Beginning of the cinema and communist period
In 1896, the premises of the French-language newspaper L'Indépendance roumaine hosted the Lumière brothers' first film screenings. It was in 1912 that Grigore Brezeanu later signed the first major Romanian film, Independence of Romania, an evocation of the 1877-1878 war against the Turks. During the 1930s, Romanian cinema underwent a significant development due to the passion of certain amateurs, at the same time as the introduction of state subsidies which accompanied the creation of the country's first studios opened in Bucharest and the beginning of international recognition. Thus, at the Venice Film Festival, as early as 1939, the Romanian film by Paul Călinescu Țara Moților (The Land of the Moți) is awarded the prize for best documentary. During the communist period, the state controls everything and injects a lot of money into the film industry. Huge studios are opened north of Bucharest, in Buftea. Films, documentaries and cartoons (a great Romanian speciality) were shot there, for national needs, for the promotion of the regime. The films are strictly controlled and even censored. Nevertheless, a very large number of films were made and, as early as 1957, the National Film Archive was set up. At the same time, more than 6,000 cinemas opened across the country, which seems to have been won over by the cinema virus. From 1960 onwards, Romanians flocked to cinemas in droves. Cinema is cheap and films and documentaries are more interesting than the one soporific local television channel. Productions from other Eastern European countries are imported to complement Romanian programming. So it's not Walt Disney and manga that children dream about at Ceaușescu, but local cartoons, Czech (cartoons or children's films like Arabella), Russian (The Wolf and the Rabbit) or Polish (Lolek i Bolek). Many films from the Ceaușescu era are inspired by national literary works and exalt Romanian heroes in the form of historical frescoes.
1960-1990: the turning point
The first real international success was a production by Liviu Ciulei, Pădurea spânzuraților (La Forêt des pendus, 1965), which won an award at Cannes. Other films (cartoons, documentaries) followed in Cannes. One of the most popular directors is Sergiu Nicolaescu, with his action films. After 1989, the country lacked the means to put the ideas of its many directors on reels. From 28 feature films shot in 1989, the number had risen to 2 in 1998! During this period, only two films won international awards: those of Dan Pița, Hôtel de luxe (1992), and Lucian Pintilie, Terminus Paradis (1998). This work by Lucian Pintilie (a director already famous in the 1970s) received the Special Jury Prize of Venice in 1998. His film Un été inoubliable (1993, with Kristin Scott Thomas, Claudiu Bleonț and Olga Tudorache), the story of a border garrison, was already unanimously acclaimed at the time. The work was inspired by a short story by Petru Dumitriu, La Salade. The end of the 1990s brought the arrival of American productions, which massively stifled local production. Romania thus became a film set. Thanks to its two biggest studios, Castel Films in Snagov and Mediapro in Buftea (located near Bucharest), Romania has attracted countless foreign film shoots since the end of the 1990s, some of which are very well known. With a huge stock of costumes and props dating back to the communist regime, these studios also have a well-trained and inexpensive workforce (actors, technicians). Now at Buftea, in order not to become a mere relocation location for big European and American productions, the studio hopes to produce more and more Romanian films that are on the rise.
