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The first cinema
projections in Romania, of Lumiere films, took place on May
27,1896, five months after their Parisian premiere, in the
editorial offices of the newspaper of French expression
Independence Roumaine in Bucharest. In 1897 the first Romanian
newsreels were produced and in 1912 they completed the first
representative Romanian feature film, Independenta Romaniei
(Romanias Independence), a story on the Romanian armies
participation in the 1877-1878 Russian-Romanian-Turkish War. The
scarce financial resources accounted for the utterly sporadic
national film production during the period between the two world
wars, but the public was offered instead the newest West
European and American films. The first Romanian film to enter an
international competition (the Venice Festival) was Paul
Calinescus documentary The Land of Moti , in 1939.
Tribute to Edward G. Robinson
In 1904, as a
10-year-old Romanian Jewish immigrant named Manny
Goldenberg, he was debating whether to become a rabbi or a
lawyer. Instead, to our good fortune as movie fans, he
became Edward G. Robinson, the movie star.
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Dracula
(1931)
Béla Lugosi
was the stage name of actor Béla Ferenc (October
20, 1882 – August 16, 1956). He was born in Lugos,
(now Lugoj, Romania). The blue-eyed actor is best
known for his portrayal of Dracula in the American
Broadway stage production, and subsequent film, of
Bram Stoker's classic vampire story.
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After World War
II, with the nationalization of the film-making industry (1948),
the communist state imposed its absolute control over film
production and distribution. Three large Studios were
established: one for feature films at Buftea, near Bucharest,
another one for documentaries and a third one for cartoons. The
introduction of state subsidies enabled the diversification of
the film production (as many as 20-30 feature films were
produced early in the 1970s), the number of cinema halls
increased from 338 (1938) to over 6,000 in the 1970s, and that
of spectators from 41 million in 1938 to 190-200 million per
year in the 80s. The national film production was joined in the
1970s by 120-140 films imported every year, mainly from Central
and East European states. The National Film Archives were
established in 1957.
The first films
of the postwar period were marked by the insufficient experience
in the field and also by a stifling censorship. The first
notable film was produced in 1957: The Lucky Mill , by
director Victor Iliu (1912-1968). In 1965, The Forest of the
Hanged , the third film by director Liviu Ciulei (who later
switched to theatre, starting an international career), was
awarded the best director prize in Cannes. Those two films
brought on screen two classical writings, the only area in which
the interference of the political was less resented by communist
censorship. The films directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu were a great
box-office success. Notable successes were obtained also in the
area of cartoons, the founder of which was I. Popescu-Gopo
(1923-1989), who won the Grand Prix in Cannes in 1957 for his Short
History .
After the
collapse of communism, the much coveted freedom of creation
could not be turned to best account in this field because of the
general economic crisis, the rise in production costs and the
dramatic fall in state subsidies. No sooner had the Romanian
film overcome a state of crisis, than it entered another type of
crisis. The competition created by foreign films (mainly
American ones), brought over by a powerful private distribution
network, and the great spread of cable television, account for
the shrinking number of spectators of Romanian films. In the
1990s film production has diminished to 10-12 feature films per
year, the number of cinema halls and of seats has dramatically
fallen and the number of film goers went down from a peak 211
million in 1988 to 130 million in 1990 and to only 12.5 million
in 1996. A prominent role today is played by directors who have
already produced notable films: Lucian Pintilie (Reconstruction
, 1970; Terminus Paradis , Special Jury Prize at the Film
Festival in Venice in 1998), Mircea Daneliuc (Microphone Test
, 1981), Dan Pita (who received the Silver Lion trophy at the
Film Festival in Venice in 1992 for his Luxury Hotel ),
Radu Gabrea, who returned to the country after 1990, or by young
directors who are earning a name for themselves at present, like
Nae Caranfil or Radu Mihaileanu. |
