The Reenactment
Encyclopedia
The Reenactment is a 1968
black-and-white
film by Romania
n director Lucian Pintilie
. It is based on a novel by Horia Pătraşcu, which in turn reflects real-life events witnessed by the author. Produced under the communist regime
, which it indirectly criticizes, it is a tragicomedy
about incompetence, indifference and misuse of power. Structured as a film within a film and largely shot as a mockumentary
, The Reenactment stars George Constantin as a prosecutor who keeps in custody two minor delinquents, Vuică and Nicu, played respectively by George Mihăiţă
and Vladimir Găitan. He makes them reenact their drunken brawl at a restaurant, and is helped in this effort by the militiaman
Dumitrescu (played by Ernest Maftei) and a film crew. Two bystanders watch upon the youngsters' degradation at the hands of the prosecutor. They are The Miss (Domnişoara in the original), played by Ileana Popovici, who is amused by the succession of events, and the pedantic alcoholic
Paveliu (Emil Botta
).
The recipient of much critical acclaim and considered in retrospect one of the most notable contributions to 1960s Romanian cinema
, The Reenactment was released at a time when the communist regime was in its liberalization
phase, coinciding with the first decade of rule by Nicolae Ceauşescu
. Nevertheless, its political implications irritated communist officials, and the censorship apparatus
decided to withdraw the film from cinemas only months after its premiere. In 1969, Pintilie was pressured to work outside Romania, and focused mainly on stage production for the following twenty years of his career. The Reenactment was again screened at home in 1990, one year after the Romanian Revolution
toppled communism.
, shortly before a celebration of August 23 (Communist Romania's national holiday, commemorating the 1944 coup). The militiamen involved had detained two youths with no prior criminal record, accusing them of having been drunk and disorderly, and had decided to make them reenact the scene in order to educate the public about the perils of alcohol. In a 1999 interview, Pătraşcu acknowledges that, as a university student and part-time activist at a local culture house, he was a member of the original crew.
Like in the film, the militiamen's decision seems to have outweighed the punishment proscribed for such offenses: they made the youths film the same scene over and over, and, in the process, exposed them to public humiliation. Pătraşcu, who credits German
writer Erich Maria Remarque
and his All Quiet on the Western Front
with having inspired his narrative, states: "At the actual, filmed reenactment I for one had a terrible shock. They were children, they were just children. The police made them do what they had previously done. But that was a beach, a pool, there were girlies dressed up in bathing suits, some of them were connected with those girlies, and the [militiamen] were making them do what they had done when they were drunk, which was absurd, which made me shiver." In both story and film, Vuică dies after his friend, pressured by the authorities into making the reenactment look more authentic, hits him over the head with a stone.
There was a significant gap between the story's publishing and the start of production. Filmmaker Mircea Săucan recalls repeatedly urging Pătraşcu to turn his text into a screenplay. Before Pintilie took up the project, Horia Pătraşcu says, he was approached by two other directors. The first was Radu Gabrea, who abandoned it once he decided to resettle in West Germany
; the second was Liviu Ciulei
, who disagreed with the writer over the plot's tragic outcome, and eventually ended talks. Also according to Pătraşcu, Pintilie was enthusiastic about making the film, and anxiously approached the author just as he was taking his final exams. George Mihăiţă
, Vladimir Găitan and Ileana Popovici were debuting actors in their early twenties. As Mihăiţă recalls, he and Găitan were casted after a brief interview with Pintilie. Poet and actor Emil Botta
was fifty-seven at the time, while George Constantin was thirty-five and Ernest Maftei forty-eight. Despite the marked age difference, Mihăiţă remembers, the communication on the set was smooth and the atmosphere playful.
The film was shot on location in the Southern Carpathian
resort of Sinaia
, but preserves some elements from the intended setting, including the restaurant's name of Pescăruş ("Seagull"), which had been borrowed from its Caransebeş model.
regime, and, through its cultural implications, is also seen as a retrospective condemnation of Socialist realism
and its didacticism
(see Socialist realism in Romania
). To a certain degree, Pintilie's film also criticizes the indifference with which such persecution is received by the public. A recurring motif in the film is the background noise of crowds rooting for their squad during a soccer match, in what the director explains is a satirical allusion to the Greek choir
's role in cheering the performers, in this case transfigured by "human dumbness".
