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Tag: Marin Preda

  • The Moromete Family: Father and Son – the   end of the trilogy inspired by Marin Preda   

    The Moromete Family: Father and Son – the   end of the trilogy inspired by Marin Preda   

    Stere Gulea’s The Moromete Family: Father and Son was one of the most anticipated Romanian feature films of 2024. It marks the final episode in a unique trilogy in Romanian cinematography, inspired by the life and works of Romanian novelist Marin Preda. The first film was launched in 1988, a quite accurate adaptation of the first volume of the novel The Moromete Family. Screened in 2018, the sequel, The Moromete Family: On the Edge of Time draws on the second volume, Life as Prey as well as on Marin Preda’s literary articles. Written by Stere Gulea, the final part of the trilogy was inspired by Marin Preda’s private journals, as well as documents and archives that helped rebuild the mood of the 1950s, a time of great social and ideological upheaval, also marked by the coming to power of the Communist Party, which soon became the only official party in Romania. The Moromete Family: Father and Son picks up where the second film left off, telling the story of Niculae, Ilie Moromete’s youngest-born, who is now a successful writer. A persona of the author himself, Niculae is disappointed with his father’s political beliefs and by other writers who are forced to abide by ideological constraints. The film also dwells on two major artists who made a powerful impression on Marin Preda’s career: Nina Cassian and Aurora Cornu. “The film traces Marin Preda’s behavior and attitudes at the time in various political contexts. I’ve tried to understand and retrace his remarkable journey through fiction. I very much liked the idea of making a film about that period which is now largely passed into oblivion”, filmmaker Stere Gulea said.

     

    Olimpia Melinte plays Vera Solomon, a character inspired by Nina Cassian. We’ve asked her to tell us more about the changes operated to Stere Gulea’s script and how she researched her part in the film, given that Nina Cassian was a multi-faceted artist, at times both accomplice and troublemaker for the Stalinist regime of the time.

     

    “It all started with a casting. I met Stere Gulea, and as I got to learn more about the script and his expectations, I eventually concluded that it was fate that I should portray this character. On the physical side, there’s little resemblance between Nina Cassian and I. What we do have in common is a passion for poetry, music, drawing and painting, as Nina Cassian really loved the fine arts. She was an accomplished artist, and I think her passion helped her overcome that very difficult time in her life, when for a long time she chose to sing instead of write, due to the complicated political context. Her passion for the arts was what struck a powerful impression in me. As for the research, I spent a lot of time talking to and rehearsing with Stere Gulea. I also read Nina’s journals, the interviews she gave, everything I could find online about her. Obviously, that included the documentary on Nina Cassian, “The distance between myself and I”, directed by Mona Nicoară and Dana Bunescu, I found it really helpful. It helped me to understand this artist better, because I must confess I was a little prejudiced against her. But all my preconceptions vanished as soon as I started working, because I really wanted to understand Nina deeply and intimately, as other people had failed to do, and as she can be understood towards the end of her life, thanks to the documentary I mentioned. There were times when Nina Cassian would put away her public persona, when she allowed herself to live this love story with Marin Preda, a love that is hard to put into words.”

     

    Olimpia Melinte also told us how the relationship between Marin Preda and Nina Cassian was reconstructed in the movie.

     

    “We haven’t set out to provide explanations, because in life it is not always that one gets to explain oneself. Or maybe many years later, when two people reconnect, they get to explain some things. As far as our characters go, we’ve tried to reconstruct their relationship using their diaries, and we wanted our reconstruction to be as close as possible to how things actually went. It was tremendous work for all of us, because the script got changed many, many times, new scenes were introduced as we went, because Mr. Gulea kept working the whole time. Sometimes we would find a new scene introduced right on the day of the shot. For instance, the story of Marin Preda and Nina Cassian was not a major direction in the original script, when we started rehearsing. But I think it gained weight as we progressed with our work, and I’m glad it did, because it was quite important in their lives.”

     

    Apart from Olimpia Melinte, the cast includes some of the most highly appreciated Romanian actors. Alex Călin plays Niculae Moromete and Horaţiu Mălăele plays Ilie Moromete for the second time in his career. In The Moromete Family 3, the public will also see Mara Bugarin, Răzvan Vasilescu, Iulian Postelnicu, Cătălin Herlo, Dana Dogaru, Toma Cuzin, Ana Ciontea, Laurențiu Bănescu, Conrad Mericoffer, Ioan Andrei Ionescu, Andreea Bibiri, Ilinca Hărnuț, Dorina Chiriac and Oana Pellea.

