The Rest Is Silence

Restul e tacere

(Romania, 2007, 140 mins)

35mm

Canadian Premiere

Selected Filmography:  

PROD: Cristian Comeaga
SCR: Nae Caranfil
CAM: Marius Panduru
ED: Dan Nanoveanu
MUS: Laurent Couson
Cast: Marius Florea Vizante, Ovidiu Niculescu, Mirela Zeta, Ioana Bulca, Florin Zamfirescu

This exuberant moviemaking comedy is more proof of the unprecedented strength in contemporary Romanian cinema--though the expansive, crowd-pleasing tone could scarcely be further removed from the grim realism of 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days or The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. Set in 1911, in the early days of the silent film era, this is the story of Grig Brezianu (Marius Florea Vizante), a perpetual embarrassment to his father--a famous theatre actor--for his obsession with motion pictures. Undeterred by the oceans of condescension that come his way, Grig implores Leon Negrescu (Ovidiu Niculescu), Bucharest’s most grandiloquent patron of the arts, to underwrite his dream of an epic about Romania’s War of Independence--the country’s very own Birth of a Nation. Negrescu is a stentorian windbag who has never seen a movie before--but when he does, he’s smitten.  

Writer-director Nea Caranfil sprinkles the film with droll insider jokes about moviemaking then and now. Briefed on this exciting national prestige production, Romania’s sovereign is sorely taxed to comprehend what exactly a “director” does, while the charismatic fraud Negrescu is horrified when his protégé turns in a picture running a “monstrous” two hours. Packing romance, tragedy and even an animated interlude onto the movie’s already bountiful bill of fare, Caranfil more than justifies his own claim on our attention. Incredibly, this engaging shaggy dog story turns out to be (more or less) true.

---

---

---

For ticketing information please phone 1-604-685-8297 or email boxoffice@viff.org