Romanian Film Series 10th Entry at Film Society

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 20 November 2015 16:05

Written by Jack Angstreich

Aliyah Dada

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will be showcasing its tenth edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, co-presented with the Romanian Film Initiative, from December 2nd through the 7th at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St, NY, NY). The emergence of such remarkable directors as Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu and Cornelius Porumboiu (whose latest film, The Treasure, screens on Saturday, December 5th) has thrust Romania into the spotlight that Taiwan, Iran, and South Korea, for example, have emerged into, in recent decades.

This series is a welcome opportunity to see some of the best films that have emerged from the current milieu, as well as providing an opportunity to encounter work by neglected figures of the past — the current program will include a retrospective of veteran director Mircea Daneliuc, who will be appearing in person for a Q&A following the screening of his 1993 feature, Intimate Bed, presented in DCP at the Walter Reade on Wednesday December 2nd at 7pm, the Opening Night selection.

The director Radu Muntean is another significant personage in Romania’s New Wave; his latest feature, the excellent and disquieting, One Floor Below, portrays the quotidian world of a middle-aged man — sensitively played in a masterful performance by Teodor Corban — who withholds crucial information from the police concerning a murder investigation. Shot in an episodic, neorealist style and featuring superb naturalistic performances, this film eschews classical construction with a minimal reliance on close-ups, even if it resists the formal austerity often found in the work of his contemporaries. One Floor Below is notable for the ambiguity and open-endedness of its story’s presentation: the characters’ motivations are not explained and the viewer is encouraged to form his own conclusions about the events that transpire. The film screens at the Walter Reade on Thursday, December 3rd at 9pm and on Friday, December 4th at 4:30pm.

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