Romanian Cinema was started five months after the Lumiere Brothers had the first film exhibition in Paris showcasing there invention of the Cinematographer. On May 27th 1896 a group from the Lumiere Brothers screened the first films in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Soon after the screenings, The French filmmaker Paul Menu shot the first film set in the country, “The Royal Parade on 10 May 1897”. The film showed a military parade in the centre of Bucharest lead by his Majesty the King Carol I and escorted by his General Staff and the foreign military attachés. When the excitement of filming in Romania died down the filmmaker Paul Menu sold his camera to the head Neurologist in the country, Gheorghe Marinescu. Marinescu made short medical films from 1898-1899 which included the first recorded scientific film “Walking Difficulties in Organic Hemiplegia”.
During the next 20 years Romania would start making fiction films the first of those being “Amor fatal (Fatal Love Affair)” directed by Grigore Brezeanu in 1911 with help from the Bucharest National Theatre. Leon Popescu was a pivotal figure in Romanian Cinema as he was the owner of a Cinema and had ties to the countries rich. Popescu saw the potential as well as the importance of Romanian Cinema and produced many acclaimed films including:
Independența României (The independence of Romania) in 1912
Amorurile unei prințese (The Love Affair of a Princess) in 1913
Răzbunarea (Revenge) in 1913
Viorica in 1913
Urgia cerească (The Sky-borne Disaster) in 1913
Cetatea Neamțului (The German’s Citadel) in 1913
When sound films begun in the western world Romania was having a hard time making films at all. With the lack of support, funding and training the fewer and fewer films were being made every year. With the inclusion of sound it only became harder for Romania to make films. From 1930-1939 only 16 films were made in the country. The country tried to reestablish the industry with a 1934 law creating a National Cinema Fund to help fund films made in Romania. After the law was created the industry started back up and had a large boost with the success with audiences and critics of Ion Șahighian’s film “O noapte de pomină (An Unforgettable Night)” made in 1939. Another successful film was the documentary “Țara Moților (Moților Land)”,the first documentary in Romania and winning a prize at the 1938 Venice Film Festival.
After World War 2 Romania commenced a new era with the nationalization of the cinema industry following the expand of the Soviet union. This time in Romania is known as the “period of socialist cinema”. Films were made with little or none creative freedom and many depicted political ideology and over showed the working class and its strength. The end of communism came in 1989 allowing filmmakers to exercise their own creative freedom. The start of the New Wave in Romanian Cinema is highly disputed upon but the most common answer is the release of “The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu”, directed by Cristi Puiu in 2005. Romania is now deep in their new wave making films with realistic as well as abstract stories and the creative freedom to make films however they want.
Romanian Cinema 