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 10th MAKING WAVES: New Romanian Cinema December 2-­‐8, 2015 MEDIA REPORT NEW YORK AND U.S. NATIONAL MEDIA (December 14, 2015) Festival Publicist: JMP Verdant Communications Contact: Julia Pacetti, [email protected] Jeff Winter, [email protected] December 1, 2015
This Year’s Survey of New Romanian Cinema Finds a
Movement After Its Crest by Michael Atkinson
Time again to take the temperature and test the cholesterol of the
Romanian New Wave, so far the 21st century's favorite surge of
superhip anti-hipness. Generally, a new wave isn't a new wave unless
it cuts across industrial pop production and goes all nitty-gritty, or
meta-ironic, on contemporary life, and the Romanians have had
plenty to work with, beginning with the historical gravitas that comes
with generations of brutal Communist dictatorship and maintaining
the cataract with Balkan death-rattle humor.
By now, of course, the movement's youth-wave marketing program is
aging out. Its primary figures — Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu,
Cristian Mungiu, Catalin Mitulescu, Radu Muntean, Radu Jude —
teenagers and film-school students when Ceausescu met the firing
squad in 1989, are all now in (or, in the case of Jude, fast
approaching) their forties. As an almost inevitable consequence, the
menu for the new series at the Walter Reade has become more varied;
homing in on the absurd Communist days is no longer automatic.
Commercial rhythms and paradigms have crept in like weeds, and
new-waveness has diffused into other modes.
State-of-the-art hypernaturalism hasn't entirely lost its hold, but it
took a documentary I was never sure wasn't just an extraordinarily
tough-skinned, nitty-gritty Dardennes-style fiction, Alexander
Nanau's Toto and His Sisters, to bring the pain. Ten-year-old Toto's
soul-dead mother is in prison, and he lives with his two teenage
sisters in a Bucharest hovel routinely used for heroin buys and shootups; somehow, Nanau's camera is in their laps every minute, and as
the eldest sibling slips away into junkiehood, the boy and the fragile
fourteen-year-old middle sister, the film's weakening moral center,
ride the tide and eventually decamp for an orphanage. Formidably
unresolved, the film would also warrant acting awards at every turn, if
in fact anyone were acting.
Far less of an ordeal, Muntean's new film One Floor Below is an
enigmatic character study trailing after a midlife-crisis, aging-jock
family man (Teodor Corban, the Wave's own Harvey Keitel) privately
fascinated by the murder of a girl in the apartment downstairs, as her
possibly guilty boyfriend begins to stalk suspiciously around.
Offscreen spaces, a Romanian specialty, are as powerful as ever, not
least the secrets in the hero's head; we're never sure what kind of
stake he might've had in the dead girl to begin with.
Still, the micro scale of the film pales compared to the series' older,
more expansive returning movies, including Puiu's classic The Death
of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) and Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin'
(Endless) (2007) or even old-timer Mircea Daneliuc's pre–New Wave
explosion Patul Conjugal (The Intimate Bed), from 1993, a Kusturicastyle hyper-farce in which a splenetic moviehouse manager (the
boiling-point Gheorghe Dinica) is frazzled by the capitalist chaos in
the days after Ceausescu's death, in between sussing out the secret
police's motivations, making his wife jump off furniture to abort her
pregnancy, falling so in love with his bimbo assistant that he ends up
committed to and escaping from an asylum, and deciding to kill
himself. Eventually Patul Conjugal loses its own mind in a propulsive
whorl, which is more than Daneliuc's earlier film, the curiously
aimless Microphone Test (1980), manages to do as it tracks a TV
cameraman's idle and frustrating romance with an alluring scofflaw
redhead, both of them stymied by life's limited options under
Communist rule. (As the Wave's Altmanesque uncle figure, Daneliuc
is being feted with a mini-retro and will be on hand for intros and
Q&As.)
The more familiar and even Sundance-y of the newer films include
Dan Chisu's Bucharest Nonstop, an adequate if tame Crash manqué
in which four stories intersect and converge on an all-night grocery
stand, and Tudor Giurgiu's Why Me?, a draggy and predictable truestory drama about government corruption in which a not-very-bright
young prosecutor gets set up for a fall. There's even a teen fiction
sidebar, with Nicolae Constantin Tanase's The World Is Mine and
Igor Cobileanski's Moldovan-coproduced The Unsaved, pouty lostyouth sagas about, respectively, an abused girl-toy suffering absurd
high school bullying and yet another disaffected hoodie punk
cluelessly bouncing from dead-end jobs to hopeless schemes to real
crime. The textures sometimes leap out in both cases, but both
movies are spinning their wheels in a muddy-from-traffic indie-film
side road.
Porumboiu's The Treasure is more like it, a low-key, fact-sourced
comedy about hapless treasure hunters tearing up layers of Romanian
history searching for a fabled cache, while Jude's Aferim! may be the
least new-wavey Romanian saga yet, a road trip through the peasant
Wallachia of the Gypsy-slave-trading nineteenth century. Also
starring Corban, as an aphorism-spouting bounty hunter on the trail
of a runaway slave, and shot in opalescent widescreen black-andwhite, the film's an observational, shrugging comedy of no-manners,
hilariously articulating the region's xenophobic legacy, bouncing with
banter and sidling toward a butchering climax that wipes the smile
right off your face.
Even odder is the issuance of a "guest country" in the series: George
Ovashvili's Corn Island, a largely silent Georgian fable about a farmer
and his doe-like daughter claiming a temporary river island as a
cornfield, right down the middle of the war zone between Georgia and
Abkhazia. Not remotely Romanian, it has the iconic force of an old
Dovzhenko ballad while casting a gimlet eye on how the region's
ethnic bloodshed threatens the essential rhythms of life.
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/this-year-s-survey-of-newromanian-cinema-finds-a-movement-after-its-crest-7958416
December 6, 2015
“Making Waves: Corn Island”
Time again to take the temperature and test the cholesterol of the
Romanian New Wave, so far the 21st century's favorite surge of
superhip anti-hipness," begins Michael Atkinson's overview of the
Film Society's "Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema" series in this
week's Voice. Today, "Making Waves" continues with George
Ovashvili's Corn Island, which Atkinson describes as "a largely silent
Georgian fable about a farmer and his doe-like daughter" that "has
the iconic force of an old Dovzhenko ballad while casting a gimlet eye
on how the region's ethnic bloodshed threatens the essential rhythms
of life."
http://www.villagevoice.com/event/making-waves-corn-island7976911
Bogie, Jack Smith and Cartoon Cats
Those and more feature in New York cinema
By STEVE DOLLAR
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema
Film Society of Lincoln Center
165 W. 65th St.
(212) 875-5601
Dec. 2-7
In its 10th edition, the annual festival takes stock of the resurgent
movement it celebrates with a revival of “The Death of Mr.
Lazarescu,” the 2005 drama from Cristi Puiu, which helped to launch
the Romanian new wave. The sociological and political themes abide
a decade on, in work such as “One Floor Below,” in which a potential
homicide poses an existential crisis for a silent witness, and
“Aferim!,” Radu Jude’s 19th-century drama that has been likened to
“12 Years a Slave.” “Bucharest Nonstop” offers a contemporary urban
snapshot in four related segments.
December 2, 2015
‘Intimate Bed’ – Post-Communist Bedlam in ‘Making
Waves’ by David D’Arcy
DECEMBER 3, 2015
The Joy of Sex After Ceaucescu
Intimate Bed
Dir. Mircea Daneliuc, Romania, 1993, 111 minutes
Making Waves – At Lincoln Center and the Jacob Burns Center
(Pleasantville)
It is Romania after the fall of the dictator Nicolai Ceaucescu in 1989.
