Recipient of the Golden Bear for Best Film (or, the Berlinale’s highest honor), Romanian Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn boasts a great deal more than a clever title. This 106-minute political commentary is both airtight and white hot, packing punch after punch as it tells the story of Emi (Katia Pascariu), a middle school history school teacher, who is forced to deal with the repercussions of a private sex tape being anonymously leaked on the internet.
Opening with X-rated footage of the aforementioned sex tape, Loony Porn doesn’t ever content itself with niceties, nor does it forego explicit content in constructing its form. More of a shock to the system than the actual pornography shown on screen, however, is the rawness of the questions it asks, like, is it actually pornography if it was never intended for viewers? This is the sort of debate that is opened up when Emi is forced under the gaze of parents and faculty in the school yard where a bootleg tribunal is held to determine whether or not Emi should keep her job. It is no surprise, then, to learn that the film is the byproduct of a number of ideological discussions that the director had with friends amid numerous public expulsions in Romania due to similar circumstances with teachers’ private lives.
Broken into three unique acts, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn presents itself as the cinematic compendium of many different types of footage, with the subtitle: “a sketch for a popular film.” Out of the three acts, the first is most definitely the weakest link, not succeeding in captivating the audience beyond the unexpected pornography that kicks off the film. What does raise brows, however, is the presence of masks — the crew filmed during the pandemic. This, however, doesn’t deter, nor does it attempt to put a stake in the plot in anyway: it shows that life — even cinema — can persevere during such a global outrage. If anything, this is one of the few COVID-era films that doesn’t suffer at the use of the contemporary issue, but thrives.
The second act of the film, which serves as more of an impersonal approach to the subject matter, is a glossary of terms relating to the political history of Romania, questioning a variety of issues that lead to the conversation around the film’s central topics of privacy, misogyny, and oppression. Out of all the sections, these dictionary terms against the backdrop of seemingly archival footage is the most unconventional form of the entire piece, in addition to being the most enticing. The original direction is a bit nebulous, but Jude takes it in a fascinating question, not force-feeding the audience an overly contrived thesis, but ultimately presenting evocative information and images of different viewpoints.
The final act of the film gives a voice to different individuals as parents and faculty partake in a discussion in front of Emi, as if she is on trial, to decide whether or not she should stay. At this point, the camera flips, and Jude creates a more focused discussion on the common thought of Romanians, as the comments jettisoned at Emi range from plausible concerns to absurdist hate speech.
The entire film, with its unique approach to the medium, comprises an incredibly efficacious way of meditating on ideas in a way that cinema should inherently strive to do, even if it means sacrificing the facets of the art that are traditionally adored. To me, Bad Luck Banging and Loony Porn’s big win at the Berlinale is surprising due to its radicality, but instills a hope that cinema may begin to question not only its content, but its form.
