The Grammar of the New Romanian Cinema

Abstract

In order to identify a common language of the of Romanian directors and to find a definition of a grammar for the Romanian moviemaking, we need to look for the paradigmatic codes of this type of cinema. Discussing the definitions given to this cinematographic phenomenon, remarkable by the multiple awards received in the last decade on film festivals, this paper identifies several traits which make the new wave in the Romanian cinema fundamentally a European Wave. If there is a new-new-wave in the Romanian cinema, this has a common style and aesthetics. The author is looking for the grammatical characteristics of several contemporary Romanian authors, offering a general description of its commonalities. In the last decade the Romanian Cinema has become one of the most important movements in European moviemaking, its international success and its recognition by the media and by several festival juries was considered somewhat of a revelation. Increasingly, Romanian cinema studios offered a place for cheap moviemaking for both consecrated Romanian directors established in the West (like Lucian Pintilie, Radu Gabrea or Florin Mihaileanu) to make their movies here, with the technical support of local production teams, and for some of the most important directors in the West (and from the US), like Francis Ford Coppola, Anthony Minghella, Costa Gavras or even Sacha Baron Cohen, who filmed their movies on location in Romania. More recently the Romanian cinematographic infrastructure is providing resources for other European moviemakers to develop their own productions (as was the case with the movie made by the German director, Didi Danquart, whose story was written by Cristi Puiu, or in the case of Tudor Giurgiu, who has produced Peter Strickland's movie, Katalin Varga (2009). Some Romanian moviemakers, like Nae Caranfil, were already working and living in the West for some years now - for example Caranfil was directing Dolce far niente (1998), a European collaborative project (financed by production companies like Sintra, K2, France 2 Cinema, CNC,

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