In conditions of freedom, in a population where most haven’t
experienced it before, the wine of liberty has made people sick.
An Everyman (Gheorghe Dinica) Trying the Sell a Would-be Holy
Text of the Ancien Regime, the Last Book by the Romanian Dictator
Nicolai Ceausescu.
The economy is dead, food is scarce, women are selling themselves in
a marketplace where everything is for sale cheap, and people have
stopped going to the movies at the dilapidated cinema operated by
Intimate Bed’s Everyman character, Vasile (Gheorghe Dinica).
Oh, and Vasile’s wife, Carolina, is pregnant, and Vasile insists that she
get an abortion, paid for in extremely scarce dollars. “If you pay in lei
[the Romanian currency] they’ll do it with dirty instruments. It is my
child after all,” he shouts.
Black is the tone of the jokes here, and Mircea Daneliuc is the master
of the zinger line. In a film that he described as post-modern in an
interview onstage after Intimate Bed screened, Daneliuc also
orchestrated the manic race for money, food and sex that came with
the toppling of communism in Romania. Post-modern here means
that a dark farce in a country where water wasn’t running and the
lights rarely worked could also have a scene where angry Vasile
hammered a nail into his pregnant wife’s head. In Romania, one crazy
man’s post-modernity is a crazy country’s everyday life.
And Daneliuc was getting at something. A country’s intoxication with
the lifting of dictatorial strictures can turn into a downward spiral. No
coincidence, there are plenty of shots of flushing toilets in Intimate
Bed, and shots of citizens swarming aimlessly in public squares.
Intimate Bed, which I saw 20 years ago, is causticly clever and, for the
most part, adroitly edited for perpetual motion. There are so many
characters caught up in mass hysteria that Daneliuc can be forgiven
for going on a bit too long — a proof that this social mania might be
contagious? Satirize is hard to cauterize.
Daneliuc proves that a first step toward satire is scrapping any notion
of political correctness, not that there’s been much of that in
Romania, then or now. His actors keep up with him there, especially
in an extended absurdist scene in which Vasile’s apartment is rented
out by his wife to a crew producing a porno film, in which Vasile’s
family and friends are investors. Naturally, it’s the first investment
that these well-meaning and greedy children of communism have
made. Where they wrong to believe that commercial sex couldn’t be
the stuff of commercial movies?
The grim news is that the Romania of Intimate Bed is still
recognizable in the films from that country today. The good news is
that these films play at Lincoln Center into next week in Making
Waves, a series that has become one of the wildest annual cinematic
events in New York. Daneliuc will be there to guide you through. This
is not to miss.
One recommendation for those who find themselves hooked on
Daneliuc’s wry world view – The Cruise, his Altmanesque ensemble
comedy from 1981, in the jaundiced twilight of communism. If
Intimate Bed can be viewed as Romania’s response to The Joy of Sex,
The Cruise can be its Love Boat or Ship of Fools.
http://blogs.artinfo.com/outtakes/2015/12/03/intimate-bed-postcommunist-bedlam-in-making-waves/
December 11, 2015
Radu Muntean
by Gary M. Kramer
“Everyone operates in their own world.”
Film still from One Floor Below, 2015. All images courtesy of Films
Boutique.
Radu Muntean is part of the New Wave of Romanian directors whose
work was recently showcased at Lincoln Center’s compact yet
insightful Romanian Film Festival. Unlike his compatriots who make
politically charged allegories—such as Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police,
Adjective (2009), Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
(2007), or Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)—
Muntean’s focus has been more on ordinary citizens in the domestic
sphere. For example, his 2008 film, Boogie, concerns a man trying to
reconnect both with his lost youth and his present-day family; he runs
into old friends on holiday and spends an evening carousing, which
causes a fight with his wife. Muntean is also probably best known for
Tuesday, After Christmas (2011), about an ill-timed love affair.
(Aren’t they all.)
With One Floor Below, Muntean continues to explore the fragility of
everyday life with a story that hinges on a crucial moment outside of
his protagonist’s control. Patrascu (Teodor Corban) eavesdrops on his
next-door neighbors Laura (Maria Popistasu) and Vali (Iulian
Postelnicu) while they argue. When Vali discovers Patrascu listening
it leads to an awkward encounter. But things become even more
uncomfortable when Laura dies—possibly murdered. A policeman
investigates, but Patrascu does not reveal everything that he knows.
The subtle suspense builds as Patrascu and Vali test each other to see
who will crack first. One Floor Below is a slow-burn character study
that benefits greatly from Muntean’s naturalist style.
Gary M. Kramer What sparked the idea for your new film and why did
this particular topic appeal to you?
Radu Muntean Every time I fish for a new idea, old ideas can pop up.
It’s been some time since I first had the idea for One Floor Below. I
saw something in the newspaper about a guy who witnessed a
domestic quarrel, and after the fact he learned of a murder near his
apartment. He didn’t do anything, and it puzzled me as to why… I
mixed this story with a person I met who works in a car-registration
office—doing all the paperwork. I thought it was an interesting way to
mix things: a man very much in control who was suddenly not. That
was the starting point.
GMK You take a very naturalist approach, which I think helps hook
the viewer. How did you develop this style and apply it to domestic
stories that deal with moral issues like adultery or crime?
RM It’s always about things that puzzle or intrigue me. I try to show
them in a way that will also intrigue the audience, being as discreet as
I can be. The audience should feel as if they are making up their own
story. I’m just a middleman between the character and the audience. I
don’t want to be intrusive or lecture you. I have questions about
myself and the world I’m living in. I want to share these questions
with you. I don’t have any answers. That’s what is interesting to me.
The story is often more effective after you see the film—that is, when
you have the time to think about it.
GMK Your characters are eavesdropping on each other while your
camera is eavesdropping on the characters. Was it a deliberate
decision to have your style mirror the action?
RM I’m involved in the whole process—from the idea through writing
the script [with Alexandru Baciu and Razvan Radulescu]. We’re
building tension, and I’m trying to shoot it in a style that matches the
situation. Within each scene nothing too spectacular ever happens,
but the film is building layers, so there is hopefully a burst of tension
at the very end.
GMK Many Romanian films have allegorical elements to them, but it
seems your work eschews that political tone. Do you imply political
messages in your work?
RM I’m not specifically interested in political or social issues. But I’m
dealing with people in difficult or puzzling circumstances. I’ve been
asked questions about this before—about the social and political
inclinations of my stories. I didn’t intend to make a portrait of
Romanian society with this film. The moral issue is a private affair
between the viewer and their own consciousness. It’s not so much
related to the social environment. It’s a Romanian film and reflects
society in some way, but it’s not linked to social reality. There is
bureaucracy in the film, and the way the head of the family behaves is
perhaps different than an American character might, but my purpose
was not to put the story in too much of a social context.
The beauty of discussing the film at festivals, or in Romania, is that
everyone has their own ideas. It’s interesting to find out what answers
people give to the questions I raise. I was troubled when one viewer
thought Patrascu was the killer—but that’s an extreme way of
interpreting the story. There can be multiple interpretations. I know
what my point is, but everyone in the audience finds their own path to
get there.
GMK You never resolve what exactly happened to Laura. Was she
killed? Was it an accident? That she was found nude is another
rumor. Why do you play with ambiguity—and, especially, with
Patrascu’s ambiguous reaction to the events?
RM It was important that the audience gets the same information
Patrascu does. As a man in control of his professional and personal
life, he’s now in trouble, because in this circumstance he is not in
control of things. It’s an intimate thing this crime, but he doesn’t have
all the info about it. I wanted the audience to be in his shoes. He’s in
the center of every shot, and you sometimes hear—or don’t quite
hear—what he’s hearing, and a lot of the dialogue is off-screen. It
builds a subjective perspective of the main character, which is very
different from the traditional point-of-view technique of shooting.