In 2004, Lucian Pintilie wrote that his decision to shoot the film was also motivated by his disgust in respect to the invasive practices of communist authorities, having previously been informed that one of his friends, a closeted gay
actor, was denounced for breaking Romania's sodomy law
, and, in order to avoid the prison sentence, was forced to have intercourse with his wife while investigators watched.
Pintilie also stated his objection to the very notion of an inquiry, noting that such a procedure "is the most effective way of veiling reality", and indicated that the film was in part an allusion to the tradition of torture and repeated interrogation, enforced by the Securitate
secret police in the previous decade. George Constantin's character was thus supposed to be a Securitate officer, but, Pintilie claims, the institution was scandalized by the possibility of an exploration into its past, and appealed to Nicolae Ceauşescu
personally to prevent this from happening; as a consequence, Pintilie turned the protagonist into a prosecutor. Although the reference to Militia practices was the result of such pressures, it became one of the most valued attributes of the film. The portrayal of militiamen as brutal and irresponsible contrasted with their sympathetic portrayal in films approved of by the Ceauşescu regime, and especially with the post-1970 series Brigada Diverse. In a 2007 article for Gândul
, journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu
writes that, by exposing the torment which could be caused even by routine Militia interventions, The Reenactment "had discarded the urban legend
of 'militiamen so stupid that they make one laugh with tears when seeing how stupid they are'."
"Harshness" was identified by Mircea Săucan as a main characteristic of the film. Stressing that he does not find this trait to be a defect, he states that, had he directed the film, he would have insisted more on the "cold" aspect of the inquiry, to stand in contrast with the melodrama
-like aspect of some scenes. Commenting on such traits, Cristian Tudor Popescu wrote: "37 years ago, a prosecutor and two militiamen were organizing, on the terrace of an isolated pub, the reenactment of a brawl between two guys. Under the eye of Lucian Pintilie, the tremendous actor George Constantin, together with George Mihăiţă, Vladimir Găitan and Ernest Maftei, were reconstructing [...], starting from a beer mug crashing into a head, the whole monstrous skeleton of the kitsch
y evil on which Romanian communist authorities were relying."
In 1965, Pintilie had directed the film Duminică la ora şase, which dealt in part with similar themes, but, as the director indicates, only hinted in that direction. It was showcased and acclaimed at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy
. He recalls: "The film's prologue clearly placed the plot in the years of [Romanian] socialism. [...] Who are the youths from the film's prologue? I was asked directly by the audience [...] Aren't today's youths these youths in the film? No, I shamelessly lied, for there was clearly a possibility for prevarication, no, I said in order to be able to return to Romania and make The Reenactment." George Mihăiţă recounts not realizing as first the importance of his role: "The best proof of [our] sublime unawareness was that, when shooting was over, I asked Pintilie—joking more or less—when he was going to give me a more important part to play... He smiled and said just this: 'Wait and see the movie!' "
policies in Romania, and with a moment when Ceauşescu appeared to be pursuing an independent path within the Eastern Bloc
. However, the film caused consternation among communist officials. Pătraşcu recalls that the film was only shown sporadically as the censorship apparatus was deciding its fate: it premiered at the Luceafărul Cinema in Bucharest
, where "the projectionist was driven out of his mind" because it ran as the main feature for two months on end. Mihăiţă recalls: "the film's presentation was stripped of all ceremony. Better put, the film was introduced through 'the back door' at Luceafărul... It stood there, without any comments, for about a month, before being withdrawn as discreetly as it had appeared." The Reenactment was also shown in Timişoara
, but, Pătraşcu indicates, no program or promotional material given approval for publishing; it was only shown with discretion in several other main cities, "until people had heard about it", then withdrawn. The writer also remembers being "glad" upon learning that the film managed to raise public awareness, and that it incited viewers to engage in rioting against Militia forces.
Early in 1969, the authorities took the decision to withdraw the film from cinemas, a ban which lasted until the regime came to an end two decades later. According to George Mihăiţă: "It's worth knowing that, upon viewing, some comrade [that is, communist official]—it no longer matters what his name was!—said 'this film ought to be stored in a room and someone should swallow the key'...!" It was as a result of the scandal that communist officials began investigating Romanian cinema
in general, and intervened to stop filming on Pragul albastru, which was based on a screenplay by Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu
, a former political prisoner
who was undergoing rehabilitation
. Pintilie's Securitate file, made available for the public in the 2000s, contains lengthy and minute reports on the film, and documents the negative reaction of official critics (quoted saying that the film is "mediocre" or "mean"), but also the appreciation from the part of more rebellious intellectuals. For instance, it describes how, moments after having seen the film in Bucharest, the avant-garde
author and former communist Geo Bogza
scribbled in the snow set on the director's car the words: "Long live Pintilie! The humble Geo Bogza."
