Romanian Film Festival

The Romanian Film

Hailed by critics as a new force in world cinema, the Romanian film is returning to Madison, March 7-9, 2008. The second edition of the Romanian Film Festival in Madison will offer a dynamic selection of classic and contemporary award-winning Romanian short and feature films.

The programming, ranging from the first-ever Romanian winner of the Palme d'Or, the 1956 "Short History" by Ion Popescu Gopo, to widely acclaimed 2007 productions such as "California Dreamin' (Endless)" by Cristian Nemescu and "The Rest is Silence" by Nae Caranfil, will demonstrate why Romanian film is winning over critics and audiences alike.

The Romanian Film Festival is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA) of UW-Madison, with the kind support of the UW Romanian student organization "From Romania."

Read more. Excerpts from the media:

• "The Romanian bunch have chosen to walk where angels fear to tread, adopting a sense of duty towards reality," critic Dimitri Eipides wrote in the notes at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. That's high praise indeed for a national filmmaking movement that, as Eipides wryly notes, features so few filmmakers that they would have a hard time fielding a football team.[...]That makes this a perfect time for Madison to host its second annual Romanian Film Festival this weekend.[...] Festival coordinator Elena Richard says she had been noticing that the Wisconsin Film Festival had been bringing in Romanian films over the past several years, including "Mr. Lazarescu" and "12:08 East of Bucharest," and audiences were coming out in droves to see them. The city seemed ripe for a Romanian Film Festival of its own... Read all: "Lucky us - Romanian films here this weekend"/ "Films at Romanian festival draw praise" by Rob Thomas, The Capital Times (March 05, 2008)
  

• “HAVE YOU SEEN THE ROMANIAN MOVIE?” This somewhat improbable question began to circulate around the midpoint of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. For some reason, the critics, journalists and film-industry hangers-on who gather in Cannes each May to gossip and graze rarely refer to the films they see there by their titles, preferring a shorthand of auteur, genre or country of origin (“the Gus Van Sant”; “the Chinese documentary”; “that Russian thing”). It’s a code that everyone is assumed to know, and in this case there was not much room for confusion. How many Romanian movies could there be?  More than most of us would have predicted as it turned out... Read all: New Wave on the Black Sea, a great 6-page article by A. Scott, The New York Times (January 20, 2008) 

• In 1966, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu sought to boost his nation's population by criminalizing abortion, declaring, "The fetus is the property of the entire society... anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity." 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a new film by director Cristian Mungiu, explores the ramifications of Ceausescu's ban two decades later; it's 1987 and two college women negotiate Bucharest's gloomy, paranoid black market in an effort to secure an abortion....  NPR's broadcast Fresh Air hosted by Terry Gross aired an interview with Romanian director Cristian Mungiu  Read all or listen the recording of the interview (NPR, February 7, 2008, 6:00 p.m.)

• Filmmaking hasn't changed much in almost 100 years if the events depicted in Nae Caranfil's enthralling period epic "The Rest Is Silence" are to be believed. Based on the true story of the making of a two-hour silent film titled "The Independence of Romania" in 1911, the colorful 140-minute production should be required viewing for moviemakers and movie buffs who wish to complete their cinema education... Read all: The Rest Is Silence. Bottom Line: Epic and romantic tale of filmmakers 100 years ago, by Ray Bennett,  Locarno International Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter (August 15, 2007)

• He said to me, "You're doing the reconstruction of a reconstruction!" In a way I'm in a position that is parallel to those making the original film. The difference is in the approach: I de-construct a reconstruction. I place the old film as a mirror in front of them to make them look at what they did. I wanted to confront them with the reality of those times and of this case, and of the whole manipulation that it generated.... Read all: Interview with Alexandru Solomon, BBC Four,  (May 7, 2004)

• The message from the Cannes Film Festival juries was clear: Romania rules. In its closing ceremony Sunday night, the festival bestowed two of its most important prizes on Romanian films, affirming the vitality of this recently emerging cinema... Read all: Romania rules at Cannes Film Festival, by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott, International Herald Tribune (May 27, 2007)

• The Cannes recognition is a special honor for Romania, which has deep cultural ties to France and a passion for cinema that thrived even during the rule of late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Romanians, whose language comes from the same romance family as French and Spanish, have also sought to set themselves apart from their Slavic neighbors, and the Cannes honor helped feed that effort. Read all: Success at Cannes film festival shines spotlight on Romania's burgeoning film industry, by The Associated Press, International Herald Tribune (May 29, 2007)
  

• "California Dreamin," by the late Romanian director Cristian Nemescu, has won the Iris Award, the top prize at the Brussels European Film Festival. The movie, a satire on the culture clash between American NATO troops and small-town Romanians during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, already won the 'Un Certain Regard' award at Cannes in May... Read all: Nemescu's Last Earns Brussels Award,  by Leo Cendrowicz, The Hollywood Reporter (July 10, 2007)

• No social criticism. No anti-government sentiments. No hatred. No superiority. Just honesty. Understanding. Love. Download pdf to read all: "Nemescu: The Life as a movie" by Cristian Lupşa. You need Adobe Reader to view the file. Originally published in Esquire Romania (September 2007) Scroll down this page to see original version in Romanian.
  

