PHILANTHROPY (2002) – comedy film online

Directed by: Nae Caranfil
Script by: Nae Caranfil
Cast: Mircea Diaconu, Gheorghe Dinică, Mara Nicolescu, Viorica Vodă, Florin Zamfirescu, Cristian Gheorghe, Florin Călinescu, Monica Ghiuță, Constantin Drăgănescu, Dan Aștilean, Marius Florea Vizante, Valentin Popescu, Ovidiu Niculescu, Constantin Chelba, Liviu Timuș, Marius Rizea, Ioan Georgescu, Ion Albu, Lupu Buznea, Lenuța Luțescu, Carmen Ciorcilă, Mihaela Mitrache, Ion Ștefan Claudiu, Cristian Rotaru, Gabriela Butuc, Alexandru Gheorghiu, Ada Solomon
Producer: Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Antoine de Clermount-Tonnerre
Cinematography by: Vivi Drăgan Vasile
Edited by: Tiberiu Teodorescu, Thierry Derocles
Sound: Andrei Chiroșca
Music: Marius Mihalache
Year: 2002
Category: Feature film
Genre: Comedy, drama
Duration: 110 minutes

PLOT SUMMARY

In 21st-century Bucharest, going out on a Saturday night with a beautiful woman on your arm is a risky financial investment. OVIDIU (Mircea Diaconu), a modest high school teacher, couldn’t afford it.

And yet he must, because he has fallen head over heels in love with DIANA (Viorica Vodă), a 20-year-old mermaid with model ambitions. In search of a more substantial source of income than a meager teacher’s salary, Ovidiu plunges into a fabulous world, the beggars’ mafia… One of its leaders takes him under his wing. PEPE (Gheorghe Dinica) is half artist, half businessman; the official “lyricist” of Bucharest’s beggars, he invents biographies, lines, and attitudes according to the personality of the beggar or the target clientele.

Ovidiu will become the ideal “actor” for his new experiment. Overnight, the middle-aged teacher finds himself “married” to MIRUNA (Mara Nicolescu), playing night after night, alongside her, the comedy of a needy couple according to a meticulously crafted script by Pepe. The Prince and the Pauper… Pendulating between two women, newly rich in Diana’s eyes, a humble husband to Miruna, Ovidiu begins to lead a dangerous and exhausting double life…

AWARDS

• 2001 – UCIN – Grand Prize
• 2001 – UCIN – Special Jury Prize (Gheorghe Dinică)
• 2001 – UCIN – Screenplay Award (Nae Caranfil)
• 2001 – UCIN – Award for Production Design (Svetlana Mihăilescu)
• 2001 – UCIN – Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Mircea Diaconu)
• 2001 – UCIN – Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Mara Nicolescu)
• 2002 – Mons International Love Film Festival – Youth Jury Award
• 2022 – Paris Film Festival – Audience Award
• 2022 – Wiesbaden goEast – Special Jury Award
• 2003 – Würzburg International Film Week – Audience Award

FESTIVALS

• 2003 – Romania’s nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, but it was not accepted into the competition.

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“In 21st-century Bucharest, going out on a Saturday night with a beautiful woman has become a risky financial investment. A modest high school teacher couldn’t afford it! Head over heels in love with a little mermaid with model ambitions, Ovidiu falls into the trap set by the official “text writer” of Bucharest’s beggars, becoming the ideal actor in a true experiment in collective psychology. “ – Tudor Caranfil

“A film in which lyricism gives way to acid irony, a story to which the director (and screenwriter) lends a touch that is more lucid than playful.” – Andreea Chiriac

“Not a dull moment, ‘wealth-poverty-sex’, cascading humor, underground melancholy, soap opera and postmodernism…” – Eugenia Vodă

“If you want to perceive the world we live in as accurately and cynically as possible, Philanthropy is the most effective solution…” – Irina Margareta Nistor

“Nae Caranfil continues to defy, without showing off.” – Sebastian S. Eduard

“By continuing to explore the realities of the present, the director has consolidated the moral and philosophical substance of his artistic approach.” – Călin Căliman

“Poverty has never been more poetic!” – George Popescu

“When a Romanian film comes out once in a blue moon, and when it’s a good film, is there any point in analyzing it? Just be thankful you get to see it!” – Cristian Tudor Popescu

