it feels there’s something missing or too much of the same thing.
It’s only fair, however, to point out that the ending is quite wise, as it resignifies a central idea of the film. It’s just that perhaps it takes longer than necessary to get there and the road can occasionally be uneventful.
Production notes
One Floor Below (Romania, 2015). Directed by Radu Muntean. Written by Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, Razvan Radulescu. With Teodor Corban, Iulian Postelnicu, Oxana Moravec, Ionut Bora, Adrian Vancica, Maria Popistasu. Cinematograpy by Tudor Lucaciu. Music by Electric Brother. Editing by Alexandru Radu. Running time: 93 minutes.
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