Movie

The Beauty of Venice in September

Directed by: Nae Caranfil
Screenplay: Nae Caranfil after a text by Teodor Mazilu
Cast: Dorina Lazăr, Dan Condurache, Cristina Țopescu, Alexandru Georgescu, Ion Roxin, Radu Iordănescu, Vasile Moisescu, Mihai Marta, Marius Bindea, Sandu Gruia, Florian Pittiș
Image: Cristian Comeagă
Year: 1983
Category: Short film

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Nae Caranfil, moderated by Gabriela Filippi.

Event presented in partnership with U.N.A.T.C. “I.L. Caragiale,” Bucharest.

“In the year this student film was made, as I mentioned, I was a junior, and the assignment given by the department was to adapt a short play by Teodor Mazilu—which also serves as the film’s title. Mazilu’s text consisted solely of a conversation between a HE and a SHE, in an undefined setting—a poetic, humorous, pseudo-philosophical dialogue intended to satirize certain mentalities—I would call them “Bovaryan”; characters who, unable to adapt to tangible reality, take refuge in cheap daydreams and bookish fantasy.

As a director, I took a different approach, a different angle. I dove into the concrete: I invented a group of “tourists” who landed in Venice on an organized trip under the conditions outlined above. I imagined a collective obsession with obtaining, at any cost, a “rounding up” of the hard currency amounts held by each of them. I thus created a mercantile atmosphere, reminiscent of Dâmbovița-style black-market haggling exported to the most romantic city in the world, and this stands in stark contrast to the romantic, swooning tendencies of the female character. Where this leads, you’ll discover by watching the film.

And one more thing: stylistically speaking, this school project was intended to be a parody-tribute to one of the most famous films of the 1960s, a landmark of the French New Wave: *Last Year at Marienbad*. If any of you have seen this film or read about it, you will surely notice the connection.

Enjoy the journey." - Nae Caranfil

Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu