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Marine Construction

A man's obsession with the mystery surrounding his wife's disappearance furnishes a fascinating study in denial in Romanian director Andrei Gruzsniczki's oblique, near-minimalist feature bow, "The Other Irene." Like a cross between "The Vanishing" and "Jeanne Dielman," the pic follows its unassuming nice-guy protagonist through the minutiae of his rounds as night watchman, as devoted husband and finally as dogged seeker of an acceptable "truth," steadily building emotion through detail and a tautly restrained perf by Andi Vasluianu. "Irene" may not be at the forefront of the new Romanian cinema, but it reps proof of its depth and vitality.

Manny Farber, one of the most important critics in movie history, championed the American action film—the bravado of Howard Hawks, the art brut styling of Samuel Fuller, the crafty, sordid entertainments of Don Siegel—at a time when other critics dismissed the genre.