• Foremost among their concerns is the nature of the 1989 revolution. In "The Paper Will Be Blue," we learn how it went down, what it felt like to be there. In "12:08 East of Bucharest," we see the country years later, as people process the existential question: Was there, in fact, any real revolution, or change, in Romania? To that question, the film "California Dreamin' (Endless)" offers a partial answer: no. Thugs and corruption remain. Revolution is a process, not an event... Read all: Romanian Film's Crystalline Lens, by Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post (November 7, 2007)

• The Romanian Revolution of 1989 ended decades of oppressive rule by Communist despot Nicolae Ceausescu, but it took another dozen years before Romanian filmmakers finally found their voice and vision. As anyone knows who follows the state of world cinema, the Romanians represent the newest national film movement to catch fire.... Read all: Romania's Cinematic Revolution: Struggling Against the Past, by Anthony Kaufman, IndieWire (June 12, 2007)

• In 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a ferocious, unsentimental, often brilliantly directed film about a young woman who helps a friend secure an abortion, the camera doesn’t follow the action, it expresses consciousness itself... Read all: Friend Indeed Who Doesn’t Judge or Flinch by Manohla Dargis, The New York Times (January 25, 2008)

• BUCHAREST, ROMANIA - In the climax of Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," the main character, Otilia, frantically paces the dark streets of communist-era Bucharest. The camera tugs at her back, hurrying along as she turns sharp corners and stomps up the stairs of a Soviet-style apartment buildings – all engulfed in menacing darkness. More than a chilling portrait of 1980s malaise, the scene also serves as a metaphor for Romanian film circa 2000, when not a single local production was finished ("That was rock bottom," says movie critic Andrei Gorzo). Seven years later, it's one of the hottest cinema spots in the world, with "4, 3, 2" the latest in a slew of hits that snapped up nearly every conceivable European award... Read all: From Romania, a New Force in World Cinema, by Cristian Lupsa (December 28, 2007)

• Cold Mountain was shot there. So was Borat, in part. But most of us don't think of Romania as having a film life of its own. Our mistake, because this former Warsaw Pact country, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, has crawled its way to cinematic respectability, even greatness... Read all: Romanian Film Festival: A country with a camera, by Kent Williams, in Isthmus (March 07, 2008)
  

• The New York Times Magazine: Romanian cinema rising..  Listen.and watch five interactive analyses of Romanian films by A. O. Scott on the new wave of Romanian cinema, The New York Times Online  (January 20, 2008)

Read in Romanian:

• Restul e tacere. Pana la premiera de acasa (7 martie), filmul a insirat un festival dupa altul: Locarno, Namur, Pusan, Bruxelles, Varsovia, Salonic, New York, Luxemburg, Kars (Turcia) si Montpellier. Cineastul spune ca i-ar fi placut sa faca film la 1910, cand s-a realizat Independenta Romaniei. "Pietele se inventau si era loc pentru toata lumea; spiritul era unul de aventura."...Citeste tot: Nae Caranfil: “N-am mangaiat niciodata publicul in sensul blanii”, de Iulia Blaga, Romania Libera (February 7, 2008)

 

• Inainte ca 20.000 de mii de romani să vadă California Dreamin’ în cinematografe, inainte ca juriul de la Cannes sa dea cu regulile de perete si sa acorde premiul "Un Cértain Regard” acestui film „neterminat”, inainte ca justitia romana sa‑si bata joc de familia lui, inainte ca ziarele sa se intreaca in omagii patetice, inainte ca televiziunile sa stoarca lacrimi reluand imagini de la locul accidentului, inainte ca Media Pro, producatorii California, sa labarteze un banner in sediul ProTV pe care scria „Dumnezeu l-a vrut regizor”, inainte ca taxiul condus de Radu Arustei, in care se afla impreuna cu sunetistul Andrei Toncu, sa fie spulberat de un Porsche, Cristian Nemescu era usor nelinistit... Citeste tot: Cristian Nemescu - Viata ca un film, de Cristian Lupsa, Esquire, Romania (September 2007)

 

• Mihai Malaimare Jr. se bate cu colaboratorii lui Spielberg si Iñárritu pentru Premiul Independent Spirit. [...] Mihai Malaimare Jr. a primit cu mare surpriza vestea nominalizarii la Premiul Independent Spirit, pentru imaginea filmului Youth Without Youth de Francis Ford Coppola. "Nu numai ca nu ma asteptam la o nominalizare, dar nu ma asteptam sa-mi vad numele atat de curand alaturi de doi imensi operatori pe care-i admir: Janusz Kaminski si Rodrigo Prieto" ... Citeste tot: Si directorii de imagine urca pe val, de Iulia Blaga, Romania Libera (November 29, 2007)

• Începe proiecţia filmului. [...] În mai puţin de 10 secunde adoarme. [...] Are un execiţiu îndelungat, este evident. E sigur folosit ca afiş şi în relaţia cu alte cinematografii comparabile (bulgăreşti, tadjikistane, turceşti, nord-coreene etc.). Proiecţia se termină. Stă 2-3 secunde cu ochii închişi. Deschide ochii, se ridică, este exact atît de înalt cît este de calculat să fie, şi spune privindu-mă în ochi: Wonderful" - Lucian PINTILIE... Citeste 42 de articole: Filmul romanesc vazut de 42 de ochi, DILEMA VECHE, Anul IV, nr.165  (April 5, 2007)

 

• O pelicula psihologica densa si emotionanta, despre destine framantate de tradare si minciuna [Logodnicii din America], si o alta desprinsa din realitati cotidiene dramatice, pe care le-am traversat cu totii [Schimb valutar]. Regizorul Nicolae Margineanu a incheiat recent filmarile la prima pelicula si a intrat in productie cu cea de-a doua... Citeste tot: Intre doua filme, despre tradare si disperare in Romania, interviu cu Nicolae Margineanu, de Pascal Ilie Virgil (October 6, 2006)

Romanian films (with English subtitles) available now on DVD in Madison:

- Ryna, Dir: Ruxandra Zenide; Switzerland/ Romania 2005, Drama
- The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Dir: Cristi Puiu; 2005, Drama
@ BARNES AND NOBLE, EAST (#1 East Towne Mall, Madison, WI 53704)
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