In May 1970, the Cannes Film Festival
offered to show The Reenactment during its Une Quinzaine des Réalisateurs event. As Pintilie notes, the invitation was intercepted by the Securitate
and never reached him. In a fragment of his 1970 diary, published in 2003, he reflected his frustration over this issue, comparing the censorship apparatus with the bureaucrats sarcastically depicted in the works of 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol
: "the Gogolian clerks have decided to strike me out of Romanian cinema for good. For as long as I am alive, they have not won their bet." The same year however, he was able to return to the Pesaro Film Festival, where he was celebrated with a retrospective and a special trophy. Pintilie confesses that the ceremony failed to impress him at the time, due to his feelings of dissatisfaction and his determination to continue filming in Romania. Such events were also organized in other cities, among them London
and Bologna
, but Pintilie refused to attend them.
Another clash between Pintilie and the communist system occurred in 1972, when he satirized officials by staging a subversive version of Gogol's The Government Inspector, which was suspended soon after its premiere. In an interview with The New York Times
, he records a meeting he had with the censors: "I was told, 'If you want to continue working here, you have to change your conception of the world.' I answered, 'But I've just started formulating it. [...] All I can do is develop it.' "
During the following period, Pintilie only worked sporadically in Romania and was pressured to seek employment abroad (notably, in the United States
, where he served as artistic director for Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater
and Washington, D. C.'s Arena Stage
). His only other film released at home before 1989, the 1981 De ce trag clopotele, Mitică?, was loosely based on stories by Ion Luca Caragiale
. Noted for subtly criticizing the Ceauşescu regime at a time when it had return to a hard-line stance (see July Theses
), it was itself censored by the officials. Film critic Doinel Tronaru argues that both productions are equally accomplished. Pătraşcu, dissatisfied by the new restrictive guidelines, avoided contributing screenplays, and instead focused on cultural activities with Adrian Păunescu
's Cenaclul Flacăra, whose shows still maintained a degree of artistic independence.
, and served as head of the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Creation Studio. He resumed film directing and producing, with titles such as Balanţa, An Unforgettable Summer
, Lumière and Company
, and the 1996 Too Late
(nominated for Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Festival, the same year). Many of them revisit Romania's communist past, and, in his later production După-amiaza unui torţionar, he focuses on a more obvious treatment of the Securitate and its repression tactics.
After being again made available for public viewing, The Reenactment again was the subject of critical interest. It was recovered together with similarly censored films by Radu Gabrea (Beyond the Sands) and Dan Piţa
(The Contest). It was likened to Mircea Săucan's 1973 production 100 de lei, and, alongside Pintilie's other films, is credited with having inspired the post-Revolution "Romanian New Wave
". Cristian Tudor Popescu also argued that the invasive techniques which stand at the center of the film have a continued presence in post-1989 Romanian society
. He proposes that they are similar to a sensationalist
trend in Romanian television, which sees stations competing for ratings by closely following cases of suicide and murder.
At the Berlin International Film Festival
2002 edition, it was shown as part of a retrospective on 1960s cinema, alongside films such as Lindsay Anderson
's if...., John Schlesinger
's Billy Liar
, Sergio Corbucci
's The Great Silence
and Jean-Pierre Mocky
's Solo. In 2007, Romanian-born historian Irina Livezeanu
and the Romanian Cultural Institute
organized the festival Romanian Cinema on the Edge. The Reenactment was the only pre-1989 film to be aired alongside works by "New Wave" directors: Corneliu Porumboiu
(12:08 East of Bucharest
), Radu Muntean
(The Paper Will Be Blue
), Cristian Mungiu (Occident
), Cristi Puiu
(Stuff and Dough) and Cristian Nemescu
(California Dreamin'). In January 2008, the copy kept by the Romanian National Gallery was presented at the Palm Springs Festival
's Archival Treasures Program, being introduced by Chicago Public Radio
's Milos Stehlik. Alongside other major Romanian productions, it was shown as part of two Romanian film festivals in Canada
: at Montreal
(May 2007) and Toronto
(February 2008).
