Et voila, o mini recenzie pozitiva la Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceausescu, de la The Playlist, prezenti la Vancouver IFF
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"The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu" (Andrei Ujica)
If it wasn't already evident, those pesky Romanians are, like, really frickin' good at this whole filmmaking thing. The much ballyhooed "New Wave" from the Eastern European country has been in full swing for a good half-decade now, kicking off, or at least catching lots of attention from the press, when several films and filmmakers began winning major awards at Cannes: Cristi Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" won the Un Certain Regard in 2005 (we recently caught and were quite fond of his latest, the three-hour "Aurora"); and Corneliu Porumboiu's "12:08 East of Bucharest" took home two awards in 2006 (his last film, 2009's "Police, Adjective" was criminally under seen and underrated during its limp release in select American cities). But the big title that really made the film community pay attention was director Cristian Mungiu's tense, frightening look at an abortion in 1980's Romania, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." It took home three prizes at Cannes 2007, most importantly the Palme d'Or.
Whew. It's been an impressive run, and doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon with another contribution to this uncompromising, often austere crop of films coming in the form of Andrei Ujica's (darn, too bad his name doesn't start with a "C") somehow immensely engaging, 187-minute documentary "The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu." It's a fascinating idea: take only raw, archival footage of the former dictator, the stuff he allowed to be filmed, and re-purpose it in an attempt at perspective. The result is an often haunting, but mostly ironic (it's quite funny at times, especially when we see things like Ceausescu out of his realm cheating in volleyball) look at propaganda and how it served the hubris of the man in power from 1965 to 1989. He and his wife's execution isn't mentioned, but the film is book-ended brilliantly with brief snippets of the trial during the December '89 revolution ("these are all lies!" he screams at the conclusion). There's probably a better descriptor for it, but this is a thorough examination of the stuff he wanted shown. With the advent of time, and the strong montage work out of no doubt endless amounts of found footage, the doc is further proof that these filmmakers from Romania still have a lot to say, politically and ideologically, about their country's sordid past. [B+]
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http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010...breillats.html