“Philanthropy finally reconciles viewers and critics.” – Alex Leo Șerban

“Philanthropy is an addictive film” – Gabriela Hurezean

“It is Nae Caranfil’s most harmonious film…” – Mircea Toma

“Comic, intelligent, fluent, and without moralizing sentimentality, the film shows the dilemma of a society with large differences in living standards and paradigmatic changes in moral norms.” – Frankfurter Rundschau

“A sharp discourse with incisive and jovial situations.” – Studio Magazine

“Half-story, half-bitter comedy, reminiscent of the Italian films of Scola or Risi.” – L’Express

“A corrosive film that you should not miss under any circumstances.” – Le Point

“Caranfil has taken up the famous phrase coined by Gabin in ‘Crossing Paris’: the poor are beggars!” (…) A winning bet. You smile and ponder.” – Le Figaro

“Run and see it. This Romanian work (…) is a gem of black humor.” – Le Parisien

“A satirical fable about the contemporary exploitation of charity” – Le Monde

“Taking such a basic idea to such heights is an achievement that many Hollywood screenwriters would envy!” – Variety

“Philanthropy is the most faithful and sarcastic snapshot of this nation in the last 12 years. In a film industry that is still struggling to find its footing, Romanian film lovers cannot afford to miss this effervescent success.” – Cristina Zaharia, agenda.liternet.ro

“Nae Caranfil’s latest comedy, is like Billy Wilder’s Prince and the Pauper (the one from “The Apartment”), revisited by a Romanian descendant and filtered through postmodernism, and staged (the idea of staging, performance, acting, histrionics is found in almost every sequence) in Bucharest at the beginning of the 21st century.” – Andrei Gorzo, Dilema Veche, agenda.liternet.ro

“Perhaps more than in his previous films, Nae Caranfil offers a much more comprehensive view of Romanian society (in E pericoloso sporgersi, he deals with things that happened before 1989).” – Iulia Blaga, agenda.liternet.ro

“When such cynicism sets out to tell stories, together with Caranfil’s talent, his worldly character, his embarrassing ignorance of the same world he belongs to, and his charming passion for other worlds, the result is a film like Philanthropy. Caranfil was truly once upon a time for Romanian cinema. And he could be again.” – Călin Boto, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• “Philanthropy” premiered on March 15, 2002, and was conceived by Nae Caranfil as a comedy “with a tear in the corner of the eye”, inspired by the tradition of Italian comedy from the Monicelli–Risi era.
• Nae Caranfil stated that he did not seek to moralize the audience about begging, but only to show that there are different types and various “paths” of money.
• Although the film is about beggars, the director did not make a classic documentary, he says; his intuitions about this world were later confirmed by a former high school classmate who became a police officer.
• The role of Pavel Puiuț was written directly with Gheorghe Dinică in mind, without considering a cast of newcomers.
• A defining moment: when he told his father that he wanted to be Giuliano Gemma, his father explained that there is a “director” who tells the actor what to do — and Caranfil decided that this is what he wanted to become.
• “Philanthropy” was produced by Domino Film, Mact Productions, and MediaPro Pictures, with support from the National Center for Cinematography and Canal+. This film was supported by Eurimages.
• The Domident commercial featured in the film was directed by Ovidiu Bose-Paștina and filmed by Constantin Chelba. The music was composed by Marius Mihalache, with additional complementary pieces by Radu Drăgănescu.
• The film enjoyed moderate success with audiences, being seen by 113,302 viewers in Romanian cinemas, according to a report on the number of viewers recorded for Romanian films from the date of release until December 31, 2007, compiled by the National Center for Cinematography.
• Filming took place in September and October 2000 in Bucharest, in locations such as Herăstrău Park, Victoriei Square, Cervantes High School, Gara de Nord railway station, Carul cu bere, and Lipscani.
• In addition to established actors, several talented young people made their film debut in this film: Mara Nicolescu, Viorica Vodă, and Cristian Gheorghe. The film also features Florin Zamfirescu as the Poet of Gara de Nord, Marius Florea Vizante as Simpaticul, Constantin Drăgănescu, Monica Ghiuţă, and Dan Aştilean.
• Nae Caranfil himself makes his debut in this film, playing a pop singer who does karaoke to Frank Sinatra’s music.
• The second film he really wanted to make was not “Asphalt tango”, but an ambitious project about the making of the film Independența României (1912), starring Victor Rebengiuc as Leon Popescu, Marius Florea Vizante as Grigore Brezeanu, and Lucian Pintilie as King Carol I. The project made it to the casting stage, but was never realized.
• The director has stated in numerous interviews that he sees himself as a “lone wolf”, interested primarily in his own projects, not in “competing” with his colleagues.
• About Romanian theater: he has a “love-hate” relationship with it and says that he finds the “mechanical” standing ovations at the end irritating, calling them “provincialism”.
• The reason he abandoned theater directing: leaving Romania in 1988, then becoming an “international commuter” between the West and Romania after the Revolution.
• About festivals: he claims he doesn’t make films for festivals and is ironic about the idea that festivals “want films without music”.
• Criticism: he talks about the standardization of festival films and a “toxic” polarization between “festival films” and “audience films”.
• Bitter observation: even films that win awards at Cannes/Berlin may not be remembered, and contemporary blockbusters seem increasingly “formulaic” to him, closer to “video games” than to an emotional experience.
• About TV series: he says that series have become a platform for creativity that often surpasses cinema; he mentions that he has seen Breaking Bad, Homeland, True Detective, Fargo, and is looking forward to The Young Pope; he has heard good things about Versailles.
• Personal story: his first “clear” cinematic memory is Winnetou; as a child, Caranfil refused to accept the death of the hero and imagined the ending “in reverse”.

