THE OLD COURT LIBERTINES (1996) – drama film online

Directed by: Mircea Veroiu
Script by: Ioan Grigorescu, Mircea Veroiu
Cast: Mircea Albulescu, Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan, Răzvan Vasilescu, Marius Bodochi, Ilinca Goia, Adriana Șchiopu, Ion Marinescu, Ștefan Sileanu, Manuela Golescu, Cristina Tacoi, Diana Gheorghian, Boris Petroff, Nicolae Urs, Gheorghe Dinică
Producer: Dan Pița, Vily Auerbach
Cinematography by: Marian Stanciu
Edited by: Mircea Ciocâltei
Sound: Silviu Camil
Music: Silviu Camil
Year: 1996
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama, Adventure
Duration: 105 minutes

PLOT SUMMARY

Pasadia, Pantazi, and Cara team up with the ruffian Pîrgu, because “everything is vanity”. For these princes of lost nights, the only sacred thing is friendship, and “the mutt” is the best guide on a journey through the night.

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“A project specifically conceived to address the frustrations of the Ceaușescu era (which had been on Liviu Ciulei’s list of priorities since 1970), dusted off and recycled with erotic elements and risqué language. Of course, a film adaptation of “Rakes” will always be a gamble with the impossible. How can one visualize the ‘scent’ of the Orient? But even if stripped of any comparison to the literary source, the film would still be a failure. (…) But what kind of film would Ciulei have made out of this?” – Tudor Caranfil

“This friendship with Mircea Veroiu has a unique aspect: in almost all of his films, the character he casts me as has many elements that reflect his own life story.” — Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan, 1995 (Noul Cinema)

“The film adaptation of Mateiu I. Caragiale’s novel had to overcome at least three objective challenges. First, it involved adapting a unique work, one with predominantly literary merits (refined stylistic orchestration, melodious phrases, the “coloristic” richness of the language, etc.), which is not exactly easy to translate into images. Second, the director had almost nothing left of the “Bucharest of the Princes” at his disposal. The third challenge was, of course, the novel’s limited scope. To a large extent, the film overcame these difficulties. What was lost due to the absence of the streets of yesteryear was made up for — thanks to production designer Ștefan Antonescu — by the opulence of the interiors (the Pașadia house, the Arnotenis’ apartments, the brothel and its rooms, and the other settings filmed by cinematographer Marian Stanciu using “sunset” filters). The alternation between the novel’s first-person narration and the “confessions” of the princes is replaced by the creation of a character in the image and likeness of the novelist, with the “voice of a thought” becoming a being with a name — Cara (from Caragiale, of course) — and a reputation. Director Mircea Veroiu also becomes (like Mateiu I. Caragiale) a “confessor to the princes”, always standing alongside his characters, amazed and captivated by their paradoxical nature.” – Călin Căliman

TRIVIA:

• The film’s screenplay is inspired by Mateiu Caragiale’s novel of the same name.
• The novel “The Old Court Libertines” was first published in installments in the magazine “Gândirea” between 1926 and 1927, and in 1929 it was published by Editura Cartea Românească in Bucharest; that same year, the author, Mateiu Caragiale, was awarded the Romanian Writers’ Society Prize for this work.
• “Upon its publication in 1929, it enjoyed resounding success, capturing everyone’s attention through the utterly unique charm of its evocative, enchanting pages, through the rich tapestry of images characteristic of the Balkan and Levantine atmospheres, and through the strangely original nature of its style. The novel’s value lies in the substance of its content, in the meanings it conveys, in the characterization of its figures, and, above all, in the peculiarity of its atmosphere and the picturesque nature of its style,” as stated in the “General Dictionary of Romanian Literature”, published under the auspices of the Romanian Academy by Univers Enciclopedic Publishing House in 2004. (agerpres.ro)
• The title of the novel comes from an anecdote published by I. L. Caragiale in “Vatra”, which explains the origin of the expression “rake”. “A gang of slum dwellers led by the Greek Melanos revolted after Gr. Ghica was dismissed and began looting the city. Melanos, wearing a nobleman’s hat and stolen princely robes, rode through the city with his ‘rakes’, dead drunk, on a donkey. The old ‘rake’ were thus a sort of debauched Bohemians from Bucharest, to whom the heroes of the book correspond in a different era,” wrote George Călinescu in “History of Romanian Literature from Its Origins to the Present” (2nd edition, revised and expanded), Minerva Publishing House, 1982. In this novel, the protagonists are three “rakes” — Paşadia, Pantazi, and Pirgu — “inseparable companions of unimaginable debauchery, the first two of aristocratic stock (in the particular style of Mateiu Caragiale), the third an obscure Bucharest native who will make a career as a social climber.” “We are in a Bucharest that is half-Balkan, half-Western, where the most refined sophistication mingles with profanity and crude lust,” George Călinescu further noted.

QUOTES:

 • “Watch out, work, keep quiet. This can only be the motto of artistic asceticism.” — Pantazi (Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan)
• “Let us make contact with the common people.” — Gore Pirgu (Răzvvan Vasilescu)
• “Does she attract you? To me, she seems to have something repulsive about her. You can sense Eve in her more than in other women.” — Cara (Marius Bodochi)
• “Considering how many she’s slept with, she’s holding up well.” — Gore Pirgu (Răzvan Vasilescu)
• “Screw it, I’m turning the page.” — Gore Pirgu (Răzvan Vasilescu)
• “The lords of the old court… indeed, it’s one of the most felicitous combinations of words. There’s something equestrian, something mystical about it.” — Pașadia Măgureanu (Mircea Albulescu)
• “To slap her, I have to put on my gloves. Otherwise, I’ll get my hands dirty.” — Pașadia Măgureanu (Mircea Albulescu)
• “I’ll leave them my bones. But my thoughts — never.” — Pașadia Măgureanu (Mircea Albulescu)
• “I still have something sacred in this world. My wealth.” — Pantazi (Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan)

ARTICLES:

• The Old Court Libertines (1995) – istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro
• Romanian Theater and Films: The Old Court Libertines – agerpres.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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