GMK The theme of police/authority/law is very prominent in the
film, from the investigation of Laura’s death, to the rules of parenting,
and the bureaucracy of Patrascu’s job. Can you talk about these layers
and their meaning?
RM I don’t think it’s that different than in other countries. It’s not a
film about the Romanian way of dealing with things; that was not
intended. It’s just a moral conflict between this guy and his
conscience, represented by Vali, who pushes him toward a reaction.
That was more important to me than the law. The police, or the
justice system, are not involved in this private, intimate circumstance
between these two men. It’s the dilemma of Patrascu telling or not
telling [the police]—pretending he was not a witness to the unseen
quarrel. Again, it’s about controlling things. You must bear in mind,
he’s an older man, who became a father after forty, so he’s
patronizing with his son and his family. He’s always multi-tasking,
and that’s what fascinated me when I met the real-life person.
GMK What can you say about the various favors exchanged in the
film? For the characters it seems to be a way for them to bond. Is this
barter typical of Romanians or something meant to enhance the
drama?
RM That is actually something that comes from the Communist
times, when every Romanian had “connections.” Everyone knew
someone with something illegally on the market. So it’s not a
tradition of going against the law, but of avoiding technicalities and
making your own law. Patrascu is avoiding the law with his
knowledge of the crime, but he is still a very reliable guy. The real guy
is the same. He will come to you with everything you need, and I
wanted this same quality for the character. It’s very much an
important part of Romanian society—knowing someone. It’s specific
to Romanians and different from Western society.
GMK Are you asking the audience what they would do in the same
situation?
RM I’m raising questions. We take for granted this notion of integrity,
responsibility, and moral issues. You know how you are expected to
act in situations, but I wanted audiences to put themselves concretely
in the position of this character. It’s not an easy thing. Patrascu
knows Vali, and he also knows that he’s not a psychopath. And from
what he hears, it probably was an accident, or it got too violent at a
certain point, so these things are in Patrascu’s head. They are not
easy. I wanted the audience in his position, even if they don’t
understand or agree with what he does. The simple fact that they
raise the same questions, and take them seriously—that’s what I
wanted. I tried not to judge or defend or accuse the character. I
present the difficult choice he has.
GMK There is a fragment of dialogue, “Life is made of this stuff also,”
which suggests we have to take the bad with the good. Can you
comment on that?
RM In a way, it’s about the fact that people take life for granted. Life
is made from all these things. You have to accept it without thinking
too much of the consequences or responsibilities. In a way, Patrascu’s
conscience is chasing him. It’s a superficial way of dealing with
things.
GMK I like the way the characters know more about Laura from
social media than they do from any expressed interactions with her. Is
your film a commentary on that lack of interpersonal interaction?
RM I don’t think that applies only to Romanian society. It’s probable
that you know your friends on Facebook better than you know your
own neighbors. That’s true everywhere. We are living inside these
bubbles. Patrascu has to protect his family, and that’s why he doesn’t
tell his wife. It’s also why he will go to the police if his neighbor’s
threat becomes more aggressive. I think we are moving more to these
mini-societies. Everyone operates in their own world.
GMK There is a very key observational sequence when Patrascu is lost
in his world. He is at the dog show and trying to find his son. Can you
talk about the importance of that sequence and what it tells us about
his character?
RM It’s important because it occurs immediately after the crime
scene—and he meets his neighbor again. So when Patrascu can’t find
his son for ten minutes it makes him panic. After the previous scene,
he’s losing control for the first time, and he’s trying to protect his
family. He’s sees signs of a threat. It becomes subjective. You can feel
his panic. It’s also about putting things in context. For example, there
are two scenes in the park—in the first, everything is in control and
quiet and peaceful—and then later, the dogs are fighting and the
control is gone. It’s a subtle change, but you can still feel it. There are
also two car-registration scenes. In the first, everything is under
control because it’s before he knew about the girl’s death. In the
second, everything is out of place. It’s all about context. In Tuesday,
After Christmas there is a dental office scene. If you don’t know the
context—that the characters are in a love triangle—it would be a scene
about orthodontic explanations. But if you know the context, it
becomes more interesting and powerful, and you can feel the tension
between the characters. The same is true in the final scene in the carregistration office.
GMK One of the most extraordinary scenes in the film has Patrascu
and Vali in the car, mostly silent, but looking at each other, as if each
was waiting for the other to crack. How did you work with the actors
to build the tension in that scene?
RM It’s almost like a duel in a Sergio Leone film! It was interesting
that when we shot the scene and Vali says, “Why didn’t you go to the
police?” Teodor [Corban, the actor] was blushing. It was an organic
reaction. Inside that particular shot the tension was very real. I don’t
have a special recipe for doing that sort of thing. I just rehearse a lot
before shooting and talk with the actors so that they understand the
meaning of the words, the motivation of their characters, and the
context. We build slowly toward the moment of shooting. It becomes
very intense when the camera rolls. In these kinds of films, you have
the feeling while shooting that every detail is important, so you have
to be careful. Any small gesture or inappropriate smile can throw the
film in the wrong direction. It’s like walking a tightrope.
GMK As Romanian cinema continues to increase in popularity and
distribution, how do you see your role in this New Wave?
RM You probably know the answer better than me because you live
outside of Romania. It’s not my job to put my work in the context of
the Wave. Romanian films are becoming more and more different. I
don’t know about their popularity; it’s still a niche. These are all small
releases on the art-house circuit. What is truly sad is that in
Romanian audiences have little interest in these films. They prefer
blockbusters, rather than films that show them additional problems
on top of their own. I’m not very optimistic about the future of these
films, but it’s the only way I can function as a filmmaker.
GMK Last question: Do you have a dog?
RM (laughter) I am a dog person. I had a pit bull like Patrascu. That’s
my life. I have a stray at the moment. I found it in the forest near
where I live.
Gary M. Kramer is a freelance film critic and the author of
Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews, and the coeditor of Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.
Film Forward
December 2, 2015
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema by Christopher
Bourne
The festival Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, screening at the
Film Society of Lincoln Center from December 2-8, is celebrating its
10th edition, and is using this milestone as an occasion to look back
on the Romanian New Wave, which, of course by now, is not so new.
Besides its usual focus on recent films—which this year includes such
acclaimed films as Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Treasure and Radu
Jude’s Aferim!—the program will include special screenings of two
key New Wave films: Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)
and Cristian Nemescu’s California Dreamin’ (Endless) (2007). The
retrospective bent is also reflected in the tribute to Mircea Daneliuc, a
filmmaker who began his career in the 1970s and whose works
inspired many filmmakers of the early 2000’s new wave.
Daneliuc’s 1993 feature, Intimate Bed, will open this year’s festival,
breaking with its usual practice of featuring a recent work. This
caustic satire of life in post-Ceausescu Romania is a harshly anarchic
portrait of an economically depressed and morally corrupt society
that is just as piercing in its critiques as the films Daneliuc made
before the 1989 revolution.
Vasile Potop, a movie theater manager, drowns in daily strife and a
million stresses and annoyances. His relationship with his wife,
Carolina, has curdled into a mutual disgust, which comes to a head
when his wife tells him she’s pregnant, when they can barely afford
the kids they currently have. Vasile’s only respite from his misery is in
the furtive sex sessions he has with Stela, his cashier/accountant. He
scrambles to gather money to pay for the abortion he demands of
Carolina, as well as making Stela happy. The heightened despair in
Intimate Bed is exaggerated to the point of comic farce as strained
and economic desperation make some long for the less free but also
less complicated days of the Ceausescu regime.
