Take the annual TIFF Unlimited caravan that travels to various cities with movies shown at the eponymous festival that took place at the beginning of June in Cluj-Napoca. You can check out the details here<\/a> and on their FB page<\/a> (in Romanian).<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a good occasion to think back on the \u2018mother\u2019 event, Transilvania International Film Festival<\/a> (the aforementioned TIFF). It celebrated its 25th edition and brought together a large part of the local film industry, mostly during the Romanian Days section that features both premieres and recent releases. For the sake of brevity I will cruise through the ones that stayed with me most. Amazingly prolific Radu Jude<\/a> participated with The Diary of a Chambermaid\/ Journal d’une femme de chambre<\/em>, a typically caustic tale of class and capitalism, more subdued than some of his most recent fare. More on it when the film is released in cinemas in autumn. Ingenious, versatile and (deadpan) comedy genius Corneliu Porumboiu<\/a> was paid extensive homage, and it was high time. Among the premieres, Andreea Cristina Bor\u021bun\u2019s A River\u2019s Gaze\/ Malul v\u00e2n\u0103t<\/em> stood out through its considered, stoic approach to a female-centred story set in rural southern Romania. For the opposite genre, I cannot remember the last time I heard so much laughter at a Romanian comedy like during Cristian Bota\u2019s Back and Forth\/ Dus-\u00eentors, <\/em>a tragi-comic father-son road trip carried by great acting and sharp comedic timing. The short film programmes this year were more coherent and simply better than compared to past years. If I had to single out a few, it would be Cosmin Nicolae\u2019s Cherry Master<\/em> and Valentin-Rare\u0219 Fogoro\u0219\u2019s The Americans Are Coming!\/ Vin Americanii!<\/em>, the former a strikingly beautiful Bucharest-by-night story with a Chinese gymnast as its lone protagonist, and the latter a hilarious fake documentary about an American shooting in the Transylvanian countryside.<\/p>\n I must confess I neglected the main competition this year in favour of other sections but from what I saw, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke\u2019s A Useful Ghost\/ Pee Chai Dai Ka<\/em> was unexpectedly sweet, a story of the dead coming back as vacuum cleaners. I could never guess the next turn in the plot, and what a perfect balance of humour, awkwardness and wisdom. The documentary competition was once again my favourite, staying true to its love for hybrid forms, mixing fiction and documentary. I was so, so impressed with Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar\u2019s Variations on a Theme<\/em>, a lyrical, gentle, and utterly distinctive portrait of an indigenous community in South Africa\u2019s Namaqualand. To circle back to \u2013 and end with \u2013 the classics, or as some might say, TIFF\u2019s greatest strength: this year even grander, because they added films that premiered 25 years ago, the year the festival was born. Watching John Cameron Mitchell\u2019s Hedwig and the Angry Inch<\/em> with a full theatre singing along was a blast. Otherwise, I finally caught up on George Sluizer\u2019s The Vanishing\/ Spoorloos<\/em> (1988), it\u2019s truly one of the most bone-chilling films I\u2019ve ever seen, and Iv\u00e1n Zulueta\u2019s Rapture\/ Arrebato<\/em> (1979), a cult, drug-fuelled cautionary tale of cinema as an obsession, gorgeous and haunting.<\/p>\n Cinephile obsession is a great way to segue to the second part of my article: In my personal Groundhog Day<\/em><\/a> manner, every June I go from Cluj to the northern Italian city of Bologna, a centre for film restoration and preservation and host of cinema lovers’ heaven, its festival of restored film, Il Cinema Ritrovato<\/a>.\u00a0And here comes the next link to TIFF: the hard-working Radu Jude. His film is the first Romanian title I\u2019ve spotted in the selection in the eight years I\u2019ve been here. The material is Italian though, namely archive pornography reels that Jude and brilliant editor C\u0103t\u0103lin Cristu\u021biu edited with zest, accompanied by a narration from Dante, and named Trailer for Dante’s Paradiso\/ Trailer pentru paradisul lui Dante<\/em>. A more misleading, cheeky title has not existed. Carlo Chatrian, director of the National Cinema Museum in Turin, introduced the short film and joked that he knew as soon as he initially mentioned their large porn archive that he\u2019d be sorry. I can see why, because Radu Jude hasn\u2019t encountered a cringey content that he wouldn\u2019t unleash upon his audience. As always, it starts fun but as the film progresses towards its \u2018climax\u2019 it becomes harder to sit through, and the gimmick gets tiresome and uncomfortable. There is only so much ejaculation one can handle at 11 in the morning. The film turned out to be the more benign in the programme, the other two managed \u2013 remarkably and distressingly \u2013 to upstage it in shock value. Oh what I would have given for trigger warnings.<\/p>\n The other movies I saw were more proper (ha!) but also more forgettable than in past years. I blame the extreme heat for putting a dent in my ability to make choices and run between locations. The memorable ones were the newly restored films of Indian filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak (poetic and political); Dariush Mehrjui\u2019s dark and fantastic The Cycle\/ Dayereh-ye Mina <\/em>(1975), the downfall of a young man getting caught in a blood-donation crime ring and the labyrinth of a Tehran hospital; and Mitchell Leisen\u2019s witty rom-com\u00a0No Time for Love <\/em>(1943). The most fun discovery was the 3D restoration of Warner Bros.\u2019 1950s movies, when the format had a phase of glory before the rise of Cinemascope. Popeye<\/em> in 3D was eye-popping \u2013 I could not resist the pun, sorry! I would have watched a whole night of those bright shapes and movements.<\/p>\n A different (and much more personal) highlight was the talk with Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin<\/a> following a screening of his eccentric, hypnotic ode to German expressionism Careful<\/em> (1992). His strange, lovely films made my 20-year-old brain explode back then; it was such a clear moment when I realized what cinema can do, how playful and free it can be, how it can show its admiration for what\u2019s been done before with delight and ingenuity. Hearing Maddin talk with sly joy about his process and his love for the medium has already become of my most treasured encounters.<\/p>\n By Ioana Moldovan, columnist, <\/em>ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nPhoto info & credit: screening of Mel Brooks\u2019 <\/em>Young Frankenstein, \u00a9 Lorenzo Burlando, courtesy of Cineteca di Bologna<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n