It was a dark and stormy night. The first mate turned to the captain, and said, “Captain, tell us a story!” So the captain, he began. “It was a dark and stormy night. The first mate turned to the captain, and said, ‘Captain, tell us a story!’ So the captain, he began. ‘It was a dark…’ ” Etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum.

Well, it was indeed a dark and stormy night. The rain beat against the skylight over the heads of our MovieNight guests. Our thanks to those of you who braved the elements, setting aside convention to be in the audience of this darkly beautiful film. I had more than one female guest come to the bar during the movie in immediate need of a stiff drink. As a man, I felt squeamish enough at certain points in 4,3,2 and can only imagine how a woman might feel.  I first watched this film with my eighteen year old daughter and oddly, I hadn’t remembered how long the image of the aborted fetus languished on the screen. At MovieNight it seemed like a lifetime. Fortunately, the folks who would be most disturbed by the shot had long since departed. Not many left, mind you. A couple of Russian boys were the first to get ants in their pants.

Once again, I found something odd in the film, and would love for someone to enlighten me. The character Gabita’s surname was “Dragut”, and each time her name was given to someone who didn’t know her, the other person expressed surprise and/or amusement. Surely this can’t be a reference to the Ottoman admiral Turgut (also pronounced Dragut) Reis… He died in 1563, and I can’t imagine him being that important to Romanians in 1987.  Anyone?

By the way, I sloppily stated on the MovieNight page that the language spoken in this movie was Romanian. Moldavian would have been a more accurate description. Who knew?

For the moment, my thirst for angst-ridden, thought-provoking cinema has been slaked, and next week’s Christmas special will be much easier to sip, albeit rather lengthy!