Lucian's Blog

Soem years ago almost all Romanians wathced movies only on DVD in their homes. With the arrival of cinema multiplexes and cinema halls, Romanians turned to see movies again. But what happened?

First, during communism (a period so well portrayed in numerous recent Romanian movies), the state controlled all the productions. The country's cinema board aproved a certain amount of movies to be made inside a certain time interval, many of which were propagandistic. After being aproved, a movie's fate was still depending on the moods of the censorship. There are numerous cases of movies ready to be screened, but never to be seen because the communist censor board had forbidden them. It is the case of "Reconstituirea", "De ce trag clopotele, Mitica?" or " Concurs" They were seen as a threat by communists, who thought they are damaging the official communist policy towards culture. In 1984, Ceausescu stated his views about the future cultural movement in Romania, declaring from that moment on, only movies with a communist theme must be sustained and produced. His statement had come after a visit in China and North Korea, which inspired him this idea. Propaganda movies, films with engineers and teachers heading for village communities to implement communist ideals, movies about the great technological and construction achievement, about the great historical past of the country (in this case the script was careful enough to underline the emerging communist ides in the mentality of the past rulers) flooded the cinemas. In order to have an audience, children and pupils, along with batalions of workers were obliged to go to these movies, thus demonstrating the support the people had offered to these movies.

After 1989, the movie attendance plunged. During 1990 and 1998, only a handful of movies were produced in a year, with reduced audiences. People turned to foreign movies or did not attend any cinemas. Moreover, because they were not sustained by a lucrative industry, the cinemas degraded and were used for other purposed or were simply left to decay.

Still, there were some stars rising during these years. But the great development was reached only a few years ago. First, in Cluj-Napoca, in the heart of Transylvania, a group of ethusiasts had established TIFF (Transylvania Film Festival). The festival reached to an young audience who wanted to see their thoughts and lifestyle portrayed in movies. Over the years, TIFF became a beacon for the new cinematic movement.

Encouraged by the audiences, but ignored by the National Council for Cinematography, the movie directors assumed the role of saviors of Romanian cinema. Cristi Puiu (winner in 2006 Cannes Festival, section "Un Certain regard"), Cristi Porumboiu (winner in TIFF 2006), Cristi Mungiu (winner of "Palm d'Or" 2007, also greatly apreciated for his film "Occident"), Tudor Giurgiu (with his "Dangerous Liaisons") or Catalin Mitulescu (with "How Did I Spent The End Of The World"), Cristi Nemescu (with his short movies and his first and last feature movie "California Dreamin'" imposed a new perspective (one might say "un certain regard") in Romanian cinema. The public returned to give their support to the new faces and new themes. But is it enough?

The answer is certainly "not". The National Council for Cinematography is still a very slow-going enterprise, with an birocratic aparatus very slow to react to new ideas. The board of the council is formed by ancient communist directors, a part of the corrupt administration appointed by the governments after 1989. They use the funding they get (insufficient each year) to finance movies with a certain orientation. They refused several scripts and projects that targeted the political orientation of Romania after the Revolution and had a special "clientelle". Long story short: the resorts that worked during communist are still very much alive today.

Romania cannot sustain a private movie industry without the infrastructure needed to makje things work. Almost all successful productions mentioned above were made possible by the enthusiasm of the directors named (Cristi Mungiu said in a recent interview that he used personal objects in order to decorate the sets in "4 Moths, 3Weeks and 2 Days", Cristi Porumboiu relied entirely on the financial and logistic support of his father, a weathy business man, in producing "13:05, East of Bucharest"). Without the implication of foreign producers (as in the case of "How Did I Spent The End Of The World", produced by Martin Scorsese) or the state institutions, the recent sucesses the young generation had in Cannes will not be seconded in the years to come.

Lucian Dragos