Radu Jude, whose penetrating and darkly humorous examinations of
contemporary Romanian society (The Happiest Girl in the World and
Everybody in Our Family)have marked his career as well worth
watching, turns his incisive gaze to the past in his latest, Aferim! Built
on a classic western template—American westerns and its Soviet-era
Eastern European counterparts—Aferim! identifies the roots of
current anti-Roma racism by detailing their status as slaves in the
19th century. The often stunning and incredibly detailed 35mm blackand-white photography teems with vivid portrayals of life in this
period, depicted with much ribald humor, reinforced with reams of
salty, profane dialog.
The film uses the archetypal western plot of a fugitive being captured
and brought to punishment, by following Costandin (Teodor Corban),
a constable hired by a landlord to return his gypsy slave Carfin (Cuzin
Toma), whom the landlord accuses of seducing his wife and then
escaping. The narrative takes the form of a road movie, during which
the brutal societal hierarchies—with gypsies, Jews, and foreigners
solidly at the bottom—are starkly apparent, expressed through verbal
expressions of contempt and loathing. Jude demonstrates the same
powers of observation that marked his previous films, but this time
with an even more pointed and urgent political edge.
Radu Muntean, in such films as his justly acclaimed previous feature
Tuesday, After Christmas, immerses the viewer in the minute details
of the domestic lives of his characters and in the ways their moral
dilemmas transform them. Muntean continues this sort of inquiry in
his follow-up, One Floor Below, in which the protagonist faces an
even graver quandary than the infidelity in Tuesday, After Christmas.
Sandu (Teodor Corban), a man who works as a car registration fixer,
overhears a heated argument between a man and a woman as he
passes the door of his downstairs neighbor. After lingering a bit to
eavesdrop, he encounters Vali (Iulian Postelnicu), the young man in
the argument, storming out of the apartment; they recognize each
other but part in awkward silence. The next day, the woman is found
murdered, and it seems all but certain that Vali was the culprit.
However, when questioned by the police, Sandu doesn’t tell them
what he overheard the day before. The rest of the film revolves
around Sandu’s silence about this matter, and the eventual
consequences to him and his family, especially as Vali begins to
insinuate himself ever further into Sandu’s life.
Although the camera almost always keeps Sandu in view and goes
into exhaustively detail into his daily life, his motivations and much
about his character remain opaque. In this way, One Floor Below
hews closely to many of the stylistic hallmarks adopted by many
Romanian New Wave filmmakers: an unadorned, often minimalist
style that prioritizes a sense of realism, much of the time with a
potent sociopolitical perspective. Muntean takes this almost to an
extreme, to the point that his film often feels like a perverse exercise
in exploring how much drama he can drain from this situation and
still have it retain any sort of audience interest. The problem with this
approach is that there’s a thin line between an intriguingly minimal
scenario and a frustratingly undernourished one, and Muntean
unfortunately all too often winds up on the wrong side of that line.
Andreea Vasile and Emilian Oprea in Why Me? (Film Society of
Lincoln Center)
Tudor Giurgiu’s Why Me? uses a real-life tragedy as the springboard
for a labyrinthine political thriller that’s compared to the work of
Sidney Lumet in the festival program, but it much more closely
evokes American paranoid thrillers of the ’70s such as The Parallax
View or The Conversation. Cristian (Emilian Oprea) is a young
prosecutor groomed by his superiors for a fast-track promotion. He’s
given the task of investigating another prosecutor suspected of
corruption. Cristian seizes on the chance to advance himself, but as
he comes under pressure to produce a swift conviction even though
the evidence in the case is extremely shaky, he finds that he’s being
used as a pawn in a much larger power game, one involving political
forces well beyond his control. Cristian begins to suspect everyone
around him of spying on him, especially after he’s taken off the case
and relieved of his duties.
Why Me? starts off rather ponderously, with overly expository scenes
that initially weigh the film down. It’s also rather visually
unremarkable, often feeling more like a TV movie than cinema.
However, its second half is much stronger, as the forces against
Cristian converge upon him, with tragic results. The film eventually
becomes an angry condemnation of an actual injustice, one that
destroys many people’s lives.
http://film-forward.com/foreign/making-waves-new-romaniancinema-2015
Criterion Cast
December 1, 2015
Five Films You Need to Keep an Eye on from The 10th
Edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema by
Joshua Brunsting
Few parts of this world have contributed as much to the filmic
language as Romania. As singular a national voice and aesthetic as
they come, Romanian cinema has become a launching pad not only
for some of modern cinema’s most entrancing filmmakers, but also
some of the most exciting explorations of a culture that few have
much genuine knowledge of. Be it the typically chilly photography or
the even more isolating sense of dread many of their dramas have, or
even the dry nature of their comedies, Romanian cinema is in a
golden age, and has spent the last decade leading world cinema. And
now one of this country’s great smaller scale film festivals marks a
decade itself, as the 10th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian
Cinema is set to get under way. Here are the five films you absolutely
can’t afford to miss.
Festival runs December 2-7.
Director In Focus: Mircea Daneliuc
While much of the focus of each of these small festivals lies primarily
on the latest and greatest films from Romania, every so often, the
festival highlights one of the pioneers of the nation’s cinema. And this
year is no different. Mircea Daneliuc has been creating
groundbreaking works of cinema, forming much of the aesthetic that
has now become the calling card for almost the entirety of his nation’s
film scene, for four decades now, and has numerous plays, novels and
short stories to his name as well. His film Intimate Bed is this year’s
opening night feature, and his films have been relatively hard to find
despite Romanian cinema becoming one of world cinema’s most
important movements.
Included in this festival are Intimate Bed, The Cruise,The Snail’s
Senator, Microphone Test and Jacob. As a big fan of modern
Romanian cinema, these are the films that I’m most interested in
digging into, particularly due to Daneliuc’s placement as the real
father of modern Romanian film and filmmaking. This is the real
must-see sidebar of the festival.
The Unsaved
While Romanian cinema is relatively well known, Moldova is a nation
whose screen presence has yet to be felt. This year’s festival hopes to
change that in any way it can. As part of its highlight on cinema from
Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, the festival will screen the
brilliant Igor Cobileanski film, The Unsaved. Shot by beloved
photographer Oleg Mutu, the film owes a great deal aesthetically to
Romanian cinema, particularly in its use of icy blue photography and
a frigid overall sense of mood and tone, but the lead performances
here are a touch heightened, at least in comparison to Romanian
cinema performances.
The film tells the story of Viorel and Goos, two young adults starring
in the face what appears to be the dead end life they are living. As
socially and culturally focused as anything out of Romania, this is a
perfect fit for this festival, and Mutu’s photography is as great and
genuinely awe inspiring as anything he has done with directors like
Cristian Mungiu.
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
One of Romanian cinema’s greatest achievements is getting a
highlight this year, as on the 10th Anniversary of its release the
festival will be honoring Cristi Puiu’s masterpiece The Death Of Mr.
Lazarescu. Helping to usher in this great decade of Romanian cinema,
the film was actually a highlight of the very first Making Waves
screening series, and pairs perfectly as a historical reference with the
films of Mircea Daneliuc this year.
At its very best, Making Waves isn’t so much a film festival for lifelong
cinephiles, but instead a perfect launching pad for anyone with some
interest in delving into experiences of those in other nations. Making
Waves, especially this year, has a distinct focus on the history of
Romanian cinema, and this masterpiece, which in many ways helped
bring Romanian cinema to its world cinema peak that it’s been sitting
at for the decade since, is a perfect reminder of just how great this
cinematic movement has truly been.