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
film by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n director Lucian Pintilie
Lucian Pintilie
-Filmography:* Duminică la ora şase * Reconstituirea * Salonul numărul 6 * De ce trag clopotele, Mitică? - see also the "Portrayals and tributes" section at Mitică* Balanţa * O vară de neuitat * Prea târziu...
. It is based on a novel by Horia Pătraşcu, which in turn reflects real-life events witnessed by the author. Produced under the communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, which it indirectly criticizes, it is a tragicomedy
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
about incompetence, indifference and misuse of power. Structured as a film within a film and largely shot as a mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
, The Reenactment stars George Constantin as a prosecutor who keeps in custody two minor delinquents, Vuică and Nicu, played respectively by George Mihăiţă
George Mihaita
George Mihăiţă is a Romanian actor.He studied in the Institute of Theatrical Art and Cinematography of Bucharest -now known as The National University of Theatrical Art and Cinematography I.L.Caragiale Bucharest] -and graduated with honors....
and Vladimir Găitan. He makes them reenact their drunken brawl at a restaurant, and is helped in this effort by the militiaman
Militsiya
Militsiya or militia is used as an official name of the civilian police in several former communist states, despite its original military connotation...
Dumitrescu (played by Ernest Maftei) and a film crew. Two bystanders watch upon the youngsters' degradation at the hands of the prosecutor. They are The Miss (Domnişoara in the original), played by Ileana Popovici, who is amused by the succession of events, and the pedantic alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
Paveliu (Emil Botta
Emil Botta
Emil Botta was a Romanian actor and writer.Botta's acting career ended as a result of his heavy drinking...
).
The recipient of much critical acclaim and considered in retrospect one of the most notable contributions to 1960s Romanian cinema
Cinema of Romania
The cinema of Romania is the art of motion-picture making within the nation of Romania or by Romanian filmmakers abroad.As upon much of the world's early cinema, the ravages of time have left their mark upon Romanian film prints. Tens of titles have been destroyed or lost for good...
, The Reenactment was released at a time when the communist regime was in its liberalization
Liberalization
In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation...
phase, coinciding with the first decade of rule by Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
. Nevertheless, its political implications irritated communist officials, and the censorship apparatus
Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...
decided to withdraw the film from cinemas only months after its premiere. In 1969, Pintilie was pressured to work outside Romania, and focused mainly on stage production for the following twenty years of his career. The Reenactment was again screened at home in 1990, one year after the Romanian Revolution
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
toppled communism.
Production and plot
Both Horia Pătraşcu's novel and the screenplay (co-authored by Pătraşcu and Pintilie) are closely based on real-life events. The incident was witnessed by Pătraşcu during the early 1960s, and took place in his native town of CaransebeşCaransebes
Caransebeş is a city in Caraş-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the river Timiş with the river Sebeş, the latter coming from the Ţarcu Mountains. To the west, it is in direct contact with the Banat hills...
, shortly before a celebration of August 23 (Communist Romania's national holiday, commemorating the 1944 coup). The militiamen involved had detained two youths with no prior criminal record, accusing them of having been drunk and disorderly, and had decided to make them reenact the scene in order to educate the public about the perils of alcohol. In a 1999 interview, Pătraşcu acknowledges that, as a university student and part-time activist at a local culture house, he was a member of the original crew.
Like in the film, the militiamen's decision seems to have outweighed the punishment proscribed for such offenses: they made the youths film the same scene over and over, and, in the process, exposed them to public humiliation. Pătraşcu, who credits German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
writer Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
and his All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.The...
with having inspired his narrative, states: "At the actual, filmed reenactment I for one had a terrible shock. They were children, they were just children. The police made them do what they had previously done. But that was a beach, a pool, there were girlies dressed up in bathing suits, some of them were connected with those girlies, and the [militiamen] were making them do what they had done when they were drunk, which was absurd, which made me shiver." In both story and film, Vuică dies after his friend, pressured by the authorities into making the reenactment look more authentic, hits him over the head with a stone.