     

    Cristian Niculescu was in charge with the set design, and Dana Păpăruz did the costume design. The cinematographer was Vivi Drăgan Vasile, Alexandra Gulea did the editing, Ioan Filip and Dan-Ștefan Rucăreanu did the sound design, and Cristian Lolea wrote the score for the movie.

     

    The Moromete Family 3 was screened in many national film festivals (TIFF, TIFF Chișinău, Romanian Film Nights (Serile Filmului Românesc) – Iași, Film in the Village (Film in Sat) – Peștișani, TIFF Timișoara), and won the audience award at the 2024 Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF). (VP, AMP)

  • Morometii 2, the biggest Romanian box office hit in 25 years

    Morometii 2, the biggest Romanian box office hit in 25 years

    “Morometii 2, the adaptation of the second volume of novelist Marin Predas “Morometii, reached the Romanian movie theatres in November. Directed by Stere Gulea, this is the sequel of the famous film made in 1987 after the first volume of Predas novel, starring Victor Rebengiuc and Luminita Gheorghiu. In the first weekend alone, “Morometii 2 brought over 52,000 viewers to cinema halls in more than 50 towns, and thus became the biggest box office hit in the past 25 years in Romania. We talked to director Stere Gulea a few days after the premiere, about the risks of making a sequel to one of the most celebrated works in Romanian cinema, about the challenges of adapting Marin Predas novel into a film, about the need to vindicate Nicolae Moromete, about the audiences response to the new Ilie Moromete character, played by Horatiu Malaele.



    Stere Gulea: “Morometii 1 ends with a question. And this was one of the reasons why we made the sequel. We had left something unanswered, the story of a family from the 1930s was left mid-way. There was the war, there was the change in political regime, and Marin Preda tackled all these in the second volume, where he also talked about this drama of peasants whose land was nationalized. So one of the reasons behind making this sequel was to take the story to a close. But there was another reason as well, namely to tell the story of Romanian peasants, whose symbol I think Ilie Moromete can be. I saw this as an opportunity to talk about a collective drama through a character that is so famed and benefits from so much sympathy as Ilie Moromete does.



    “Morometii 2 is a free adaptation, based on the second volume of “Morometii, on another novel by Marin Preda called “Life as Prey and on Marin Predas journalistic pieces. The film resumes the story of the Moromete family after World War 2. The events take place in 1945-1946, during the transition from democracy to communist dictatorship, and includes the period when peasants saw their land taken away from them and included in collective farms. The point where the film takes the largest distance from the book is that Stere Gulea would not make the youngest son of the family, Niculae Moromete, played by Iosif Prastina, a communist party activist.



    Stere Gulea: “Many of those whove read the second volume, just as critics have said, have the feeling that it does not match the first, and that Marin Preda made some concessions in order to be able to print it during the Communist regime. But then Communism fell and we had the chance to see ourselves free, with no constraints of censorship, because of which many had to falsify history, but I wondered for a long time whether I had the right to write a script that was so different from Marin Predas book. It was an issue that I struggled with a lot. Because, in the end, its a matter of consciousness, and of respect to a great author and his book. So, for a long time, I wondered whether I had that right. But then I remembered that Preda had said that Niculae was an alter ego. And then, all that story with Niculae, the party activist, looked like the price he had to pay in order to write the novel. But, unlike Marin Preda, I did not have that ideological constraint, I had the freedom to make decisions that Preda was not allowed to make.



    On the launch of the second part of Morometii, director Stere Gulea talked about his attachment to the central character of the book, Ilie Moromete, one of his role models: “A man who is trying to understand what is happening around him. A man who is trying to understand the others, with their own choices and conflicts, a man who does not pass final judgments. And, in the end of the film, when he is asking those who have taken the power in the village: ‘This thing that you want, is it going well?, and the Communist mayor replies nonchalantly: ‘Why shouldnt it?, Moromete is the one that draws our attention to the silly things around. Because most of the times we tend to hasten and not take time to reflect, we dont realize the importance of each moment. We have the feeling that only certain moments are important, but in fact each and every moment counts when taking a certain stand and making a certain decision. After 1990 I have tried to stay present in society, because I no longer wanted to live in a regime in which I could not be myself, just like millions of other people. It was the fear, the twisting of reality that deformed and mutilated our souls. That was the problem; people had their souls mutilated, they could not think with their own minds, which for Moromete is unconceivable. These are the issues raised by Moromete and that is why I have such a great consideration for this character created by Marin Preda.