LINES:

 • “I think there’s a mistake with the zeros here…” – Ovidiu (Mircea Diaconu)
• “Teacher, aren’t you my friend?” – Robert (Cristian Gheorghe)
• “I was forced to study most of these pathetic drunks in high school. They were the poets of the golden age, who were the first to notice the antagonistic contradictions between Soviet vodka and Romanian wine spritzer.” – Ovidiu (Mircea Diaconu)
• “I am the prose writer of High School 22.” – Ovidiu (Mircea Diaconu)
• “I recite the poem for a shot of vodka!” – The Poet of the North Station (Florin Zamfirescu)
• “I have a mother’s soul, what can I do…” – Pepe (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “AIDS doesn’t work in Romania, here we die of the flu.” – Pepe (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “It’s not shameful to ask. It’s shameful not to receive. The Romanian state has been begging Europe and America for years, and no one is giving them anything. What can I do with them if they work with amateurs!” – Pepe (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “An outstretched hand that doesn’t tell a story doesn’t get alms!” – Pepe (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “With your money, can you afford to have dignity?” – Pepe (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “And all this for one purpose: to appear in front of her tomorrow as a guy with money, a cell phone, and a fancy car.” – Ovidiu (Mircea Diaconu)
• “Don’t go with your wedding ring on your finger!” – Miruna (Mara Nicolescu)
• “Come on, tonight I want some trouble!” – The Nice Guy (Marius Florea Vizante)
• “Do you know how billionaires smoke?” – Ovidiu (Mircea Diaconu)
• “The Popescus, face to face with the people, on PRO TV.” – Pepe (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “Life is complex and has many aspects.” – Debt Collector (Valentin Popescu)

ARTICLES:

• Review: “Philanthropy. Nae Caranfil”, by Andrei Gorzo – liternet.ro
• Romanian theater and films: “Philanthropy” (2002) – agerpres.ro
• Philanthropy – istoriafilmului.ro
• “(They) didn’t confuse me.” Thoughts on Gopo and Philanthropy – filmsinframe.com
• Review: “The Outstretched Hand”, by Cristian Zaharia – agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “At Dakinoptica”, by Alex. Leo Șerban – agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Profitable Professions” by Andrei Gorzo – Dilema Veche, in agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “A Comedy Instead of a Drama” by Alex. Leo Șerban – Libertatea, in agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Nae Caranfil’s Phil(m)antrophy,” by Iulia Blaga – agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “The Threepenny Opera”, by Irina-Margareta Nistor – agenda.liternet.ro
• Review: “Are you feeling sorry for me? I took your money!” by Iulia Blada – agenda.liternet.ro
• 10 years with Romanian cinema. The year 2002 – agenda.liternet.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.

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