THE NATIONAL CINEMATIC EPIC – documentary film online

Directed by: Bogdan Jitea
Script by: Bogdan Jitea
Cast: Adrian Cioroianu, Sergiu Nicolaescu, Victor Rebengiuc, Cristian Tudor Popescu, Valerian Sava, Constantin Vaeni, Liviu Tofan
Producer: Romanian Institute of Recent History
Cinematography: Andrei Lascu
Editing: Andrei Lascu
Sound: Andrei Lascu
Music: Sarmalele reci
Year: 2011
Category: Feature film
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 59 minutes

4,393 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

The documentary addresses the issue of historical films during the Ceaușescu regime, a political commission for which enormous material and human resources were mobilized and which represented a formidable propaganda tool.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“The socio-economic mythology of the first decades of the communist regime was replaced by a national mythology dominated by a secular pantheon of historical and mythical figures. Historical film follows this direction, with the entire seductive power of cinema serving to illustrate the official historiographical discourse of the Party-State, personalized by its Leader. In our film, we sought to capture the main themes that animate this cinematic program.” – Bogdan-Alexandru Jitea

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“Historical films are identified as a priority for cinema in the report accompanying the proceedings of the first meeting of the Ideological Commission, which took place on May 23, 1968. The document refers to a first category of films that will constitute the “epic,” namely historical blockbusters, marked by a museum-like reconstruction of the past. In this sense, filmmakers must become “passionate cinematic historiographers,” whose duty is to imbue the past with contemporary political significance. Their goal is to illustrate national history in “cinematic images,” so as to create “a broad and as eloquent and coherent as possible fresco of the historical destiny of the Romanian nation, in harmonious and supportive coexistence with the cohabiting nationalities, closely linked by the same ideals of building and advancing the socialist homeland.” – Bogdan Jitea, cinepub.ro

“As far as I am concerned, I believe that the ‘national cinematic epic’ is a political commission aimed at recovering the values of national history for the propaganda purposes of the regime.” – Bogdan Jitea, cinepub.ro

“The historical film genre, conceived as an act of culture and a school of patriotism, is becoming almost a specialty and a vocation of our cinema.” – Constantin Pivniceru, Cinema magazine, no. 12, year XV, 1987, pp. 12-13

“A political film is not one that discusses politics, but one that forces you, the viewer, to see the world in political terms.” – Dinu Kivu, Cinema magazine, no. 2, year XII, 1974, pp. 26-27

Judging mainly films made after 1960, Manuela Gheorghiu, in an analysis of the evolution of Romanian historical cinema from 1976, distinguishes between two subgenres of National Epic films: “1) films evoking the past more or less distant from the period of the establishment of communism and 2) films referring to recent history — world wars, the labor movement, the illegal Communist Party of Romania, the anti-fascist struggle, the events of August 23, 1944, and the postwar period.” – Bogdan Jitea, limbaromana.md

The film that officially inaugurated the new direction was “Tudor” (directed by Lucian Bratu, screenplay by Mihnea Gheorghiu, 1963), made during the final period of the Dej regime and later recovered by Ceaușescu’s cinema to be included in the epic project. Until “Tudor”, Romanian cinema lacked historical films, in stark contrast to what was happening in other people’s democracies, a sign of the total repudiation of national values that characterized the first stage of Romanian communism.” – Bogdan Jitea, cinepub.ro

However, for film critic Ion Cantacuzino (in “Aspects of Romanian Fiction Film Themes”, no. 1/1976, p. 51), this division is not methodologically significant. In addition to “Tudor,” ” The Dacians”, “The Column“, and “Michael the Brave“, the author also includes “The Soimaresti Clan”— “an adventure film with a historical background” — and, by extension, “The Outlaws” series in the national cinematic epic cycle. Also included in this genre are productions that capture “turning points in political and social history, in which the Communist Party played a predominant role while operating illegally.” – Bogdan Jitea, limbaromana.md

“In terms of our analysis, I believe that the national cinematic epic represents a political mandate aimed at recovering the values of national history for the propaganda interests of the regime. The films grouped together in this project claim to be true visual documents, illustrating official theses. In a deterministic manner specific to Marxist-Leninist political discourse, the national cinematic epic has the duty to explain the developments of the socialist present and to announce the total victory of communism. Personally, I prefer the restricted classification offered by Manuela Gheorghiu. Indeed, only films in the first category claim to accurately reconstruct the past. When evoking the struggle of the working class, it strikes us that most of the characters and situations are fictional.” – Bogdan Jitea, limbaromana.md

TRIVIA:

