When they tried to establish a chart of the Romanian movie from its beginnings up to the present day, the journalists interested in this subject- and who obviously believed it would have been an interesting subject for the public!had to face two obstacles which apparently had nothing to do with each other. No, it isn?t (only) about the low appetite of some of those questioned to undertake a ?test? which uncovers them either due to their verdicts and idiosyncrasies-or, bluntly, due to their inconsistency and inherent ?friendships?? One deals with the frailty of the canon regarding the seventh art: how many of our critics (who aren?t just chroniclers!) have seriously bothered their head discussing this canon- given the fact that the Romanian cinematography keeps on being the Cinderella of the arts, exercising a quasi-null influence on the cultural paradigm, blocked in the literature-music-painting ?royal triad?? In Romania, due to too many reasons in order to be analysed here, the cinema is not part of the compulsory cultural canon. And maybe it is not just mere happening that the only cinema men valorised by the afore-mentioned paradigm are not only film but, more importantly, theatre directors: Liviu Ciulei and Lucian Pintilie. With us, the ?big? film battles have been given on journalistic ground, being punctual and mainly connected to the financial frauds of the CNC1 juries. The only critic who initiated a salutary work of re-establishing the position of the cannon- that of yesterday and that of today- is Valerian Sava and his Critical History of the Contemporary Romanian Movie (Meridiane Publishing House, 1999) whose first published volume stops immediately after ?the obsessing decade?? But Mister Sava is a concealed, marginalized, isolated or simply ignored ?franc-tireur?: if the discussion of the canon is difficult in what regards literature, then, when coming to the cinema, it is simply accidental! 1 The National Council of Cinematography. |