Romania continues an unlikely cinematic domination at Cannes, with a pair of rival directors

May 25, 2016 8:24 PM PT

Reporting from CANNES, France — As the Cannes Film Festival wound down last weekend, the festival jury offered a reminder of how large a shadow one small country has cast on this gathering.

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu took the director’s prize (he shared it with the French filmmaker Olivier Assayas) for “Graduation,” a story-slash-parable about a father who skirts ethical lines in the name of‎ his family. The trophy became the latest prize for a country that, with apologies to Donald Trump, just seems to win, win, win.

It was fully 11 years ago that Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu,” about the ways a healthcare system fails a dying man, took the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, kicking off the so-called Romanian New Wave. Two years later Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his period abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.”

Ever since, the Romanians have turned out complex, interesting and subtle work, reliably, every year, often by using their signature long shots and rigorous minimalism. “California Dreamin’,” “12:08 East of Bucharest,” “Beyond The Hills” and “Police, Adjective” have all won major prizes at Cannes in recent years. If you’ve never seen Radu Muntean’s infidelity drama “Tuesday, After Christmas,” which was at Cannes in 2010, stream it tonight; it will immediately make your life more profound by a factor of three. Other films, such as “Child’s Pose,” “Tales from the Golden Age” and “Aurora” all have their virtues too. This is less a new wave than a persistent surf-pounding.

But the beach can become a crowded place, to beat up a metaphor (something the Romanians would never do)‎. And even as the Southeastern European nation continues to represent a surprisingly potent cinema movement — Puiu also had a new film at the festival this year, the excellent “Sieranevada” (it’s combustible family-reunion drama as you’ve never seen it) -- the Bucharest gang is at a crossroads of sorts.

How much to continue in a style that’s served it well but could grow stale, like all styles, is an open question, as is the challenge of keeping on in a nation where even leaders admit they’ve failed their filmmakers.

And maybe most uncertain of all is the outcome of a rivalry fraught enough it could have walked in and sat down (for an aptly long period of time) in a Romanian film drama.

You see, because Puiu kick-started ‎the movement but Mungiu took it to the Palme finish line, the former is a little bristly about it all. And because Mungiu knows that Puiu believes that — and because Puiu thinks his style has been aped by others -- well, you see how it could get a little thorny.

And because they’re as different as personalities get — Puiu the no-nonsense man and exacting artist; Mungiu the extrovert and polished statesman — there is enough spice to fill a giant plate of jumări.

Both filmmakers are too adult, or savvy, to discuss it openly. But there it is percolating, undeniably, just below the surface.

“I think all in all it’s rather a good thing that this festival supports this kind of cinema and people are paying attention to it,” Puiu said. “But I think it’s obvious. What happened was I got this prize in Cannes, and then lots of directors saw that, and it pushed this style — direct cinema, Romanian realism, neo-realism, black realism, whatever you want to call it. Because I made a movie in 2001 and no one copied that,” he said, alluding to “Stuff and Dough,” a scruffy little gem of a road movie, and then nodded to Mungiu’s “Occident,” in 2002, which was not in the Romanian New Wave style.

A few days later, as Mungiu talked to The Times, he offered a slightly more coy acknowledgment of the tension.

“True, we were all being influenced in films that were done in the country that were successful,” he said. “But when you take life as an inspiration and not films, and you try to put life on screen, you can end up with certain types of films.”

Cinema rivalries are strange. Because directors don’t actually get a chance to play each other head-to-head — the placement of both “Graduation” and “Sieranevada” in competition at Cannes this year is as close as it gets — it doesn’t manifest in the way of, say, a matchup between Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. But who can claim a leadership mantle, especially in a place as small as Romania, is essential. The U.S. auteur world has room for Spike Lee and Richard Linklater and Steven Soderbergh and other trendsetters. A country like Romania, with less than 1/15th the population of the States, may be less accommodating.

“I believe Puiu is the icebreaker and had the power and the very uncanny personality necessary to be a leading figure. He is the context-creator,” said Corina Suteu, Romania’s Minister of Culture, in an interview with The Times here, playing it admirably and understandably neutral. “And Mungiu is the force who broke through.”

She added, “You have these polar opposites. Puiu is the daring one who made things move and Mungiu established it and put it down.”

Born a year apart (Mungiu, in April 1968, came second) and growing up at similar historical moments, they culled from the same influences. Many of the concerns of Romanian cinema, and Mungiu and Puiu in particular, involve a country that is supposed to have repudiated and escaped from the corruption that characterized the Communist period. Yet more than a quarter-century after the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu, these films make clear that there remain vestiges of the old system, and similar self-justifications.

