Nicolaescu Planet
Nicolaescu Planet
This week we continue our journey into the old Romanian cinema with two more films directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.
This week we continue our journey into the old Romanian cinema with two more films directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu. On Tuesday, we premiered A Police Superintendent Accuses (1974), and starting tonight you can watch The Punishment (1976) on CINEPUB.
A Police Superintendent Accuses is the second most popular film in the Inspector Miclovan/Moldovan series.
A set of films that overlays the police procedural formula on domestic subjects with ideological significance.
However, unlike the series of films with Inspector Roman, where the political aspect was most clearly stated, Miclovan/Moldovan focuses more on the unique air of incorruptibility and agility of the detective played by Nicolaescu himself.
Moving on, The Punishment is one of Nicolaescu's lesser-known films. The action takes place after World War I, around the same period as Mercenaries' Trap (1981), and follows a similar story about the terror and salvation of ordinary Romanians. However, in the case of The Punishment, the conflict is internal, between classes, not ethnic. The hero is an outlaw, a peasant and outlaw, played by Amza Pellea, and Prosecutor Marian (Sergiu Nicolaescu) appears as a secondary character. While in Mercenaries' Trap, Major Tudor (Sergiu Nicolaescu) not only receives great attention and a principal position in the film but is also impeccably characterized in relation to the plot.
Both Major Tudor and Prosecutor Marian have an unjustified mania for justice and seek to uncover the truth/do good at any cost. However, while Major Tudor is a sort of hyper-visible superhero, Prosecutor Marian reveals himself elusively in the story and seems to carry with him an accidental unease. Moreover, the tragic end of the character played by Nicolaescu offers this film, which is otherwise fragmented and somewhat Frankensteinian, a surprising minor key note.
It is impossible to talk about pre 1989 Romanian cinema without considering Sergiu Nicolaescu. Moreover, he remains present in the landscape of transition and fights his last major battle in the mid-2000s, in the context of the scandal between the new generation of emerging filmmakers and the old guard — a scandal exploded by the National FIlm Center contest in 2007, where the jury awarded the maximum score to Nicolaescu's film The Survivor, the last in the Moldovan series.
His films, for better or worse, are a reference point in Romanian cinema, and as can be seen from their recent reception on CINEPUB, a significant public success even today. The news that tonight's film is the last directed by Nicolaescu from this batch of films we broadcast with the support of the National Film Center and the National Film Archive can be either heartening or disappointing, depending on each person's perspective on the filmmaker.
It is important to mention that we do not intend to put personal biases at the forefront of these articles but rather to value and offer a fresh perspective on any type of cinema we choose to broadcast. Recontextualization and parallel narratives are always uncomfortable, but, we believe, necessary.
On the occasion of this symbolic closure, we invite you to read Ehsan Khoshbakht's text entitled The Ceaușescu Era's Last Action Hero, in which the Iranian film critic discusses the popularity and relevance of Nicolaescu's figure in his childhood Iran — a text that film critic Andrei Gorzo appreciated as one of the few testimonies that managed to open him up to the filmmaker's figure.
(Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro)
This week's premiere: The Punishment by Sergiu Nicolaescu, Thursday, May 21st, at 8:30 p.m EEST, on CINEPUB.RO
This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre. Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.
Cinepub is the one and only, legally operating and free of charge, AVoD platform, dedicated to the Romanian cinema: independent, contemporary, or classic. Our comittment to remain “free” means hundreds of monthly hours of volunteer work of a (very) small team of passionate individuals.
Your donation can help us cover some of the costs of securing some distribution rights, covering the basic costs or just keeping the platform updated; in a nutshell, to survive! If you like what we do, if you read what we write, if you watch the films we show, consider supporting us. We need your help. Thank you!