Pittsburgh Romanian Studies
Romanian Film Series at
the University of
Pittsburgh
Organized
by PRS with the support of the Center for Russian and East European Studies
(CREES) at the University
of Pittsburgh. The films
will be in Romanian with English subtitles and they will be briefly introduced
and followed by free discussions. Admission is free and refreshments will be
provided by the organizers.
Friday, April 3, 2009.
4 LUNI, 3 SAPTAMANI, 2 ZILE (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS)
Directed by Cristian Mungiu (2007)
“In ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,’ a ferocious, unsentimental, often brilliantly directed film about a young woman who helps a friend secure an abortion, the camera doesn’t follow the action, it expresses consciousness itself. This consciousness is embodied by a young university student who, one wintry day in the late 1980s, helps her roommate with an abortion in Ceausescu’s Romania when such procedures were illegal, not uncommon and too often fatal. It’s a pitiless, violent story that in its telling becomes a haunting and haunted intellectual and aesthetic achievement.” – The New York Times
Click here for details.
Friday, November 21st,
2008.
CUM
MI-AM PETRECUT SFARSITUL LUMII (HOW I SPENT THE END OF THE WORLD)
Directed by Catalin
Mitulescu
(2006), 106 mins.
A Romanian schoolgirl finds her life forever changed when she
accidentally knocks over a bust of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in director Catalin Mitulescu's
tragic-comic coming-of-age tale. The year is 1989, and the suffocating grip of
despot Ceausescu is slowly loosening as the result of rising civil unrest.
After pretty Eva (Doroteea Petre) and her rebellious boyfriend Alex (Ionut
Becheru) inadvertently send a statue of Ceausescu tumbling to the ground, she
is exiled to a bleak reformatory institution while he is let off with a stern
warning due to his father's strong Communist party ties. It is at her new
school that Eva makes the acquaintance of the disarmingly disobedient Andrei
(Cristian Vararu), a boy whose dissident parents are nowhere to be found. As
Andrei and Eva hatch a daring plan to swim to freedom across the Danube, Eva's
deeply embittered seven-year-old brother Lalalilu (Timotei Duma)
conspires with his two best friends (Marius Stan and Marian Stoica)
to assassinate the notoriously brutal Ceausescu during a national celebration
in which the three youngsters are set to sing in a children's choir. ~ Jason
Buchanan, All Movie Guide (New York Times)
TIME: 7pm
PLACE: Frick
Fine Arts Auditorium, University
of Pittsburgh
Friday,
December 1st, 2006.
MOARTEA DOMNULUI LAZARESCU (THE DEATH OF MISTER LAZARESCU)
Directed
by Cristi Puiu (2005),
153 minutes.
After
suffering terrible headaches and stomach cramps that he can no longer bare, Mr.
Lăzărescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) calls for
an ambulance, beginning one mans poignant journey through Bucharest hospitals in search of proper
medical care. His lone ally, medic Mioara (Luminta Gheorghiu), admirably fights
for his life with compassion and decency. However, cursed with viciously ironic
luck and fumes of alcohol on his breath, Mr. Lazarescu is treated with scorn,
indifference and little else as he slips deeper into oblivion.
The film
received more than 20 awards, among which:
Time: 6 P.M.
Place: 4130 WW Posvar Hall,
University of Pittsburgh.
Thursday, March 23, 2006.
FURIA (THE RAGE)
Directed by Radu Muntean (2002), 84 minutes
In order to
enter the illegal car-racing circuit, Luca, a regular neighborhood guy, and his
friend Felie, a mechanic, borrow some money from Gabonu, a gypsy who, among
other things, controls the betting on the car-racing. Though he has agreed to
do so, Luca forgets to lose a race. The betting system collapses and the gypsy
ends up having lost a lot of money. Luca and Felie have 24 hours to pay him
back $7,000. In a city of gypsy songs, drugs and infernal car races, you
survive only if you know how to pay; and sometimes the price is somebody elses
life. An ironic look at a society run by small nothings and big cash. The film
examines the dangerous consequences society has to face because of its criminal
organisations. It is made in a quasi documentary style which is also
underscored by excellent performances from non-actors in the roles of gangster
types.
Time: 6
P.M.
Place: 4130
WW Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh.
Wednesday, January 18,
2006.
FILANTROPICA (PHILANTHROPY)
Directed by Nae Caranfil (2002), 110
minutes
Awards:
2002 Mons International Festival of Love Films - Young European Jury Award
2002 Paris Film Festival - Audience Award
2002 Wiesbaden
go East - Special Jury Award
2003 Wurzburg International Film weekend - Audience Award
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place:
4130 WW Posvar Hall.