• Born in 1982, Bogdan Jitea holds a PhD in history from the University of Bucharest, with a thesis coordinated by historian Lucian Boia in 2012. He is a specialist in the history of cinema, visual propaganda in totalitarian regimes, and Ceauşescu’s cultural policies.
• He is also the author of the column “Cinecomunism” on the website of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile, in which he analyzes the main films of the communist regime.
• In 2012, he made his debut with Cinema în RSR. Conformism şi disidenţă în industria ceauşistă de film [Cinema in the Romanian socialist republic: Conformity and dissent in the ceauşescu’s film industry]” (Polirom), a book developed from his doctoral thesis. Bogdan Jitea analyzes the mechanisms of control, the National Cinematic Epic, and current films, as well as several forms of resistance in cinema during the Nicolae Ceauşescu period. (Ionuț Mareș, filmsinframe.ro)
• The first seed of this idea, which developed into his doctoral thesis and later into a book, was planted in his third year of college, when Bogdan, passionate about cinema, chose as his thesis topic the image of the leader in historical films. During his doctoral research, however, he shifted his focus to “the institutional organization of communist cinema, the mechanisms that made the film industry work” (Bogdan Jitea).
• In an interview for Films in Frame with Ionuț Mareș, Bogdan Jitea stated that, although he was a researcher at the National Film Archive, access to the archives was quite difficult. He had trouble getting hold of the production files, and then he was not allowed to photograph them.
• Andrei Lascu, the film’s cinematographer, was responsible for the cinematography and some of the documentaries made by Marius Oprea and Nicolae Mărgineanu.
• Alongside Bogdan Jitea, historian Dumitru Lăcătușu also worked on the documentaries.
• In an article for “Limba Română – revistă de știință și cultură” (“Romanian Language – Science and Culture Magazine”), Bogdan Jitea notes that, according to the guidelines of the 9th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party in July 1965, the five-year plan of the Film Council provided for the production of a significant number of films included in the national epic, with diverse themes: “the formation of the Romanian people, the struggles led by the country’s great voivodes for independence, the battles for social freedom and national unity, the great figures of Romanian culture, the heroic struggle of the working class and its party for the liberation of the homeland and the people, for socialism” (“National Epic”, in “Cinema”, no. 8, year IV, 1966, p. 2).
• In a report presented by the Ideological Commission of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party — led by Paul-Niculescu Mizil — for debate in 1968, the Party-State’s intention to use historical film to disseminate the ideological theses of national communism becomes much clearer. According to the report’s recommendations, filmmakers should interpret, rather than narrate, historical events in a contemporary spirit. Filmmakers thus became “cinematic historiographers,” and the past was interpreted according to the framework of Marxism-Leninism, softened by new nationalist accents. The historical film is defined by its character as “an evocation of the struggle of the masses for social and national freedom, of the struggle of the working class, led by the communists, against exploitation and fascism, for the liberation of the country, for the construction of socialism” (Bogdan Jitea, limbaromana.md).

LINES:

• “I am a patriot. But not a made one. I was born that way.” – Sergiu Nicolaescu (director)
• “Dej sent a number of people to the West. He strengthened relations with the United States – economic relations. Specialists came. All this was part of the move away from the Kremlin. The national cinematic epic was also part of these measures.” – Cristian Tudor Popescu (film critic)
• “Dacii, for example, is perhaps the film least infested with propaganda of all.” – Cristian Tudor Popescu (film critic)
• “Ceaușescu watched my films. He and Maurer, the president of the council of ministers.” – Sergiu Nicolaescu (director)
• “Your training and education through communist education is complemented and goes well with the cinema spectacle destined for the masses at a time when Romanians went to the cinema in large numbers.” – Adrian Cioroianu (historian)
• “The same direct style, copying party propaganda, could be found in the films made by Mircea Drăgan, ‘Ștefan cel Mare – Vaslui 1475’, where Ștefan cel Mare traveled around various areas of the country in much the same way that Ceaușescu visited the counties of the country during his reign.” – Valerian Sava (film critic)
• “Historical films did not only have a producer or a director. They also had consultants. (…) Scientific consultants. This combination of ideological creation and the work of history professionals led to bizarre results and, beyond the nostalgia with which we view them today, we must accept that they provided an image of our history that had very little to do with the truth.” – Adrian Cioroianu (historian)
• “I shaved, I got a haircut, I went to Ion Brad, Dumitru Fernoagă, and I said: if Amza Pellea isn’t playing Mihai Viteazu, I’m not making the film.” – Sergiu Nicolaescu (director)

ARTICLES:

• Bogdan Jitea: “The National Cinematic Epic” created a distorted image of history, which continued even after 1989″ – filmsinframe.com
• The National Cinematic Epic. Film, history, and propaganda under Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime – icr.ro
• Bogdan Jitea, historian: The communist regime had to show that it was not a body planted from outside. This is how the idea of the national cinematic epic came about – presamil.ro
• History, politics, and film under the communist regime – limbaromana.md
• The National Cinematic Epic: Film, history, and propaganda under Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime – historia.ro
• “The National Cinematic Epic” at “Cinemateca pentru toţi” (Cinematheque for All), with Cristian Tudor Popescu – observatorcultural.ro
•  The Film Book. A Look Behind the Scenes of Socialist Cinema – observatorulcultural.ro
•  The National Cinematic Epic. Film, history, and propaganda under Nicolae Ceaușescu (Press release, The National Cinematic Epic. Film, history, and propaganda under Nicolae Ceaușescu) – agenda.liternet.ro

WATCH OTHER MOVIES