Bucharest Stories: New Films from Romania
National Gallery of Art
in cooperation with the Romanian Cultural Institute, New York
and with the support of the Embassy of Romania , Washington

East Building Auditorium
4 th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
November 16 through December 30, 2007     first-come, first-seated

The Paper Will Be Blue

November 16 at 4:00, November 18 at 4:00

“From an armored squadron patrolling the sedate Bucharest suburbs to an impetuous soldier who need not search too hard for the battle he craves, The Paper Will Be Blue strikingly recreates the emotions that boiled over during the Romanian revolution. An adept blend of docudrama and wry humor, told from a memorably ground-level point of view”— Seattle Film Festival. (Radu Muntean, 2006, 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles, 95 minutes)

12:08 East of Bucharest

preceded by short Humanitarian Aid

November 25 at 4:00

Following December 22, 1989 —the day Romania 's Stalinist tyrant Ceausescu was executed—there was no real consensus about what actually transpired that day. With unassuming, tongue-in-cheek humor, 12:08 East of Bucharest offers a resolutely proletarian yet satirical view of Romania's recent past as local talk show host Jderescu (Teo Corban) tries to solicit answers to the question, “Was there, or was there not, a revolution in our town?” (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006, 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles, 89 minutes)

Death of Mr. Lazarescu

December 1 at 2:00

A retired engineer shares his dour Bucharest apartment with three cats. One night he becomes ill and calls an ambulance. There is no hospital, however, willing to accept him and, as the night wears on, his condition gets worse. This seemingly bleak scenario, awarded Un Certain Regard at the 2005 Festival de Cannes , depicts a universal theme—death and hospitals—with humanity and dark humor. (Cristi Puiu, 2005, 35 mm Romanian with subtitles, 150 minutes)

California Dreamin'

December 8 at 2:30 , December 15 at 2:30

Lauded at this year's Festival de Cannes, director Cristian Nemescu (tragically killed in a crash before the film's final post-production) was inspired by an event that had occurred in the late 1990s during the Kosovo war. A village station master in a Bucharest suburb blocks a train filled with military equipment and American marines for lack of legitimate customs papers. The scenario unfolds over the course of several days, as village locals mingle with the stranded troops. Pascale Ferran, awarding the film top prize for Cannes ' Un Certain Regard said “ far and above, California Dreamin' is the most lively and liberated film proposal we've seen in our entire ten days.” (Cristian Nemescu, 2007, 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles, 150 minutes)

The Great Communist Bank Robbery

December 15 at 1:00

A strange robbery at the Romanian National Bank in 1959 triggered a massive police search. When the alleged burglars were caught and arrested, they re-enacted their crime for a television film in which they played themselves. Although evidence suggests the criminals believed they would be spared the death sentence by appearing in the film, their reality was otherwise. (Alexandru Solomon, 2004, 70 minutes)

The Way I Spent the End of the World

December 16 at 4:00

Set during the final months of Ceausescu's Communist dictatorship, The Way I Spent the End of the World portrays the daily lives of radiant young Eva, her brother, and her boyfriend as they grapple with coming-of-age issues. Eva's woes, though largely a consequence of her personal and family relationships, are still shaped by the era in which she is living. Actress Dorotheea Petre's luminous performance won the best actress award in the 2006 Un Certain Regard division of the Cannes Festival. (Catalin Mitulescu, 2006, 35 mm, 106 minutes)

The Reenactment
also Tertium non datur

December 23 at 4:00

Upon its completion in the late 1960s, The Reenactment was banned because, according to one critic, “It was dominated by a sense of the tragic . . . and nourished by a profound civil and cultural awareness.” Ripu and Vuica are students who celebrate one evening by drinking too much. They attack the bar owner and break a window. Days later a policeman, a judge, and a film crew take them to the crime scene—instead of spending time in jail, they will work as actors in a state-sponsored documentary about alcoholism. (Lucian Pintilie, 1968, 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles, 106 minutes)

     Pintilie describes his new short film Tertium non datur as “a tragicomic parable about the integration of the poorest of the poor, tormented by complexes, into the fiction we provisionally call Europe .” (Lucian Pintilie, 2006, 35 mm, Romanian, German, and French with subtitles, 39 minutes)

Occident

preceded by short C Block Story

December 29 at 2:30

An early work by Cristian Mungiu (the recent Cannes Palme d'Or winner), Occident is a narrative triptych connected by overlapping settings and by the premise that many young Romanians are departing for the West (the Occident) searching for a better life. The characters are sensitive and sometimes capricious and, to the outsider, encompass a snapshot of daily life in Bucharest . “It's unusual to come across a script so accomplished. Cristian's strength clearly lies in his writing”—Neil Young. (Cristian Mungiu, 2002, 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles, 105 minutes)

Short Films from Romania

December 30 at 2:00

Creativity in the recent Romanian new wave has not been limited to works of feature length. Displaying a flair for the shorter form, this program includes the following works: Cigarettes and Coffee (Cristi Puiu, 2004, 13 minutes); Traffic (Catalin Mitulescu, 2004, 15 minutes); The Apartment (Constantin Popescu, 2004, 20 minutes; The Tube with a Hat (Radu Jude, 2006, 23 minutes); and Liviu's Dream (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2004, 39 minutes). All films are 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles.

The Rest is Silence

December 30 at 4:30

In 1911 Bucharest was the “ Paris of the East.” Grand receptions, lavish lifestyles, and luxuriant architecture were all central to the city's existence. If theater was the preferred art form, the city's nascent cinemas were still holding their own. In the midst of Bucharest 's theatrical life lives Grig, a would-be film director for the French-based Gaumont company. Grig manages to alienate his famous father, a celebrated Romanian stage actor who only has contempt for the new cinemas. The lavishly styled The Rest is Silence vividly recreates turn-of-the-century Bucharest and the turbulence of the early film industry. (Nae Caranfil, 2007, 35 mm, Romanian with subtitles, 140 minutes)