17 February 2008
4 Months, 3 weeks and 2 days. How I Celebrated the End of the World. 12:08, East of Bucharest... Romanian movies have been flooding the international film festivals lately. Is this a coincidence or can we see a pattern? And how does the Romanian audience respond to this success?
The current golden era of Romanian cinema started several years ago with successful short films, gradually followed by strong debuts and more and more international recognition for long feature films –from film critics and audiences alike. As is often the case with movements like this, the Romanian New Wave seems to have arrived out of nowhere, leaving people to wonder about its secret. Trying to sum up and characterize this success is virtually impossible, as even the Romanian filmmakers themselves are not very keen on being labeled by this phenomenon; they consider themselves more as individual artists than as representatives of a vaguely described ‘New Wave’. Nevertheless, the facts are obvious: quite a lot of Romanian movies have achieved various international prizes in recent years, the most prestigious one probably being Cristian Mungius Palme D'Or in 2007 for his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days . Nowadays the Romanian cinema is witnessing its greatest success ever and it is for sure the leading film industry of the former Eastern European countries.
After having done a few short films Mungiu made his feature film debut with the black comedy Occident in 2002. It consists of three parts in which a few characters are connected by a common dream: emigration to a more prosperous - Western - country. This was some years before Romania became a member of the EU, but the theme is still quite popular and appears in films every now and again. The success of Occident was due to the directors craftsmanship to intertwine different characters and their stories. In this way, putting the puzzles together, Mungiu has been playing with the characters as well as with his viewers expectations. The movie was entertaining and very well made, but nobody could have suspected that this would be the beginning of a new development of Romanian cinema.
Almost simultaneously, in 2001, another Romanian debut contributed to the foundation of international fame. Cristi Puiu directed a small film, a road movie: Stuff and Dough . This film was made in co-operation with screenwriter Razvan Radulescu, who appeared later on as well, on the credits of very successful films like Love Sick by Tudor Gurgiu, The Paper Will Be Blue and Boogie by Radu Muntean and last but not least The Death of Mr.Lazarescu by the same Cristi Puiu. By winning the Un Certain Regard Award in 2005 these final hours of a dying man in Bucharest became the international breakthrough for Romanian cinema.
The Romanian New Wave grew bigger with more successful films and more talented filmmakers. The year 2006 gave us an unusual appearance of the recent Romanian history in three movies. Three different films with totally different approaches towards the Romanian revolution of 1989 were: Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08 East of Bucharest, where the revolution is being reviewed after sixteen years in a humorous way, Radu Muntean'ss The Paper Will Be Blue, which was actually a reconstruction of the night of 22-23 December -after the fall of the dictator Ceausescu, and Catalin Mitulescus How I Spent The End of the World , an original story of young people breaking a bust of the dictator by coincidence, which was successfully presented at Un Certain Regard in 2006 and received a prize for actress Doroteea Petre. In 2007 there was the posthumous succes for the film California Dreamin' , made by the late Cristian Nemescu, who tragically died in a car accident.
This year the new movie Boogie by Radu Muntean already appeared in Cannes, Radu Jude's film Happiest Girl In the World awaits its festival premiere and Cristian Mungiu is finishing the post-production of the omnibus of five short films Tales of the Golden Age by different directors. Screenwriter Lucian Georgescu just finished the shooting of his debut, just as the already mentioned Razvan Radulescu has been editing his directorial debut. It seems that the famous Romanian New Wave has not reached its horizon yet; still we do not know the key to this successful story.
It should be noted however that the success of the Romanian film makers is more international than national. In the fascinating city of Bucharest, with its architecture reminiscent of the good old days of the city, there used to be many crowded cinemas; at present they are all closed or turned into shabby shops. A sad story, since in the ‘golden’ days for cinema, the sixties, people used to go to the movies every weekend and with their whole family. Nowadays Romania is a country with one of the lowest cinema attendance in Europe – 0,2 times a year per capita – and the boom of Romanian film is much better known to the world than to the domestic audience.
The good news though is, that the country has got a few film festivals which are showcases, not only for the international, but also for the Romanian film production. Maybe the most important of them, as seen through the eyes of the film industry professionals, is the famous Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj Napoca, existing for seven years now. Another one, younger and totally different in its character, is the Anonimul International Film Festival in the Danube Delta, which concentrates more on Romanian spectators than on the international prestige. Even though it is still in the process of development and looking for its most suitable dramaturgy, the main goal of bringing quality films and prestigious guests together seems to work already.
Furthermore, this festival is located in the marvelous nature of the Danube Delta and certainly takes place with respect towards the environment. Especially for this festival, a wooden village has been built up here. Films can be seen in the two cinemas of the village and during the open air screenings at night in the neighboring camp site. Romanian people seem to have embraced this festival and enjoy coming here in the middle of summer. Time will tell whether they will embrace Romanian cinema as well.
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