DIFF 2024 Review | Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World is Consistently Funny and Shockingly Intelligent
You shouldn’t judge a film by its title any more than you should judge a book by its cover, but the ethos of Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is summed up in that title. Radu Jude’s masterful exploration of modern malaise is despairing but wise, trying to make sense of the modern world’s woes. The title evokes another woebegone exploration of the contemporary world, T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men’. Like the modernist Eliot, Jude trades in provocative imagery and caustic commentary to create a divertingly batshit excoriation, defined by its refusal to be ignored or to play nice. As one woman drives through Bucharest fulfilling all the roles put upon her, Jude’s concerns find a voice, and a loud and angry one at that.
No-one in DNETMFTEOTW is louder or angrier than Angela (A fearless Ilinca Manolache) By day, she’s a production assistant at a film production company. Her tattoos, sparkly dress and devil-may-care attitude are a world away from the slick corporate videos her employers make, but she finds expression for her own opinions in imaginative ways. Jude frames Angela as another cog in the gig economy, doing what she must to pay the bills while keeping her eye out for other opportunities.
Long stretches of the film see Angela shot in grainy black-and-white as she drives her car to run errands for her employers’ latest film. As car horn blasts and insults are exchanged, and plastic coffee cups are swigged, you’d see why Angela is frustrated. Moments of humanity, like when she meets her mother or her friends, are the exception to the rule. Her latest errand is to audition victims of industrial accidents for a safety video for an Austrian multinational (represented by Nina Hoss’ slyly-named Ms. Goethe), but even this potential good work is shot in the same monochrome as the rest of her day. All is routine, and all is pointless.
Angela knows her efforts to recruit participants for the video will get diluted down to polished PR for the multinational, and she’ll get underpaid for her efforts. As an avatar for too many people trying to get by on too little, Angela is the star of Jude’s show, and Manolache is a force of nature in the role. Her barely-masked contempt for her job in the black-and-white scenes stand in stark contrast to what happens in colour. Jude’s films attempt to shake his audience out of complacency. He delivers jolts in his films to unsettle, and few sights are as unsettling as when DNETMFTEOTW switches out of monochrome.
Using a Tiktok filter, Angela broadcasts as an Andrew Tate-aping influencer named Bobita, spewing misogynistic bile and puerile soundbites that have nothing in common with Angela’s daily exploits. These bursts of grotesque anger are a sharp right turn from Angela’s routine but, the way Jude sees it, any hustle and any chance to vent is worth a punt when you’re gigging for a few extra bob. When Angela (in her Bobita guise) meets up with another hack with a knack for self-promotion, namely Uwe Boll, we know we can’t take Bobita at all seriously. Jude knows who the bad guys are, and leaves you with no choice but to hate them, laugh at them, or both.
DNETMFTEOTW takes aim at many targets, from modern work practices to porn addiction, from corporate greed to road rage. Jude has many reasons to be angry, and the fact that he manages to address the vast majority of them effectively is miraculous. This is down to brilliantly incisive writing, a sharp wit, and the force of Jude’s belief in what he has to say. His inspiration and jumping off point for this film is Lucian Bratu’s 1982 film Angela Keeps Going, in which the titular taxi driver dreams of finding love while darting here and there with her passengers. Jude includes extended segments of Bratu’s film in his opus, slowing them down to confound the viewer as much as Bobita’s rants. Jude’s world may move faster than the Ceaucescu-era Romania of Angela Keeps Going, but its people are still looking for escapes from their pedestrian lives.
In both length and pace, DNETMFTEOTW is more patient than Jude’s previous effort, the Berlin prizewinner Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, but it’s also more focused and considered. By the time we arrive at the final act, a 40-minute long take of the shooting of the work safety video, you’ll find yourself agreeing with Jude at the insane inanity of it all. There is something for everyone to identify with in Angela’s travails, and plenty more to make you glad your life’s not quite so bad. Consistently funny, shockingly intelligent, and formally daring, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World has an absolute blast cautioning us that Armageddon will be more of a whimper than a bang.