There was a significant gap between the story's publishing and the start of production. Filmmaker Mircea Săucan recalls repeatedly urging Pătraşcu to turn his text into a screenplay. Before Pintilie took up the project, Horia Pătraşcu says, he was approached by two other directors. The first was Radu Gabrea, who abandoned it once he decided to resettle in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
; the second was Liviu Ciulei
Liviu Ciulei
Liviu Ciulei was a Romanian theater and film director, film writer, actor, architect, educator, costume and set designer. During a career spanning over 50 years, he was described by Newsweek as "one of the boldest and most challenging figures on the international scene".-Biography:Born in...
, who disagreed with the writer over the plot's tragic outcome, and eventually ended talks. Also according to Pătraşcu, Pintilie was enthusiastic about making the film, and anxiously approached the author just as he was taking his final exams. George Mihăiţă
George Mihaita
George Mihăiţă is a Romanian actor.He studied in the Institute of Theatrical Art and Cinematography of Bucharest -now known as The National University of Theatrical Art and Cinematography I.L.Caragiale Bucharest] -and graduated with honors....
, Vladimir Găitan and Ileana Popovici were debuting actors in their early twenties. As Mihăiţă recalls, he and Găitan were casted after a brief interview with Pintilie. Poet and actor Emil Botta
Emil Botta
Emil Botta was a Romanian actor and writer.Botta's acting career ended as a result of his heavy drinking...
was fifty-seven at the time, while George Constantin was thirty-five and Ernest Maftei forty-eight. Despite the marked age difference, Mihăiţă remembers, the communication on the set was smooth and the atmosphere playful.
The film was shot on location in the Southern Carpathian
Southern Carpathians
The Southern Carpathians or the Transylvanian Alps are a group of mountain ranges which divide central and southern Romania, on one side, and Serbia, on the other side. They cover part of the Carpathian Mountains that is located between the Prahova River in the east and the Timiș and Cerna Rivers...
resort of Sinaia
Sinaia
Sinaia is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. The town was named after Sinaia Monastery, around which it was built; the monastery in turn is named after the Biblical Mount Sinai...
, but preserves some elements from the intended setting, including the restaurant's name of Pescăruş ("Seagull"), which had been borrowed from its Caransebeş model.
Themes
In addition to its factual content, The Reenactment stands as a metaphor for the people's inability to control their own destinies under the grip of a totalitarianTotalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
regime, and, through its cultural implications, is also seen as a retrospective condemnation of Socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
and its didacticism
Didacticism
Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός , "related to education/teaching." Originally, signifying learning in a fascinating and intriguing...
(see Socialist realism in Romania
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
). To a certain degree, Pintilie's film also criticizes the indifference with which such persecution is received by the public. A recurring motif in the film is the background noise of crowds rooting for their squad during a soccer match, in what the director explains is a satirical allusion to the Greek choir
Theatre of Ancient Greece
The theatre of Ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was...
's role in cheering the performers, in this case transfigured by "human dumbness".
In 2004, Lucian Pintilie wrote that his decision to shoot the film was also motivated by his disgust in respect to the invasive practices of communist authorities, having previously been informed that one of his friends, a closeted gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
actor, was denounced for breaking Romania's sodomy law
Article 200
Article 200 was a section of the Penal Code of Romania that criminalised homosexual relationships. It was introduced in 1968, under the communist regime, during the rule Nicolae Ceauşescu, and remained in force until it was repealed by the Năstase government on 22 June 2001...
, and, in order to avoid the prison sentence, was forced to have intercourse with his wife while investigators watched.
Pintilie also stated his objection to the very notion of an inquiry, noting that such a procedure "is the most effective way of veiling reality", and indicated that the film was in part an allusion to the tradition of torture and repeated interrogation, enforced by the Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
secret police in the previous decade. George Constantin's character was thus supposed to be a Securitate officer, but, Pintilie claims, the institution was scandalized by the possibility of an exploration into its past, and appealed to Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
personally to prevent this from happening; as a consequence, Pintilie turned the protagonist into a prosecutor. Although the reference to Militia practices was the result of such pressures, it became one of the most valued attributes of the film. The portrayal of militiamen as brutal and irresponsible contrasted with their sympathetic portrayal in films approved of by the Ceauşescu regime, and especially with the post-1970 series Brigada Diverse. In a 2007 article for Gândul
Gândul
Gândul is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was founded in May 2005 by Mircea Dinescu, who used to write a daily editorial called "Vorba lu' Dinescu", and Cristian Tudor Popescu, who was also the editor-in-chief until January 2008. Its initial circulation was about 52,000...
, journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu is a Romanian journalist, essayist and short-story writer. Author of science fiction stories during his youth, he has also hosted talk shows for various television stations, and had contributions as a literary critic and translator...
writes that, by exposing the torment which could be caused even by routine Militia interventions, The Reenactment "had discarded the urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
of 'militiamen so stupid that they make one laugh with tears when seeing how stupid they are'."
"Harshness" was identified by Mircea Săucan as a main characteristic of the film. Stressing that he does not find this trait to be a defect, he states that, had he directed the film, he would have insisted more on the "cold" aspect of the inquiry, to stand in contrast with the melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
-like aspect of some scenes. Commenting on such traits, Cristian Tudor Popescu wrote: "37 years ago, a prosecutor and two militiamen were organizing, on the terrace of an isolated pub, the reenactment of a brawl between two guys. Under the eye of Lucian Pintilie, the tremendous actor George Constantin, together with George Mihăiţă, Vladimir Găitan and Ernest Maftei, were reconstructing [...], starting from a beer mug crashing into a head, the whole monstrous skeleton of the kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
y evil on which Romanian communist authorities were relying."
In 1965, Pintilie had directed the film Duminică la ora şase, which dealt in part with similar themes, but, as the director indicates, only hinted in that direction. It was showcased and acclaimed at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He recalls: "The film's prologue clearly placed the plot in the years of [Romanian] socialism. [...] Who are the youths from the film's prologue? I was asked directly by the audience [...] Aren't today's youths these youths in the film? No, I shamelessly lied, for there was clearly a possibility for prevarication, no, I said in order to be able to return to Romania and make The Reenactment." George Mihăiţă recounts not realizing as first the importance of his role: "The best proof of [our] sublime unawareness was that, when shooting was over, I asked Pintilie—joking more or less—when he was going to give me a more important part to play... He smiled and said just this: 'Wait and see the movie!' "
Censorship
The Reenactment 's release coincided with the peak of liberalizationLiberalization
In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation...
policies in Romania, and with a moment when Ceauşescu appeared to be pursuing an independent path within the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
. However, the film caused consternation among communist officials. Pătraşcu recalls that the film was only shown sporadically as the censorship apparatus was deciding its fate: it premiered at the Luceafărul Cinema in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, where "the projectionist was driven out of his mind" because it ran as the main feature for two months on end. Mihăiţă recalls: "the film's presentation was stripped of all ceremony. Better put, the film was introduced through 'the back door' at Luceafărul... It stood there, without any comments, for about a month, before being withdrawn as discreetly as it had appeared." The Reenactment was also shown in Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
, but, Pătraşcu indicates, no program or promotional material given approval for publishing; it was only shown with discretion in several other main cities, "until people had heard about it", then withdrawn. The writer also remembers being "glad" upon learning that the film managed to raise public awareness, and that it incited viewers to engage in rioting against Militia forces.
Early in 1969, the authorities took the decision to withdraw the film from cinemas, a ban which lasted until the regime came to an end two decades later. According to George Mihăiţă: "It's worth knowing that, upon viewing, some comrade [that is, communist official]—it no longer matters what his name was!—said 'this film ought to be stored in a room and someone should swallow the key'...!" It was as a result of the scandal that communist officials began investigating Romanian cinema
Cinema of Romania
The cinema of Romania is the art of motion-picture making within the nation of Romania or by Romanian filmmakers abroad.As upon much of the world's early cinema, the ravages of time have left their mark upon Romanian film prints. Tens of titles have been destroyed or lost for good...
in general, and intervened to stop filming on Pragul albastru, which was based on a screenplay by Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu
Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu
Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu was a Romanian philosopher, novelist, essayist and dramatist. A university associate professor and theater critic, he was a vicitm of the communist regime, spending about 6 years as a political prisoner...
, a former political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
who was undergoing rehabilitation
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
. Pintilie's Securitate file, made available for the public in the 2000s, contains lengthy and minute reports on the film, and documents the negative reaction of official critics (quoted saying that the film is "mediocre" or "mean"), but also the appreciation from the part of more rebellious intellectuals. For instance, it describes how, moments after having seen the film in Bucharest, the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
author and former communist Geo Bogza
Geo Bogza
Geo Bogza was a Romanian avant-garde theorist, poet, and journalist, known for his left-wing and communist political convictions. As a young man in the interwar period, he was known as a rebel and was one of the most influential Romanian Surrealists...
scribbled in the snow set on the director's car the words: "Long live Pintilie! The humble Geo Bogza."