The Romanian New Wave
Since the 2000s, a new generation of very prolific and talented young Romanian directors has emerged. Led by Cristi Puiu, this generation is earning the nickname of the "Romanian New Wave". In films that are often minimalist, with a strong sense of black humour, these directors explore the torments of Romanian society, which has entered into capitalism on the same level, through the singular story of ordinary citizens. In 2004, Cristi Puiu directed The Death of Dante Lăzărescu. The film won a prize in the "Un certain regard" selection at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. In 2007, director Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d'Or for his excellent film 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, paving the way for international recognition. The film is a performance without equivalent in the history of Romanian cinematography. Other films from this period include 12:08 in Bucharest (2006) by Corneliu Porumboiu, How I Celebrated the End of the World (2006) by Cătălin Mitulescu and California Dreamin by Cristian Nemescu. Winner of a prize at Cannes in the "Un certain regard" selection, this caustic film tells the story of an American intervention in Kosovo. The high-profile Franco-Romanian director Radu Mihăileanu has won numerous awards for his films Train de vie (1998) and Va, vis et deviens (2005). In 2009, he released Le Concert, an extravagant tragi-comedy about a group of Russian musicians who come to play at the Châtelet Theatre, posing as the Bolshoi orchestra. 2015 and 2016 are very good years for the Romanian seventh art. Radu Muntean directs The Floor Below, a brilliant thriller that was nominated eight times at the Cannes Film Festival. Cristi Puiu returns in force with Sieranevada (2016), a work about settling scores and family stories in Bucharest in 2015, in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival that year. The same year, director Bogdan Mirică released Dogs, a sort of western in remote Romania, which won the Fipresci Prize at Cannes. Cristian Mungiu directs Baccalaureate (2016), a touching story about education and corrupt Romanian society through the lives of a father and his daughter. The film won the Director's Award at Cannes the same year.
Land of inspiration for international cinema
Fascinated by Romania, especially as the land of a rich Romany culture that is in some ways a sister of the one he himself is the heir of (the Gypsy culture), French director Tony Gatlif is known for searching, in different countries, for the contrasting avatars of the Gypsy people. Around this quest, he creates in his films an intimate atmosphere through the exuberance of his characters. In Romania, Gatlif shot Gadjo Dilo in 1998 with Romain Duris, then Transylvania in 2006 with Asia Argento. To make these films, Gatlif travels all over the country to immerse himself in its traditions, music and folklore. Sensitive to the mix of communities that exist in the country and in search of the soul of the Gypsy people, he chooses to follow characters with a strong temperament. In often recognizable settings, some scenes from the film Transylvania were shot in particular at Sighișoara or in the region of Maramureș. Tony Gatlif's films bring a romantic vision of the country and of the Romany culture in particular. In 2005, director Isabelle Mergault flew to Romania for the film Je vous trouve très beau with Michel Blanc and Medeea Marinescu in the lead roles. This touching work tells the story of the meeting between Aymé (Blanc), a gruff French farmer, and the young Romanian girl Elena (Marinescu), through a marriage agency. This sensitive film won the César for Best Debut Film in 2007. In 2018, Belgian director Marta Bergman returns to the subject of arranged marriages in the very good Seule à mon mariage. This work shot between Belgium and Romania tells the story of Pamela, a young mother living in a small hut with her grandmother and baby, dreaming of freedom and adventure. Her adventures take her to Belgium, where Pamela hopes to change her destiny. In 2020, the film is nominated in three categories at the Magritte du Cinéma ceremony in Belgium, and leaves with the prize for best costume.
On the small screen
As far as TV programmes are concerned, Romania does not demerit and offers us three unpublished works, starting with the series Las Fierbinți. This series, on Romanian screens since 2012, places its plot in the small village of Fierbinți and shows us the life of its inhabitants. Mainly known for its poor quality, the programme nevertheless attracts 2 million viewers per episode and inspires Hungary and Slovakia to make their own versions (A mi kis falunk for Hungary and Horná Dolná for Slovakia). On a completely different note, let us mention the series Umbre (Shadows, 2014) produced by HBO Europe. Shot like a film, Umbre tells the story of a broke taxi driver who decides to do business with the mafia to make ends meet. Unfortunately, a tragic event turns the driver upside down and he tries by all means to get out of this dangerous environment. Shot in Bucharest in just 70 days, the series brings together no less than 900 local extras, with HBO assuming that a work whose plot takes place in a certain country (in this case Romania) must be produced authentically in the country. Let's finish with Comrade Detective (2017), the most Romanian American series seen to date. Indeed, directed by Brian Gatewood and produced by the giant Amazon this time, this series is inspired by the American action programs of the 1980s and presents the episodes as a Romanian lost series commissioned by the communists to promote their ideals during the Cold War. Each episode of the series is therefore shot in Romania, with local actors, then dubbed in English (the two main characters are dubbed by Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levit).
