Lucian Pintilie

  • Lucian Pintilie – Balanta AKA The Oak (1992)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaLucian PintilieRomania

    Quote:
    In 1988, Nela, a young schoolteacher, tries to carry out the will of her late father, an officer of the Securitate (Ceausescu’s secret police) who wants his body to be used for medical research. She decides to leave Bucharest to teach in a small provincial town, where she meets Mitica, a doctor at the hospital who is obsessed with saving the life of a Christlike patient whom the authorities wish to let die. They both share an odd sense of humor and see themselves as kindred spirits, but their relationship produces less than welcome results. The Oak is a vivid look at Romania before Ceausescu’s downfall.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – De ce trag clopotele, Mitica? AKA Why Are the Bells Ringing, Mitica? (1981)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaLucian PintilieRomania

    Quote:
    Based on a theatrical text by Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), who was a bitter and funny witness of the turn-of-the-20th-century Romanian bourgeois mores, Carnival Scenes manages to preserve and further enhance the slightly hysteric atmosphere of his plays. Pintilie creates a strange combination of carnival scenes which is brought to the screen as a burlesque, fast-paced, screwball comedy with a meditative undertone. This film was banned in Romania for a decade until the death of Ceausescu in 1989 and was only released after the 1989 revolution.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – Niki Ardelean, colonel în rezerva AKA Niki and Flo (2003)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaLucian PintilieRomania

    Quote:
    A very black comedy (and virtually unknown in the U.S.), Niki and Flo is about ill-suited neighbors united by marriage. Angela and her husband have decided to leave Romania for a better life in the United States. Niki, Angela’s father, who is also a former colonel in the Romanian army, is torn between his wish to see his daughter happy and his desire to have her close by; meanwhile Flo, the father of Niki’s son-in-law and a domestic tyrant of sorts, slowly exerts his control over Niki. Courtesy of Filmex Romania. Based on a screen play by Cristi Puiu.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – Un été inoubliable AKA An Unforgettable Summer (1994)

    2001-2010DramaLucian PintilieRomaniaWar

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    Quote:
    In 1925 Romania, young Marie-Therese Von Debretsy refuses the flirtatious advances of her husband’s commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a brutally bleak and dangerous outpost on the Bulgarian/Romanian frontier whereboth their relationship and humanity are severely tested.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – Tertium non datur (2006)

    Drama2001-2010ArthouseLucian PintilieRomania

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    It is the end of the Romanian war against the Soviet Union (but not the end of the WWII), as Germany and Romania are allies, but in a few weeks they will be enemies. Two German officers stop for a lunch with a group of Romanian officers and as the story develops, a pair of rare postage stamps are acquired in very different occasions, which underlines the differences between the group of officers. This deceptively simply short film has many complex ramifications about history, honor, about how material value translates in life and survival. Director Pintilie works beautifully with his actors, especially Victor Rebengiuc (a preferred actor of Pintilie) and his use of visual space in a small room is both inspired and effective.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – Reconstituirea aka Reconstruction (1968)

    1961-1970BelgiumDramaLucian Pintilie

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    After two friends drunkenly injure a waiter, the police force them to recreate their crime for an “educational” film—with disastrous results. Immediately banned
    in communist Romania, Reenactment is one of the key films of the Romanian
    cinema (voted best Romanian film of all time by 40 Romanian film critics)
    and stands among the exemplary works of its region and time.Read More »

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