In May 1970, the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
offered to show The Reenactment during its Une Quinzaine des Réalisateurs event. As Pintilie notes, the invitation was intercepted by the Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
and never reached him. In a fragment of his 1970 diary, published in 2003, he reflected his frustration over this issue, comparing the censorship apparatus with the bureaucrats sarcastically depicted in the works of 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
: "the Gogolian clerks have decided to strike me out of Romanian cinema for good. For as long as I am alive, they have not won their bet." The same year however, he was able to return to the Pesaro Film Festival, where he was celebrated with a retrospective and a special trophy. Pintilie confesses that the ceremony failed to impress him at the time, due to his feelings of dissatisfaction and his determination to continue filming in Romania. Such events were also organized in other cities, among them London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, but Pintilie refused to attend them.
Another clash between Pintilie and the communist system occurred in 1972, when he satirized officials by staging a subversive version of Gogol's The Government Inspector, which was suspended soon after its premiere. In an interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, he records a meeting he had with the censors: "I was told, 'If you want to continue working here, you have to change your conception of the world.' I answered, 'But I've just started formulating it. [...] All I can do is develop it.' "
During the following period, Pintilie only worked sporadically in Romania and was pressured to seek employment abroad (notably, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he served as artistic director for Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
and Washington, D. C.'s Arena Stage
Arena Stage
Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...
). His only other film released at home before 1989, the 1981 De ce trag clopotele, Mitică?, was loosely based on stories by Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
. Noted for subtly criticizing the Ceauşescu regime at a time when it had return to a hard-line stance (see July Theses
July Theses
The July Theses is a name commonly given to a speech delivered by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu on July 6, 1971, before the Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party...
), it was itself censored by the officials. Film critic Doinel Tronaru argues that both productions are equally accomplished. Pătraşcu, dissatisfied by the new restrictive guidelines, avoided contributing screenplays, and instead focused on cultural activities with Adrian Păunescu
Adrian Paunescu
Adrian Păunescu was a Romanian poet, journalist, and politician. Though criticised for praising dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu was called "Romania's most famous poet" in a Associated Press story, quoted by the New York Times.-Life:Born in Copăceni, Bălţi County, in what is now the Republic...
's Cenaclul Flacăra, whose shows still maintained a degree of artistic independence.
Recovery
Pintilie made his comeback in Romania only after the Romanian RevolutionRomanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, and served as head of the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Creation Studio. He resumed film directing and producing, with titles such as Balanţa, An Unforgettable Summer
An Unforgettable Summer
An Unforgettable Summer is a 1994 drama film directed and produced by Lucian Pintilie. A Romanian-French co-production based on a novel by Petru Dumitriu, it stars British actress Kristin Scott Thomas as the Hungarian-born aristocrat Marie-Thérèse Von Debretsy...
, Lumière and Company
Lumière and Company
Lumière and Company was a collaboration between 41 international film directors in which each made a short film using the original Cinématographe camera invented by the Lumière brothers....
, and the 1996 Too Late
Too Late (1996 film)
Too Late is a 1996 Romanian drama film directed by Lucian Pintilie. It was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.Dumitri Costa, a young trainee prosecutor is entrusted with the investigation about the suspicious death of a Jiu Valley coal miner in today Romania...
(nominated for Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Festival, the same year). Many of them revisit Romania's communist past, and, in his later production După-amiaza unui torţionar, he focuses on a more obvious treatment of the Securitate and its repression tactics.
After being again made available for public viewing, The Reenactment again was the subject of critical interest. It was recovered together with similarly censored films by Radu Gabrea (Beyond the Sands) and Dan Piţa
Dan Pita
-Career:Piţa has directed several award-winning films since 1970, including the 1985 hit Pas în doi, which won an Honourable Mention at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival...
(The Contest). It was likened to Mircea Săucan's 1973 production 100 de lei, and, alongside Pintilie's other films, is credited with having inspired the post-Revolution "Romanian New Wave
Romanian New Wave
The Romanian New Wave is a blanket term applied to a torrent of internationally acclaimed films made in Romania from the mid 2000s, starting with Trafic, which won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival...