“Graduation” focuses on a man, Romeo, who basically just wants his daughter, a graduating high school senior, to get the chances he didn’t — and is willing to wheel and deal in ways that are decidedly below board to ensure that happens.

We live in a world and society that is not very moral but is made up of people who believe they are moral.”

— Romanian director Cristian Mungiu

“We live in a world and society that is not very moral but is made up of people who believe they are moral,” Mungiu said. “I come from a country where everyone talks about corruption but they blame someone else. You can create a lot of problems this way — what is compromise and what is just laziness?”

Puiu, meanwhile, in examining the ways various family tensions play out in his “Sieranevada,” also offers a critique about personal accountability, as relatives at a wake (while waiting to eat a meal that, Godot-like, continually seems out of reach) hash out competing views on everything from old grievances to 9/11 truther theories.

“I think it’s very serious what’s happening. We need to rely on some kind of truth. And you look around and it’s impossible to find,” Puiu said. “We keep saying this is truth, and we keep on forgetting and letting ourselves choose the comfortable way, and don’t ask ourselves questions that put our own decisions in the discussion and not the decisions of others.”

He continued, “We tend to believe ‘this is what happened on 9/11/2001 in the United States’ but know nothing about what’s happening next door. This is a kind of illusion, a way of escaping real responsibilities.”

If those sound like similar sets of concerns, well, the irony of the Mungiu-Puiu rivalry is, some small stylistic and other differences aside, their films would not read as fundamentally different to most viewers. (Which, of course, also underscores the rivalry — if the heap is so specific, is there room for more than one at the top?)

That they’re even making these films is remarkable in its own right. A tax-incentive program, so critical to film production in many nations, is nonexistent in Romania. Film culture in general has been shrinking. Since the fall of Communism, the number of movie theaters has actually gone down — drastically, from nearly 450 theaters in 1990 to about 130 today. The situation inside the country, in other words, is much more depressed than the noise on the film-festival circuit would suggest.

Suteu, who was installed less than a month ago with a mandate to revamp how government funds the arts, says earlier regimes did not sufficiently support film.

“I think people like Puiu and Mungiu have been doing it despite the system,” said the minister, who in a previous job as head of a Romanian cultural institute in New York helped establish a Romanian New Wave film festival. “Our job is to make sure they have the support, which they have not had. It’s to support people who are making films, not old [sweetheart] deals from the days when people just got money without producing anything.”

Suteu is pressing a piece of legislation that would create a rebate system and also hopes to incentivize the building of art-house theaters. (Of course, as any U.S. indie filmmaker could tell you, sometimes the best creativity comes out of the tightest constraints.)

As to why the country has turned out such compelling stuff, ‎Suteu has an interesting theory. Instead of the standard social explanations of a post-Communist need to understand the past and/or critique the alleged improvements since, she chalks it up to media in the 1970s and 1980s when many of these filmmakers were growing up.

“There wasn’t much Romanian film on TV. So we were seeing French, German, British, Russian film. It was an indirect education through cinema, and even though Communism later banned a lot of these films, we were nourished in this universe.... The world’s history became our history,” she said.

She added, in an Eastern European flourish, “It’s like living in Venice and having a sense of beauty.”

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French actress Marion Cotillard leaves after the screening of “Juste la Fin du Monde” (It’s Only the End of the World) during the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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British director Ken Loach reacts as he receives the Palme d’Or award for his movie “I, Daniel Blake.”

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Canadian director Xavier Dolan with his Grand Prix award for “Juste la Fin du Monde” (“It’s Only the End of the World”).

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Filipina actress Jaclyn Jose with her Best Actress prize during a photo call at 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Romanian director Cristian Mungiu with his trophy during a photo call after he was awarded the Best Director prize for the film “Graduation” (“Bacalaureate”).

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Mel Gibson and girlfriend Rosalind Ross

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Actress Marion Cotillard and director Xavier Dolan arrive at the screening of the film “It’s Only the End Of The World.”

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French actress and singer Stephanie Sokolinski arrives for the screening of the film “It’s Only The End Of The World” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Actress Valentina Acca, left, producer and member of the jury Valeria Golino, director Stefano Mordini, actress Marina Fois, actor and producer Riccardo Scamarcio and producer Viola Prestieri arrive for the screening of the film “Pericle (Pericle il Nero)” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Director Olivier Assayas, actress Kristen Stewart and actress Nora von Waldstatten attend the Cannes Film Festival screening of the film “Personal Shopper” on May 17.

