Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Babardeala cu bucluc sau porno balamuc) opens with three minutes of surprisingly explicit and amusingly kinky sex performed by what turns out to be a married couple. The problem is that the woman, Emi Cilibiu (Katia Pascariu), is a respected history teacher at a respected middle school. Recorded on a telephone, the footage finds its way onto the web site Porn Hub.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is divided into three parts. During part one, Emi travels around Bucharest engaging in damage control in anticipation of a meeting with school officials and parents of her students. Although it would seem that Emi’s husband shared the footage with what he thought was a private web forum, Emi comes up with a version for the public: her husband brought his laptop in for repair, and someone downloaded the video and uploaded it to Porn Hub. She also tries, unsuccessfully, to purchase one Xanax pill.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is one of the first fictional films that shows people on the streets wearing anti-Covid masks. Bucharest is a loud and annoying city. People are rude to Emi and to each other, often using profane language.
Part two is “A Short Dictionary of Anecdotes, Signs and Wonders”, an irreverent video montage about Romania’s history, culture and religion. Although it no doubt has more relevance to Romanian filmgoers, writer-director Radu Jude’s message is clear: what should be really scandalous is not a couple’s private sex life, but the brutalities and injustices committed by communism, capitalism, the military and the church.
The story culminates in the confrontation between Emi and the parents, a diverse bunch wearing creative masks. There’s a priest, a military man, intellectuals, conservatives, outraged mothers, sympathetic mothers and fathers and even a chic foreigner, who is Czech. The parents insist on watching the video, while an increasingly annoyed Emi sits next to it. Emi defends herself forcefully. When parents criticize her for exposing their children to pornography, she counters that they should do a better job of monitoring their children’s online browsing. When one parent brings up how outrageous it is that part of Emi’s job is to introduce her students to Romania’s revered national poet, Mihai Eminescu, Emi counters by reading to them a little-known erotic poem written by Eminescu.
Radu Jude has never shied away from controversial material, to say the least. A prime example is a priest’s racist rant in Jude’s 2015 film Aferim!.
Clearly, the first three minutes of Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn will either offend or keep away many potential viewers, But for those who don’t mind, the film is not only entertaining, but more morally insightful than numerous films that are praised for their serious pretensions.