". Cristian Tudor Popescu also argued that the invasive techniques which stand at the center of the film have a continued presence in post-1989 Romanian society
History of Romania since 1989
- 1989 revolution :1989 marked the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. A mid-December protest in Timişoara against the eviction of a Hungarian minister grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceauşescu régime, sweeping the dictator from power....
. He proposes that they are similar to a sensationalist
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
trend in Romanian television, which sees stations competing for ratings by closely following cases of suicide and murder.
At the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
2002 edition, it was shown as part of a retrospective on 1960s cinema, alongside films such as Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
's if...., John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
's Billy Liar
Billy Liar (film)
Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse. It was directed by John Schlesinger and stars Tom Courtenay as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles played Mr. Fisher...
, Sergio Corbucci
Sergio Corbucci
Sergio Corbucci was an Italian film director. He is best known for his very violent yet intelligent spaghetti westerns...
's The Great Silence
The Great Silence
The Great Silence , or The Big Silence, is an Italian spaghetti western. It is widely considered by critics as the masterpiece of director Sergio Corbucci and is one of his better known movies, along with Django...
and Jean-Pierre Mocky
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Jean-Pierre Mocky is the pseudonym of Jean-Paul Adam Mokiejewski, a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer...
's Solo. In 2007, Romanian-born historian Irina Livezeanu
Irina Livezeanu
Irina Livezeanu is a Romanian-born American historian. Her research interests include Eastern Europe, Eastern European Jewry, the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, and modern nationalism. Several of her publications deal with the history of Romania, Moldova, and Bessarabia. Since 1996, she is Associate...
and the Romanian Cultural Institute
Romanian Cultural Institute
The Romanian Cultural Institute is a state-funded institution that promotes Romanian culture and civilization in Romania and abroad. The ICR was formerly set up through reorganization of the Romanian Cultural Foundation and Romanian Cultural Publishing Foundation...
organized the festival Romanian Cinema on the Edge. The Reenactment was the only pre-1989 film to be aired alongside works by "New Wave" directors: Corneliu Porumboiu
Corneliu Porumboiu
Corneliu Porumboiu is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. His 2006 feature 12:08 East of Bucharest won him the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival...
(12:08 East of Bucharest
12:08 East of Bucharest
12:08 East of Bucharest is a 2006 Romanian film directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, released in 2006 and winner of the Camera d'Or Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also released in the United States under the abridged titles East of Bucharest and 12:08 Bucharest...
), Radu Muntean
Radu Muntean
Radu Muntean is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. He is a central figure of the Romanian New Wave.Radu graduated from the Theater and Film Academy in Bucharest in 1994, where he directed three short films. Since 1996, he has directed over 400 commercials and has won over 40 national and...
(The Paper Will Be Blue
The Paper Will Be Blue
The Paper Will Be Blue is a 2006 Romanian film written and directed by Radu Muntean. The film was nominated for the 2006 Golden Leopard award at Locarno International Film Festival.-Plot:...
), Cristian Mungiu (Occident
Occident (film)
Occident is a Romanian film released in 2002, and directed by Cristian Mungiu. It stars Alexandru Papadopol as a 29-year old man named Luci and Anca Androne as his wife Sorina...
), Cristi Puiu
Cristi Puiu
Cristi Puiu is a Romanian film director and screenwriter.Puiu's first interest in art was painting and in 1992, he was admitted as a student at the Painting Department of Ecole Superieure d'Arts Visuels in Geneva. After the first year he switched to film studies at the same school and graduated in...
(Stuff and Dough) and Cristian Nemescu
Cristian Nemescu
Cristian Nemescu was a Romanian film director.Nemescu was born in Bucharest. He graduated from the Academy for Theater and Film in 2003. During his final year in the academy he made a short film, Story From The Third Block Entrance, that received awards at the NYU International Student Film...
(California Dreamin'). In January 2008, the copy kept by the Romanian National Gallery was presented at the Palm Springs Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January...
's Archival Treasures Program, being introduced by Chicago Public Radio
Chicago Public Radio
WBEZ is a noncommercial, public radio station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois. Financed primarily by listener contributions, the station is affiliated with both National Public Radio and Public Radio International; they also broadcast content from American Public Media...
's Milos Stehlik. Alongside other major Romanian productions, it was shown as part of two Romanian film festivals in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
: at Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(May 2007) and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
(February 2008).