Aliyah DaDa
And now on to a couple of highlights from films one could very well
see making their 10 best list of films released this year. From Oana
Girugiu comes her debut feature, a documentary that follows Giurgiu
as she attempts to bring to light the true story behind the Romanian
Jews “aliyah,” or their return to the Holy Land which occurred in the
late 19th Century. As hinted at in the title, Aliyah DaDa owes a great
deal to the Dadaist art movement, as Dadaist style work is
interspersed throughout the film opposite new interviews and
archival footage, in what can safely be called one of the year’s most
original documentaries.
A story very few people have had the chance of hearing much less
know to any great depth, this film is both historical document and
genuine piece of form defying artwork. Dark, profound, genuinely
moving and at numerous moments artistically thrilling, Aliyah DaDa
is one of the most original documentaries from a nation whose fiction
work is as stayed and static as this is kinetic and vibrant. Not to
mention, the story of a large group of people seeking refuge in a
foreign land has more than a touch of relevance in today’s world.
The Treasure
And now the film that is bound to take all the headlines, one of the
year’s best films from Romanian cinema’s reigning king. Conreliu
Porumboiu, who is coming off the release of his previous picture,
When Evening Falls On Bucharest Or Metabolism just earlier this
year, is back with his Cannes-darling, The Treasure. Telling the story
of a man approached by a neighbor with an odd proposition, this film
is very much a typical Romanian film aesthetically, in that it is
drenched in a constant and oppressive blue hue, and with a static
camera so clean in its framing that it appears almost surgical in its
precision.
However, it also hints at an aspect of Romanian cinema that rarely
gets discussed; their propensity for comedy. While much humor in
Romanian cinema is found in the blackest of ways, this is a dry and
deadpan picture, but with genuine heart, making it feel about as close
to a farce as Romanian film could possibly get. Overall, it’s a genuine
masterpiece from Romania’s resident master filmmaker. Oh, and it’s
a Sundance Selects release, so Criterion fans, do expect to hear much
more about this in the future.
http://criterioncast.com/festivals/five-films-you-need-to-keep-aneye-on-from-the-10th-edition-of-making-waves-new-romaniancinema
December 3, 2015
One Floor Below at Film Society of Lincoln Center By
Screenslate
Featured Screening: One Floor Below at Film Society of Lincoln
Center. Post by Cosmo Bjorkenheim:
Radu Muntean’s One Floor Below (2015) poses as a psychological
thriller (or an “anti-thriller” according to Lincoln Center’s synopsis),
but it feels more like a rather clinical report on the atomization of
Romanian society.
The film follows Mr. Pătrașcu (Teodor Corban, 12:08 East of
Bucharest), a middle-aged small business owner, as he tries his best
to ignore the murder of his downstairs neighbor and its investigation.
He also tries to keep his wife and son uninvolved, but since the
murder victim’s jealous boyfriend—the young man Pătrașcu suspects
of having committed the crime—also lives in the building, it’s
impossible to forget it ever happened. Pătrașcu’s humdrum life, which
revolves around his car registration business, jogging with his dog,
and watching soccer, is unavoidably contaminated by the hovering
presence of the young man, whose natural affability and expertise
with gaming hardware makes him a fixture in the Pătrașcu household.
If we had any inkling as to why Pătrașcu’s so phobic of getting
involved in other people’s affairs, if he ever confided in another
person for example, some narrative tension might be generated, but
all we get is the man’s inexplicably stubborn effort to keep his
blinders on. One Floor Below is more single-mindedly obsessed with
its protagonist than maybe any other film I’ve seen—there can’t be
more than five shots that he’s not in. This dictatorship of the closeup
is exacerbated by the silence: practically all we hear is Pătrașcu’s
breathing, sometimes punctuated by groans as he struggles to pick up
his dog’s turds. With fingers crossed, we keep hoping that the next cut
will spirit us away from the range of Pătrașcu’s breath, but no: here’s a
cut, and—wham!—Pătrașcu again.
The movie is summed up in Pătrașcu’s line to his young neighbor
when the latter comes to get his car registered and Pătrașcu decides to
level with him: “I don’t care what you did and why you didn’t tell the
police. That’s your business.” This quietism is almost too bluntly
echoed by Pătrașcu’s coworkers after he decides to let off some steam
and whale the young suspect. After the fight has been broken up and
the belligerents led away, the gawkers turn to each other and say,
“Come on, let’s go mind our own business.” Is Muntean saying that
the feeling of civic duty in Romania is eroding? If so, is this something
to be alarmed at or something to encourage? —Cosmo Bjorkenheim
http://www.screenslate.com/whats-showing-today/thursdaydecember-3-one-floor-below-at-film-society-of-lincoln-center
December 6, 2015
What’s Showing Today? Sunday, December 6
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln
Center
Series Details
Corn Island (George Ovashvili). Details. DCP. 2014. 101 min. 1:30
pm.
The Unsaved (Igor Cobileanski). Details. DCP. 2013. 80 min. 3:30
pm.
Panel: Creative Freedom Through Cinema. Details. With filmmaker
Pavel Cuzuioc and political scientist and Georgia expert Lincoln
Mitchell, moderated by documentary filmmaker and human rights
activist Mona Nicoară. 5:30 pm.
Toto and His Sisters (Alexander Nanau). Details. DCP. 2014. 94 min.
5:30 pm.
New Romanian Shorts (Various Filmmakers). Details. Introduction
by Andrei Crețulescu, Luiza Pârvu & Andreea Vălean and producers
Codruța Crețulescu & Toma Peiu. 144 min. 7:00 pm.
The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu (Cristi Puiu). Details. DCP. 2005. 154
min. 8:00 pm.
http://www.indiewire.com/film/one-floor-below
November 20, 2015
Romanian Film Series 10th Entry at Film Society by Jack
Angstreich
The Film Society of Lincoln Center will be showcasing its tenth
edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, co-presented with
the Romanian Film Initiative, from December 2nd through the 7th at
the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St, NY, NY). The emergence of
such remarkable directors as Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu and
Cornelius Porumboiu (whose latest film, The Treasure, screens on
Saturday, December 5th) has thrust Romania into the spotlight that
Taiwan, Iran, and South Korea, for example, have emerged into, in
recent decades.
This series is a welcome opportunity to see some of the best films that
have emerged from the current milieu, as well as providing an
opportunity to encounter work by neglected figures of the past — the
current program will include a retrospective of veteran director
Mircea Daneliuc, who will be appearing in person for a Q&A following
the screening of his 1993 feature,Intimate Bed, presented in DCP at
the Walter Reade on Wednesday December 2nd at 7pm, the Opening
Night selection.
Aferim!
The director Radu Muntean is another significant personage in
Romania’s New Wave; his latest feature, the excellent and
disquieting, One Floor Below, portrays the quotidian world of a
middle-aged man — sensitively played in a masterful performance by
Teodor Corban — who withholds crucial information from the police
concerning a murder investigation. Shot in an episodic, neorealist
style and featuring superb naturalistic performances, this film
eschews classical construction with a minimal reliance on close-ups,
even if it resists the formal austerity often found in the work of his
contemporaries. One Floor Below is notable for the ambiguity and
open-endedness of its story’s presentation: the characters’
motivations are not explained and the viewer is encouraged to form
his own conclusions about the events that transpire. The film screens
at the Walter Reade on Thursday, December 3rd at 9pm and on
Friday, December 4th at 4:30pm.
Radu Jude is another figure connected to the New Wave having been
an assistant to Puiu and his new feature is the Closing Night selection,
the extraordinary Aferim!, a caustic portrait of feudal Romania in
1835 about the mission of a sententious constable — played, in
another bravura performance, by Corban — and his son to retrieve an
escaped Gypsy slave, is even more unsettling than One Floor Below.