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Milla Jovovich attends the De Grisogono party at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17.

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Kristen Stewart poses during a photocall for the film “Personal Shopper” at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

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From left, Inma Cuesta, Emma Suarez, Rossy de Palma, Adriana Ugarte and Michelle Jenner pose during the “Julieta” photocall at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

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From left, Viggo Mortensen, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Charlie Shotwell, Samantha Isle, Shree Crooks and director Matt Ross pose for photographers during the “Captain Fantastic” photocall at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

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French model Cindy Bruna arrives for the Chopard “Wild” party at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

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Former boxer Roberto Duran, left, and actor Robert De Niro pose for photographers at the screening of the film “Hands of Stone” at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

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Jason Derulo performs at the “Harmonist” cocktail party at the Plage du Grand Hyatt during the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.

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Usher Raymond IV, left, Ana de Armas and Edgar Ramirez during a photocall for the film “Hands of Stone” at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

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Edgar Ramirez, left, Robert de Niro and Usher Raymond IV at the “Hands of Stone” photocall.

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Adam Driver poses during a photocall for the film “Paterson” on Monday in Cannes.

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Actor Adam Driver, left, actress Golshifteh Farahani and director Jim Jarmusch after Monday’s screening of the film “Paterson.”

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Chris Pine, left, and Ben Foster share a laugh at a photocall for the film “Hell or High Water” on Monday.

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Salma Hayek Pinault attends Kering Women in Motion talk at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

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Susan Sarandon, from left, Salma Hayek, Geena Davis and Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault arrive for the Kering Women in Motion Honor Awards during the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Actress and jury member Kirsten Dunst arrives at the premiere of “Loving” on Monday.

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Mischa Barton on the red carpet at the “Loving” premiere.

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Actors Murielle Telio, left, actor Russell Crowe, actress Angourie Rice, actor Matt Bomer, actor Ryan Gosling, director Shane Black and producer Joel Silver pose upon arrival at the screening of the film “The Nice Guys” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Actors Matt Bomer, left and Ryan Gosling and director Shane Black arrive for the screening of “The Nice Guys.”

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Actor Russell Crowe takes a picture at “The Nice Guys” premiere.

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Actress Geena Davis attends “The Nice Guys” premiere during the Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals.

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Actress Marion Cotillard poses as she leaves the screening of the film “Mal de Pierres (From the Land of the Moon)” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Model Kendall Jenner poses for photographers upon arrival at the screening of the film “Mal De Pierres (From the Land of the Moon).”

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Actress Sonam Kapoor poses as she arrives for the screening of the film “Mal de Pierres (From the Land of the Moon).”

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Actress Kirsten Dunst arrives for the Kering Women in Motion Honor Awards during the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Actors Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough leave the “American Honey” premiere during the 69th Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals.

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Actress Aishwarya Rai poses as she arrives for the screening of the film “Mal de Pierres (From the Land of the Moon).”

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Actresses Sonam Kapoor, left, and Araya A. Hargate pose as they arrive for the screening of the film “Mal de Pierres (From the Land of the Moon).”

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Actress Salma Hayek arrives for the Kering Women in Motion Honor Awards during the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Salma Hayek and Diego Luna arrive for the Kering Women in Motion Honor Awards.

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Actor Shia LaBeouf poses for photographers during a photo call for the film “American Honey.”

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From left: Director Jodie Foster, actress Julia Roberts, and actor George Clooney pose together before leaving the Festival Palace after the screening of their new film”Money Monster” at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday night.

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Blake Lively on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “Ma Loute (Slack Bay)” on May 13.

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Juliette Binoche arrives for the screening of “Ma Loute (Slack Bay)” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 13.

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Aishwarya Rai poses for the cameras at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “Ma Loute (Slack Bay)” on May 13.

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Lily-Rose Depp poses at a Cannes Film Festival hotocall for the film “La Danseuse (The Dancer)” on May 13.

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Diego Luna, a member of the Un Certain Regard jury, waves during a Cannes Film Festival photocall on May 13.

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Juliette Binoche smiles during a Cannes Film Festival news conference for “Ma Loute (Slack Bay)” on May 13.

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Director Jodie Foster and actor Jack O’Connell discuss “Money Monster” in Cannes on Thursday.

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Julia Roberts of “Money Monster” at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday.

