It s like a bad movie: Romanian filmmakers have become the darlings of world cinema, but many in their own country have never seen their work, with just 70 mainly dilapidated theaters nationwide.
It s really a paradox: Romanian filmmakers receive awards abroad and audiences around the world go and see their films, just not in Romania, said director Radu Mihaileanu, whose Va, Vis et Deviens (Live and Become) won a best screenplay award at the Cannes film festival in 2006.
A lack of heating, poor sound, uncomfortable seats – many Romanians who would potentially consider catching a movie now say it s not worth the trouble.
I don t go to the cinema too often, I must admit, mainly because many of them are in bad condition, multiplexes excepted, said Dan Petrescu, 26, a catering employee in Bucharest.
I can t sit comfortable, I don t hear well … they are simply just old and unattractive.
But Petrescu is among the lucky ones. In Bucharest, he can choose between 12 cinemas and three multiplexes. In smaller towns, options no longer exist.
In Miercurea Ciuc, some 270 km north of Bucharest, Ana Bertalan, 50, said she misses going to the cinema, even though the building where she used to watch movies was in bad condition and poorly heated.
The city is now left with no cinema, though Bertalan said she was optimistic after hearing that a mall being built there would include one.
It s a completely different experience to watch a movie on a big screen, and now, whenever I go to a big city, where cinemas still exist, I take my time and go watch one, Bertalan said.
Romania s internationally lauded directors lament the state of the country s movie houses.
Corneliu Porumboiu, awarded a Golden Camera for a first feature film at Cannes in 2006 for 12:08 East of Bucharest, called the state of Romania s cinemas a disaster.
Nobody wants to pay to go to a cinema where it s freezing, the sound system was installed in the 1960s and you can t even hear the dialogue, he said.
The problem has however led to at least one innovative solution.
Director Cristian Mungiu decided in September 2007 to take a mobile theatre to towns that no longer had a cinema to screen his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – for which he had received the Cannes best film Palme d Or.
Under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was shot dead on Christmas Day in 1989 after a popular uprising, Romania had more than 300 cinemas.
Movie theatres across Eastern Europe then began closing after the fall of communism as they became too expensive to operate, according to Joel Chapron, central and eastern European head of Unifrance, which promotes French cinema around the world.
But I don t know any country that s in the same state as Romania today, as far as the number of cinemas and cinema-goers is concerned, said Chapron.
Cinemas are being built again all around the region and more people are generally going to the cinema, he noted, Except in Romania.
A dozen multi-screen theatres have opened in Romania in recent years and more are set to follow, but Chapron remains concerned.
I hope it won t be too late, because Romanians haven t been going to the movies for almost 20 years … that s an entire generation.
Statistics from the national cinematography centre show that 2.9 million people went to the cinema in 2007, down from 4.5 million in 2003.
Romanians have lost the habit of watching films on a big screen, partly because of films downloaded off the Internet and DVDs, legal and pirated, according to film critic Alex Leo Serban.
You need to encourage children to go to the cinema, see a movie on the big screen and understand that an outing like this with friends is a way to socialize, said Mihaileanu.
It will be a pity if humanity moves towards a society where everyone is alone in front of their screen, he added.
Like many of his colleagues, Mihaileanu has called for the introduction of film classes at school, to allow children to understand images and make them want to go to the cinema.
Films show the different perspectives of each director; they teach us how to look, in a very democratic, very multi-faceted way, at the world around us. -AFP
