Romanian New Wave Drama: a New Genre?
Romanian New Wave Drama: a New Genre?

Summary/Abstract: It seems that the XIXth century realism, cinéma vérité, Italian neorealism and Free Cinema have not exhausted the flmmakers’ ability to innovate in their attempt to achieve veracity. Critics from everywhere, both favourable and unfavourable, have noticed a new way of making cinema, later called the New Romanian Wave, which has caused changes in the aesthetics and concept of the fiction flm, but regretfully which did not affect the nonfiction film as well. The author attempts to elucidate the premises of the appearance and the artistic and aesthetic characteristics of this new direction in the Romanian film – an essential stage in the imposition of a new cinema. The most important feature of the New Wave, in addition to technical features such as direct sound and hand-shot, is a new type of sombre drama, alongside of which the neorealist dramas seem like melodramas. In order to convince that this is a different drama from the one in neorealism, the author uses quotations from prestigious foreign critics and comparisons made between the films “Death of Mr. Lazarescu”, “Aurora”, and “Police, Adjective” and some neorealist films such as “Bicycle Thieves” and “Umberto D.” Thus, the specifics of the aesthetics of the creation of the young filmmakers Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristian Mungiu and others is configured.

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