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“Money Monster” director Jodie Foster, center, with stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts at the Cannes Film Festival.

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George Clooney of “Money Monster” waves to photographers at the Cannes Film Festival.

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George Clooney and Julia Roberts at the Cannes photo call for “Money Monster.”

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Actress Vanessa Redgrave and director Jim Ivory of the 1992 film “Howard’s End,” which is screening in the Cannes Classics section.

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Director Woody Allen, actress Kristen Stewart and actor Jesse Eisenberg arrive for the screening of “Cafe Society”and the opening ceremony.

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Festival director Thierry Fremau, from left, producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, actors Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake and festival president Pierre Lescure at the “Cafe Society” premiere and opening night gala.

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Actors Corey Stoll, left, and Blake Lively arrive for the screening of “Cafe Society.”

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Eva Longoria on the red carpet at the premiere of “Cafe Society” at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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The scene outside the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night gala.

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Actress Kristen Stewart and actor Jesse Eisenberg arrive for the screening of “Cafe Society” and the opening ceremony of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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From left, actresses Julianne Moore, Susan Sarandon and Naomi Watts pose for photographers at the Cannes Film Festival screening of Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” on Wednesday.

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Cannes Film Festival jury member Donald Sutherland attends the “Cafe Society” premiere and opening night festival gala at the Palais des Festivals on May 11.

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Actress Gong Li arrives at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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Actress Jessica Chastain smiles as she arrives at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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Actor and festival juror Mads Mikkelsen appears on stage during the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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Actress and festival juror Kirsten Dunst waves to the crowd during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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George Miller, president of the Cannes Film Festival jury, fourth from right, poses with jury members, from left, Arnaud Desplechin, Kirsten Dunst, Laszio Nemes, Vanessa Paradis, Donald Sutherland, Katayoon Shahabi, Mads Mikkelsen and Valeria Golino at the 69th edition of the festival in France on Wednesday.

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Actress Anna Kendrick, left, and Justin Timberlake, right, arrive by boat to the photocall for “Trolls” at the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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Among those attending the “Trolls” photocall at the Cannes Film festival Wednesday, are, in front row, starting second from left, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Justin Timberlake, director Mike Mitchell, Anna Kendrick and director Walt Dohrn.

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Actress Kristen Stewart attends a photocall for the film “Cafe Society” at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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From left, director of photography Vittorio Storaro, director Woody Allen, and actors Jesse Eisenberg, Corey Stoll, Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart attend the “Cafe Society” photocall during the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

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Actress Blake Lively poses Wednesday during a photocall for the film “Cafe Society” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France.

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Jury member Vanessa Paradis arrives at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Cannes Film Festival jury member Valeria Golino arrives in southern France for the festival.

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Jury Director George Miller poses for photographers upon arrival at Cannes for the 69th international film festival.

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Jury member and actor Mads Mikkelsen at the 69th Canness Film Festival.

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Jury member Donald Sutherland arrives at the Cannes Film Fetival.

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A beach artist creates an image with sand on the beach in front of the entrance of the Festival Palace in Cannes.

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Jury members actress Kirsten Dunst, left, actress and director Valeria Golino and actress and singer Vanessa Paradis on the balcony at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez.

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Iranian producer and jury member Katayoon Shahabi arrives at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez.

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Hungarian director and jury member Laszlo Nemes arrives at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez.

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The number of films from Romania at Cannes this year, across all sections, was, remarkably, the third-highest of any country, behind only the cinematic powerhouses of the U.S. and France. The effect of the New Wave has been so complete that the critical breakout of the festival — the German film “Toni Erdmann,” which fits firmly in a Western European tradition of human seriocomedy — actually set much of the action in Bucharest, a result of its director, Maren Ade, taking an interest in Romania as cinematic backdrop.

Historically, waves don’t last long; audiences grow tired and filmmakers become restless, leaving all that energy to dissipate.

Some have quietly begun to question the New Wave style, which, as well-executed as it is, can verge into cliche. (If more people knew about Romanian cinema, it would be ripe for a great “Saturday Night Live” parody.) Mungiu himself said he debated not shooting ”Graduation” with the same long takes and naturalism, whether to opt for an approach a little slicker and modern, before deciding the New Wave style suited the story he wanted to tell.

And after five features apiece, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Mungiu and Puiu decide to work outside the country or change their styles in a way that makes their work seem like less a part of a wave.

Then again, a little rivalry tends to go a long way.

@ZeitchikLAT

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