Handsomely photographed in monochromatic widescreen, this is
another work in a quasi-neorealist mode not very dissimilar to
Muntean’s film in its approach to storytelling and displays many of
the same merits, such as impressive acting and a pointed ambiguity.
Aferim! screens at the Walter Reade on Monday, December 7th at
8:30pm.
To learn more, go to: http://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/makingwaves-new-romanian-cinema/
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema December 2 - 7, 2015
Film Society of Lincoln Center Walter Reade Theater
165 W. 65th St. New York, NY 10023
http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/film-festivals/film-festivalpreviews/3150-romanian-film-series-10th-entry-at-film-society
December 1, 2015
Intimate Bed (1993) Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema
2015
Opening night of Making Waves:New Romanian Cinema for this year
is a black as tar satire/farce from just after the Communists were
kicked out. Its a film that is very funny but also painful in its bleak
portrait of humans.
Vasile Potop is a movie theater manager in turmoil. The economy is
crap, his business is being eaten away by home video, and his home
life is a mess. Everyone wants to cut a deal and everyone is for sale,
literally as Vasile's wife wants to sell the baby she is carrying for some
quick cash and another character wants to sell his mother. What is he
to do?
Kafka and Orwell have nothing on Romania after the Communist fall.
Based on the characters wandering around in Mircea Daneliuc's film
it's even more fucked up then anyone could imagine because there is
no Big Bother or no twisted mind set it's everyone for themselves. The
worst thing about INTIMATE BED is it doesn't feel like anything is
really being made up, this feel like it's straight reporting. If there is
anything that is made up or over done it would be that every moment
has everyone is talking about running a deal. As messed up as life in
the US can be it has nothing on the world shown in this film.
I really liked this film a great deal but to be honest after a while it
wore me down, the satire and farce just became too much. Then the
laughter caught in my throat and then I finally stopped laughing. I
actually stopped reading the subtitles for a bit because I was
overwhelmed.
Definitely a grand masterpiece but it has all of the bleakness of many
Romanian films that reach the US and make me hesitant to indulge
them.
http://unseenfilms.blogspot.com/2015/12/intimate-bed-1993making-wavesnew.html
December 5, 2015
In Brief: Aliyah DaDa (2014) Making Waves New Romanian
Cinema
This is the story of the Jews in Romania. The film explores the arc of
their existence ove the years and includes the tale of how the
Romanian government traded them to Israel during the years of the
communist regime.
Good look at the an often overlooked portion of Jewish history the
film is raised up from being just another documentary by the use of
photo collage which is often created right before our eyes. Its a a
technique that not only keeps the film interesting but also ads
considerably to the mood of the story by doing things that
conventional story telling can't do.
If I was to quibble with the film it would be that its 116 minutes is a
bit too much. On the other hand the film is nicely detailed all the way
through so in it's way there are an embarrassment of riches for those
interested in the history of the Romanian Jews.
http://unseenfilms.blogspot.com/2015/12/in-brief-aliyah-dada2014-making-waves.html
December 6, 2015
Three from Making Waves New Romanian Cinema:
MICROPHONE TEST, BUCHAREST NONSTOP and THE
UNSAVED
MICROPHONE TEST (1980)
Mircea Daneliuc's satire has a TV soundman's life spinning side ways
as one of the story he covers crash into his personal life. An intriguing
film to watch since it's juxtapositioning of actual news footage with
the dramatic story made me wonder if the authorities in Romania
knew what the director was doing. I say that because the sequences
now play not only as a historical capsule but also end up revealing the
ridiculousness and artificiality of Romanian life. A very good film I
really need more time with in order to properly digest.
BUCHAREST NONSTOP (2015)
The title of the film doesn't refer to travel but instead refers to a 24
shop near some block of apartments. Over the course of the film we
watch as various people come and go in and around the store and see
how their lives intersect even if they don't. We have a girl who is
running away, an old couple arguing, and a few others. Good multipart film could have been truly great had either some of the stories
been their own self contained tales or if we had been given a little bit
more to each story. For some reason jumping from each story to the
next kind of weakens the whatever we leave since in some cases we
leave just as something gets interesting. I like the film a great deal but
I wanted to love it.
THE UNSAVED (2013)
The 2014 Oscar entry from Moldova, THE UNSAVED is about a teen
living in a town where there is no real hope for a future. He earns
money in questionable ways and puts his little effort into building a
light aircraft made from a hang glider. Eventually he decides that he
has to do something. Good, if low key and dry film is not the sort of
thing that I normally gravitate to but at festivals such as Making
Waves I'm more than happy to to give it a go. If you are a fan of ow
key films or of Romanian cinem it's definitely worth a look when it
plays later today at Lincoln Center. (Tickets can be had here.)
http://unseenfilms.blogspot.com/2015/12/three-from-makingwaves-new-romanian.html
Talking Pictures
December 3, 2015
Courage and Dark Comedy by Robin Holland
Mircea Daneliuc, NYC, 12/3/15
Making a film is always an act of bravery. But the Romanian master
Mircea Daneliuc, whose subversive work inspired and influenced the
directors of the Romanian New Wave, took risks much graver than
merely artistic. In the films he made during the brutal regime
of Nicolae Ceausescu, Daneliuc criticized the state, writing and
shooting situations based in reality but refracted through a lens of
dark humor and ferocious satire. And although Communism ended
with the violent overthrow of the government on December 22,
1989, Daneliuc’s advanced sense of the absurd continued to inform
his work as Romania’s elites held onto their power and everyone else
scrambled for something to sell although no one was buying.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center is honoring Daneliuc and showing
four of his 17 features as part of the 10th edition of “Making Waves:
New Romanian Cinema.” The program also includes new features
(from some of the country’s most lauded directors–Corneliu
Porumboiu, Radu Jude and Radu Muntean), documentaries, classic
films, shorts and panels.
Director Cristi Puiu, whose great film, “The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu”
(2005) will be shown in the retrospective section, cites “The Cruise”
(1981) as his favorite of Daneliuc’s films. Described as “the most
Altman-esque film every made in Romania,” it has the “strongest and
clearest anti-totalitarian message” of all of the films made under
Ceausescu.
“The Snails’ Senator” (1995), a fierce satire which features Daneliuc’s
wife, the actress Cecilia Bârbora, shows how job descriptions have
changed–from party official to elected member of parliament–but
corruption stays constant.
“Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema” will run through Monday,
December 7 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade
Theater. Mircea Daneliuc will introduce “The Cruise” on Friday,
December 4 at 9:15 pm and with Cecilia Bârbora, “The Snails’
Senator”on Saturday, December 5 at 4:00 pm, followed by a Q&A.
Selections from the series are also being presented at the Jacob Burns
Film Center through Tuesday, December 8.
Cecilia Bârbora and Mircea Daneliuc, NYC, 12/3/15
https://robinholland.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/courage-and-darkcomedy/
J.B. Spins
December 6, 2015
Making Waves ’15: Trading Germans by Joe Bendel
Romanian Germans have a long and complex history with their
homeland that continues to evolve even to this day. Indeed, the fact
that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is a Transylvanian Saxon is
quite significant. There used to be many more Saxon, Swabian,
Zipser, and Bukovina Germans in Romanian but the 1945 Soviet
expulsion of all able bodied ethnic German men took a brutal toll.
Those who were left faced a difficult time of during the Communist
era, but the Federal Republic of Germany did not abandon them.
