REVIEW - CHILD'S POSE

As far as Child's Pose could be assessed as a horror film, it was accepted by me. No final word, no definitive statement here - I'm only making my point. I'll never shy from advocating subjective art criticism, and I speak only for myself. But I do also accept that Child's Pose is its own entity, and that the artificial limitations of genre are not aspired to nor adhered to by this film. It's a portrait of truth, if not honesty; the truth which we observe in honesty, and which we ascertain in dishonesty, as much about what is communicated intentionally as about what is concealed, and what is communicated in the act of concealment. That's exceptionally hard to perfect in dramatic art, despite (or due to) its prevalence in everyday life, thus most filmmakers never pursue it. Calin Peter Netzer does in Child's Pose, and in my limited appreciation of film history, he joins only Ingmar Bergman in so doing. Cornelia is an archetype of archetypes - a certain type of mother, and they may differ superficially, but not internally, not one bit. She will control all around her, and she will manipulate all around her. There is no-one more important than her, yet she puts others, apparently at least, before herself, as their business is automatically her business. There is no malice in the character she chooses to perform, in an act she is stubbornly incapable of breaking, but there is a vain, poisonous egotism beneath this already despicable facade, one which is accommodated entirely by the control she can exact upon the lives of others, and the damage she can cause in distorting them so that they better fit her shameful personal agendas. The climactic scene unveils the enormity of the beast within, a beast that is sociopathic and sadistic. There are several actors in the cast who turn in incredible work, and lead Luminita Gheorghiu is chief among them. This is the kind of work I truly believe no Hollywood actor could ever produce, truly not ever. For me, and as you know I'm only making my point, she plays one of the most ghastly, chilling horror villains in all of cinema, because she's a villain whom I know all too well.