    The cast for “Morometii 2 includes Horatiu Malaiele, Dana Dogaru, Iosif Pastina, Razvan Vasilecu, Andi Vasluianu, Florin Zamfirescu, Paul Ipate, Costel Cascaval, Dorina Chiriac, Marius Florea Vizante, Cuzin Toma, George Mihaita, Gheorghe Visu, Marian Ralea, Ioana Bugarin, Andreea Bibiri and Anca Androne.

  • Retrospectivă cinematografică a anului 2018

    Retrospectivă cinematografică a anului 2018

    2018 a fost un an bun pentru filmul românesc: 25 de titluri de ficţiune au
    ajuns anul acesta în cinematografe, cinema-ul românesc a continuat să
    impresioneze în festivaluri, iar Moromeţii 2, în regia lui Stere Gulea, a
    stabilit un record de spectatori. Două dintre filmele realizate în 2018, Inimi
    cicatrizate, de Radu Jude, şi Fotbal infinit, de Corneliu Porumboiu, se
    regăsesc chiar în topul celor mai bune filme ale anului 2018, realizat de
    revista americană The New Yorker. Fotbal infinit, în regia lui Corneliu
    Porumboiu, este descris de Richard Brody, cronicarul The New Yorker, drept un documentar
    candid şi comic, şi totuşi analitic într-un fel liniştitor, despre un birocrat
    român care vrea să schimbe regulile fotbalului. Acelaşi cronicar de la The New
    Yorker consideră filmul Inimi
    cicatrizate    , în regia lui Radu Jude, o dramă furioasă intelectual, detaliată
    fanatic, a cărei acţiune are loc în România anului 1937, protagonistul fiind
    un tânăr scriitor evreu prins între boală şi fascism.


    Lansat în cinematografele din România în
    luna noiembrie, Moromeții 2, o adaptare a celui de-al doilea volum al romanului
    Moromeții de Marin Preda a adus după primul weekend peste 52.000 de spectatori
    în sălile din peste 50 de orașe, devenind cel mai mare succes de casă românesc
    din ultimii 25 de ani. Filmul este o
    continuare a celebrei pelicule Moromeții realizată în 1987 de acelaşi regizor,
    Stere Gulea, după volumul I al romanului Moromeții al lui Marin Preda, cu
    Victor Rebengiuc şi Luminița Gheorghiu. Acţiunea filmului Moromeţii 2 se
    petrece în anii ’45 – ’46, o perioadă de tranziţie de la democraţie la
    dictatura comunistă, surprinzând şi momentul colectivizării. Rolurile
    principale sunt interpretate de Horaţiu Mălăele, Dana Dogaru şi Iosif Paştina.


    2018 a fost şi un an bogat în premii acordate filmului românesc. Ursul de
    Aur de la Berlin a fost câștigat de Nu mă atinge-mă, controversarul
    film-experiment al Adinei Pintilie (ce se va lansa în cinematografe abia la 1
    februarie 2019). Filmul
    Adinei Pintilie,     scrie criticul Ionuţ Mareş, este vârful de lance dintr-o direcție artistică mai
    amplă care contracarează realismul dominant al Noului Cinema Românesc al
    ultimilor 15 ani. Este o direcție mai radicală, riscantă, extrem de personală,
    în care ficțiunea se îmbină cu documentarul și în care își fac apariția teme
    noi și personaje marginale.     Acelaşi critic notează că 2018 va rămâne și anul
    cu cele mai multe filme realizate de femei regizor. La o simplă enumerare au
    fost în săli: Soldații. Poveste din
    Ferentari,     de Ivana Mladenovic, Lemonade, de Ioana Uricaru, Un prinț și
    jumătate    , de Ana Lungu, În pronunțare, de Mihaela Popescu, Singură la nunta
    mea    , de Marta Bergman, Moon Hotel Kabul, de Anca Damian, și Pup-o, mă!, de
    Camelia Popa.