Răzvan Georgescu reveals the extent and legacy of the secret deal
struck by the FRG and Ceauşescu in Trading Germans (trailer here),
which screens during the 2015 edition of Making Waves: New
Romanian Cinema.
During the hottest years of the Cold War, West Germany traded hard
currency in exchange for the immigration of almost a quarter of a
million Romanian Germans. It was a long term operation, spanning
the years of 1968-1989. During throughout that period, HeinzGünther Hüsch served as the primary German negotiator, even before
his election to the Bundestag (as a member of the CDU). He ran an
incredibly efficient operation, at least until Helmut Schmidt got
involved and re-negotiated less favorable terms for West Germany.
Thanks to Hüsch and Romania’s unquenchable demand for hard
currency (fueled by Ceauşescu’s corruption), a steady stream of
Romanian Germans were allowed to leave the Socialist paradise.
Apparently, they assimilated quite well in West Germany, in part
because they spoke perfect German. Unlike the rest of the Soviet Bloc,
Romania never curtailed their German language fluency and usage.
However, they still feel profound sense of separation from their
homeland. The Saxons particularly seem to have a deep agrarian
connection to their ancestral land—most of which now lies fallow.
Hüsch and his chief Romanian counterpart Stelian Octavian Andronic
offer some vivid memories and sly commentary on their extended
pow-wows. Yet, some of the best insights regarding the nature of
freedom come from Romanian German Karl Hann and Hansi
Schmidt (formerly a star player for the Romanian national handball
team).
There are some rather misleading descriptions of this film online that
make it sound like a human trafficking documentary. As far we can
tell from the HBO Europe produced doc, everyone whose passage the
FRG purchased wanted to leave, albeit reluctantly. In fact, the
Communist authorities often double-collected, charging the
immigrants exorbitant passport fees, unbeknownst to Hüsch. Yes,
they are sad to be estranged from their homeland, but the regime had
already stripped them of their beloved land and their way of life.
Frankly, it is a relatively feel-good Cold War story, told with
sensitivity and telling details. Highly recommended, Trading
Germans screens tomorrow night (12/7) at the Walter Reade, as part
of this year’s Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema.
http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2015/12/making-waves-15-tradinggermans.html
J.B. Spins
December 5, 2015
Making Waves ’15: Why Me? By Joe Bendel
According to the postscript, during the years of 2006-2012, “23
members of parliament, 15 government ministers, and over 100
mayors and 50 magistrates” were sent up the river in Romania, which
constitutes remarkably clean governance here in New York and New
Jersey. However, the underlying system of corruption deeply troubled
former prosecutor Cristian Panait. That would be the late Cristian
Panait. The controversies surrounding Panait’s untimely demise are
transparently fictionalized in Tudor Giurgiu’s Why Me? (trailer here),
which screens during the 2015 edition of Making Waves: New
Romanian Cinema.
Initially, Cristian Panduru is the fast-tracked golden boy in the state
prosecutors’ office, specializing in government corruption cases. He
already has plenty to keep him busy, but the prosecution of Bogdan
Leca, a notoriously crooked prosecutor from a neighboring
jurisdiction could decisively make Panduru’s reputation.
Unfortunately, when Panduru tries to execute a search warrant, the
crafty Leca runs circles around him. Nevertheless, Panduru’s
superiors still file charges against Leca, despite his inability to turn up
anything incriminating. Panduru quickly realizes the fix is in and he
will be the designated fall guy, if needed.
Under pressure to convict Leca, Panait secretly shifts the focus of his
investigation. Before long, he suspects the shadowy involvement of
Romania’s SRI, the post-Revolutionary incarnation of the dreaded
Securitate, one of seven government intelligence service then active in
the country. The more he sleuths out, the greater the pressure
Panduru’s superiors exert trying to bring him back in line. It will get
ugly.
By the standards of the Romanian New Wave aesthetic movement,
Why Me is a barn burner of a thriller. However, viewers who do not
have a few recent Romanian films under their belt will need time to
acclimate to its severely icy vibe. Still, there is no missing its rampant
(but apparently justified) paranoia. Rather pleasantly surprisingly,
Why Me is way more closely akin to cynical 1970s conspiracy thrillers
like The Conversation than anyone who has soldiered through films
like Aurora and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu will ever dare to hope.
In all honesty, Emilian Oprea’s Panduru is so tightly wound and
uptight, it practically hurts to watch him walk. It is a quiet, but
bitterly compelling performance that takes on legitimately tragic
dimensions. As his direct superior, Prosecutor Codrea, Mihai
Constantin truly personifies bureaucratic villainy. Alin Florea adds
plenty of acerbic élan as the more-formidable-than-he-looks Leca. On
the other hand, Panduru’s girlfriend and dodgy colleagues are mostly
unremarkable stock characters.
Why Me gives viewers a comprehensive sense of how tricky postCommunist politics, economics, and jurisprudence have been in
Romania, in large measure thanks to the Securitate veterans who just
carried on as usual in the SRI. Giurgiu never dumbs it down, as he
methodically peels back layer after layer of the corrupt onion. It is a
challenging film that might be a tad longer than necessary (131
minutes, really?), but maintains a moody, trust-no-one vibe
throughout. Recommended for those who appreciate rigorous factbased political thrillers, Why Me? screens tonight (12/5) and Monday
afternoon (12/7) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s Making
Waves: New Romanian Cinema.
http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2015/12/making-waves-15-whyme.html
J.B. Spins
December 1, 2015
Making Waves ’15: Aliyah DaDa By Joe Bendel
After the Six-Day War, Romania was the only Warsaw Pact country to
maintain diplomatic relations with the State of Israel. That’s not
much say for the Ceauşescu regime, but its something. In truth, Israel
and Romania had a long and complex history that predated 1967,
going back to the very first organized Aliyah that originated in part
from Romania. Oania Giurgiu talks to descendants of those very first
pioneers in her sweeping yet highly personal documentary, Aliyah
DaDa, which screens during the 2015 edition of Making Waves: New
Romanian Cinema.
In the late Nineteenth Century, a hearty band of Romanian Jews
returned to their ancient homeland. It was a hard life, but the local
Arab population was rather glad to have them there as potential allies
and buffers in their quarrels with the Bedouins. They would not be
the last Romanian Jews to take the Aliyah journey to what would be
known as Israel again in 1948. However, the fascist Antonescu regime
imposed anti-Jewish laws, much like their Axis allies, which abruptly
halted all Jewish immigration.
Jewish Romanian transit re-commenced in the immediate power-war
years, but at that time leaving Romania was the safest part of the
journey. Following the purge of prominent Jewish CP member Ana
Pauker, Ceauşescu generally followed the Soviets’ anti-Semitic party
line. Yet, he still periodically allowed spurts of immigration to Israel,
in return for hard currency.
That is the broad strokes of it, but it is the personal details that
interest Giurgiu. Though not Jewish herself, she had always been
fascinated by the fate of immigrating Jewish Hungarians after her
parents bought their house from one such family. She also finds a
visually distinctive way to tell their stories, constructing on-screen
photo-collages inspired by the work of Tristan Tzara and Marcel
Janco, two Jewish Romanians who were at the forefront of the DaDa
art movement.
We should all know the fundamentals of Romania’s tragic Communist
and fascist past, but seeing it as part of a continuum of over a century
of history rather puts things in perspective. All things considered, it is
miraculous the nation is not even more dysfunctional. To her credit,
Giurgiu keeps the film grounded in the human realities of the grand
macro forces through her interviews with the frank and welcoming
Romanian-Israelis.
Strangely enough, Giurgiu’s cinematic collages also serve the material
quite well, dramatically illustrating the passage of time through her
layering-on and stripping off. She also assembles some striking
archival photos, which are often haunting, nostalgic, or a little of
both. Her interview style is decidedly informal, but it clearly works
with both the learned scholars and weathered farmers descended
from members of that 1882 Aliyah.
