The Rest Is Silence - Once Upon a Time in Romania

The shot of old streets and the music covering everything, Morricone-like, brought me immediately to the world of Once Upon a Time in America. And to the world at the beginning of cinema, in an old Bucharest. Silent films, silver screen, dreams that are made to be lived or broken. The project Nae Caranfil dreamt to make and who got made even harder than The War for Independence/Independenţa României, the film in the film.

Elegant, touching, alive, happy-sad, tender but powerful, epic and operatic. With two actors challenging each other (Marius Florea Vizante and Ovidiu Niculescu), the story is true (even though romanticized and with names changed), and it had to be said. On the big screen, in a grand way. A big budget Romanian film, shot with elegance in the days of the revival of new Romanian cinema, films that are gritty and realist, it's just the film I hoped that could be made in a country where this is all but forgotten. And the joie du cinéma, old-fashioned maybe, but with a fresh breath and lots of innuendos and in-jokes for film buffs.

A musical without really being a musical, a war movie without being really a war movie, a romance without romance and a drama that is sometimes comical, this nostalgic look at the days of pioneering filmmaking is a one-of-a kind film. Nuovo Cinema Caranfilo. The rest is silence.