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Film Studies: National Cinemas

This guide highlights selected resources for various national cinemas.

Introduction to Romanian cinema

Lumière films were shown in Bucharest less than five months after their first screenings in Paris in December 1895. The earliest Romanian films were on a medical theme and made by Gheorghe Marinescu in 1898 and 1899. The earliest feature film was Independenta Romaniei/War of Independence (Aristide Demetriade, 1912), and many films made during the 1910s were based on theatrical productions. By the 1920s a network of cinemas had developed, showing films based on Romanian folk myths (influenced by the western), comedies, and musicals: of these, Jean Mihail’s Manasse (1925) is deemed artistically noteworthy. Romania became a communist republic in 1947 and the film industry was nationalized in 1948. Socialist Realism quickly became the dominant form, with instructional films showing the triumphs of social improvement in rural areas. Victor Iliu is a key director from this period. In contrast to other Eastern European countries such as Czechoslovakia (see czech republic, film in; slovakia, film in) and Hungary, Romania did not experience a ‘thaw’ in the 1950s, and the Buftea studios maintained a Soviet-style output of some fifteen features a year through the decade, with documentary, animation, and children’s films key genres (see eastern european animation).  ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Romania, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 May. 2021

Searching the online catalog

You can use the subject heading below to find resources in the online catalog. The call number range is also included.

Selected book titles

Other library resource(s)

Finding journal articles

Articles and other writings about Romanian cinema can be found in different publications. Our collection does not include any journals which look exclusively at Romanian cinema. However, there are several titles that look at Eastern European film. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.

Selected movie titles

Find more Romanian film titles in the library's online catalog.

Internet resource(s)