The Second Game

Both unfold on a rectangle, both last 90 minutes—one by rule, the other by convention. As any cinephile and football fan knows, the affinities between a match and a feature film are not only dramatic but also formal. Corneliu Porumboiu makes this parallel brilliantly tangible in a film that reconstructs, in its entirety, a match of deeply personal significance—played, moreover, on a snow-covered pitch as white as a cinema screen. On this blank canvas, the eye is drawn to a stark contrast. Against the snowy backdrop, a black-clad figure who, for once, takes centre stage: the referee, Porumboiu’s own father.

In his fourth feature and first documentary—a perfect prelude to Infinite Football (2018)—Porumboiu performs a minimalist yet revealing gesture. The full replay of the game is accompanied, as ever, by the commentary of spectators: himself and his father. But here, image and sound are out of sync by no less than 25 years, during which the world has changed. Yet this temporal dissonance does not render the footage incoherent. On the contrary, it is through this deliberate anachronism that the images can finally speak—with a clarity they may never have possessed before.

Sergio Fant

The Whistlers, 2019
Infinite Football, 2018
The Treasure, 2015
The Second Game, 2014
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, 2013
Police, Adjective, 2009
12:08 East of Bucharest, 2006
Liviu’s Dream, 2004
A Trip to the City, 2003
Telephone Number Temporarily Suspended, 2002
Gone with the Wine, 2002
Love … Story, 2001
Graffiti, 2000