ADD is briskly paced but also provides a surprisingly comprehensive
yet digestible overview of Jewish Romanian history up until the
Revolution. It offers insights into both totalitarian systems that
misruled the nation during the last century, while also earning way
more style points than your garden variety documentary. Highly
recommended, Aliyah DaDascreens this Thursday (12/3) at the
Walter Reade, as part of this year’s Making Waves: New Romanian
Cinema.
http://www.jbspins.blogspot.com/2015/12/making-waves-15-aliyahdada.html
December 1–7, 2015
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, December 2-7
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Romanian Film Initiative
announce the lineup for the 10th edition of Making Waves: New
Romanian Cinema, December 2-7
Highlights include Romania’s entry in the foreign-language Oscar®
race, Aferim!, by Radu Jude; Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Treasure;
Tudor Giurgiu’s political thriller Why Me?; a spotlight on director
Mircea Daneliuc; and many in-person appearances.
[full press release]
http://www.colesmithey.com/filmblog/2015/11/making-waves-newromanian-cinema-december-2-7.html
November 21, 2015
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Romanian Film Initiative
presented four film screenings for the 10th edition of Making Waves:
New Romanian Cinema, December 2-7. One Floor Below/Un etaj
mai jos, by Radu Muntean, Romania/France/Germany/Sweden,
2015, is about a neighbor Sandu (Teodor Corban), who hears a
heated argument between a girl and her boyfriend (Iulian
Postelnicu) as he passes her door on the floor below. When she is
found dead, murdered, he tries to avoid getting involved. However,
his life becomes very complicated. It is an interesting film, and
reveals the poor quality of life in present day Romania, with its
stifling bureaurcracy.
http://blacktiemagazine.com/New_York_Society/Aubrey_Reuben_
November21_2015.htm
Flying Monk
December 5, 2015
Why Me?
Under a packed audience “Tudor Giurgiu’s “Why me?”, a brave movie
about the Romania’s corruption, premiered last night in New York.
The movie follows a prosecutor who was given a case to indict one of
his colleague and is based on real facts following the time of the oil
embargo for Serbia that Romania was stealthy breaking. The
proceeds of this traffic was siphoned to enrich Romanian politicians
and their parties and mainly to various factions of the Romanian
Secret Service, the oil traffic being approved by the highest levels of
the government and the Romanian presidency. Having doubts that
his colleague was guilty, mainly because he used to be involved in the
investigating this oil traffic, the prosecutor decides, in spite of
tremendous pressures, not to give an indictment, that brings upon
him a harassing campaign and a threat of prosecution. The paranoia
impeccably painted in the film around the main character,
symptomatic for the Romanian society, in the end drives the main
character to suicide, as it happened in real life. The film was released
specially one month before the last year presidential elections in
which the prime minister at the time was running for office as a wake
up call for the Romanian society to mobilize and vote against him.
This ex-prime minister, Victor Ponta, also a prosecutor, was the one
who was given the dossier after the prosecutor Cristian Panait refused
to indict and is the last one who saw him alive before allegedly Panait
jumped from his house terrace. Many in Romania rumored that
Ponta is guilty of his suicide and the most brazen ones accused him of
pushing him off the rails. Victor Ponta is currently in indictment
process for a number of corruption charges.
The Q&A after the screening triggered so many discussions that the
Walter Read Theater personnel had to come and cut it short in order
to be able to keep up with the theater schedule.
https://flyingmonk.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/why-me/
December 2, 2015
Making Waves returns for its 10th edition
Editor's Note
Co-presented with the Romanian Film Initiative, Making Waves
returns to the Film Society of Lincoln Center for its 10th year. The
series will feature a plethora of documentaries, special tributes, and
shorts. Many films are fresh from the festival circuit and will be
making their North American debut, includingThe Treasure, Aferim!,
and many more. The festival will also feature an array of talks and
panels on the topic of art and politics in Eastern Europe, as a
continuation of the Creative Freedom Through Cinema program. The
screening dates and times vary, see the full schedule here.
Kaitlyn Hamilton
http://flavorpill.com/nyc/event/film/making-waves-new-romaniancinema
December 2, 2015
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema Film Festival 2015
Hailed by The New York Times as one of the “annual treasures” of the
Film Society’s programming, the festival features will offer a selection
of the best in contemporary Romanian filmmaking, including
features, documentaries, and shorts, along with classic and landmark
films and other special programs focusing on the work of Romanian
directors.
Aferim! by Radu Jude
Titles fresh from Cannes and Berlin lead the slate of
features: Corneliu Porumboiu΄s crazy fairy tale, The
Treasure(Romania/France, 2015), Romania’s unorthodox answer
to 12 Years a Slave, Radu Jude’s Aferim!(Romania/Bulgaria/Czech
Republic, 2015), Radu Muntean’s subtle morality play, One Floor
Below(France/Romania/Germany/Sweden, 2015) and Why
Me? (Romania/Bulgaria, 2015), the Sidney Lumet-esque political
thriller by Tudor Giurgiu, based on outrageous real events. The rest of
the films being screened at the main program are the following:
Aliyah DaDa by Oana Giurgiu (Romania, 2014)
Bucharest Nonstop by Dan Chişu (Romania, 2015)
Toto And His Sisters by Alexander Nanau (Romania, 2014)
Trading Germans by Răzvan Georgescu (Germany/Romania, 2014)
The World Is Mine by Nicolae Constantin Tănase (Romania, 2015)
Making Waves will also present a tribute to one of Romania’s greatest
filmmakers, Mircea Daneliuc, whose work inspired the Romanian
New Wave and who will join the festival as this year’s special guest.
With a career spanning four decades, 17 features (writing 16 of them)
and 11 movie roles, plus several plays, novels, and short stories,
Daneliuc has amassed an oeuvre of subversive films anchored in
reality but showcasing a mordant dark humor and unrelenting satire.
Intimate Bed (Romania, 1993) – Opening film
The Cruise (Romania, 1981)
The Snails’ Senator (Romania, 1995)
The Snails’ Senator by Mircea Daneliuc
Another highlight will be a special tribute screening of Cristi
Puiu’s The Death of Mr Lazarescu (Romania, 2005), commemorating
the 10th anniversary of Making Waves. A seminal title of the
Romanian New Wave, this dark comedy was presented at the first
edition back in 2006 and took American critics by storm, helping to
establish Romania as a major player in the contemporary landscape
of international art cinema. Completing this exciting lineup is a
selection of short films, including the newest from Cristi Puiu
and Andrei Cretulescu΄s Cannes prize-winning
noir, Ramona(Romania, 2015, 20΄).
The 2015 Edition of Making Waves will also feature panels, special
guests, and a continuation of last year’s Creative Freedom
Through Cinema program, examining the relationship between art
and politics in Eastern Europe and spotlighting 2 works from the
Republic of Moldova and Georgia: The Unsaved by Igor
Cobileanski (Romania/Republic of Moldova, 2012) and Corn
Island by George Ovashvili (Georgia/Germany/France, 2014).
Beside Mircea Daneliuc, guests of this year’s festival include Tudor
Giurgiu, Dan Chișu, Oana Giurgiu, Andrei Crețulescu, Luiza Pârvu,
and Andreea Vălean, actors Cecilia Bârbora, Andi Vasluianu, Emilian
Oprea, and Mihai Constantin and producers Ada Solomon, Codruța
Crețulescu, and Toma Peiu.
Film Society Lincoln Center official website
http://www.altcine.com/details.php?id=1747