    Şi tot 2018 a fost foarte bogat în debuturi în
    lungmetraj. În afară de Adina Pintilie, Mihaela Popescu, Marta Bergman şi Ioana
    Uricaru, deja menţionate, au debutat promiţător cu filme lungi Andrei
    Crețulescu (Charleston), Hadrian Marcu (Un om la locul lui), Bogdan Theodor
    Olteanu (Câteva conversații despre o fată foarte înaltă), Liviu Mărghidan (
    Străjerii), Dragoș Buliga (Vânătorul de spirite), Vlad Zamfirescu
    (Secretul fericirii), Tedy Necula (Coborâm la prima) și Camelia Popa.

  • Writer Marin Preda

    Writer Marin Preda

    Imposed forcibly in Romania in the late 1940s, the communist regime changed everything, including the arts, in line with its hard line socialist realism and Proletkult (proletarian culture). Literature in particular had to show the victory of peasants and industrial workers, in their class struggle against the bourgeoisie and the landed gentry. A writer would have to subscribe to this ideology to see his work into print. It is no wonder that the quality of printed works plummeted. However, even in this barren landscape, one particular writer emerged suddenly as an exception, restoring hope in Romanian literature. The name of the writer was Marin Preda, born in a poor village in Teleorman County in 1922. He would have turned 92 on August 5th. Literary historian and critic Ion Bogdan Lefter told us more about Marin Preda’s background:



    “He came from a fairly poor peasant family, even though this is debatable. We know from his clan biography ‘Morometii’ that his parents owned land and farm animals, so they belonged to the peasantry owning land, to what the communists dubbed ‘kulaks’. Preda did not have much of a higher education. He graduated a teaching college, and, during the war, when he was 18 or 20, he came to Bucharest. In order to survive, he worked in the press, and by 1944, at the age of 22, he was still working in that field.”



    Marin Preda’s early writing, rooted in the world of the village, where the writer came from, resonated with the pervasive regime’s imposed ideology. Thanks to that, the writer quickly joined the cultural circles cultivated by the communist authorities. The writer knew when to make concessions and when to follow his own path in his published texts. Here is Ion Bogdan Lefter once again:



    “Marin Preda, with his life and family experience, was able to also write whatever he wanted, and to see that it fitted what was required of him. In his youth, Marin Preda wrote about the rural world with no political implications, but he also wrote a few Proletkult texts about the world of the village, which do not stand up to a purely aesthetic analysis. However, in Preda’s defence, he did not write many such texts, and one could separate them from the rest of his work. The two texts, on rural topics, were written between 1949 and 1952, during the early stage of Romanian Stalinism. Then follows the first thaw in Moscow, after Stalin’s death in 1953. Preda takes advantage of this period, and in 1955 he published the first volume of ‘Morometii’, a masterpiece which, in appearance, fits the era’s ideological standards, by the fact that it dealt with peasants and their abrasive relationship with the pre-communist authorities. Beyond that, however, Preda ignored the prescriptions of the official propaganda, and wrote an extraordinary novel about the life of peasants of the south of Romania.”



    The fame that the semi-autobiographic novel “Morometii” brought Preda secured him a permanent place in Romanian literature, as well as within the ranks of artists favoured by the regime. He became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, head of one of the most important publishing houses in the country, and a deputy in the National Assembly. Sheltered by these positions, he continued to write groundbreaking novels for that time. In 1980, he published his three-volume novel ‘The Most Beloved of Men’, which, according to Lefter, puts into question the entirety of the communist regime. That same year, Marin Preda passed away, on May 16.



    “The murky circumstances of his death could only be shed light upon if the archives of the former Securitate yielded documents showing clearly that he was rubbed out, but there isn’t enough evidence to support that. It may have been an accident. It’s not secret that he was having a hard time, drinking a lot, and his death might have been accidental. However, the death of such extraordinary man was, at the time, quite shocking. He was not that old. He died before turning 58.”



    Marin Preda’s literary standing is uncontested, but his relationship to the regime is still up for debate, and any clear image of it is dependant on a possible emergence of documents from the archives of the former regime.