Mircea Săucan — Secretul cel mai bine păzit din cinematografia românească a anilor ’60-’80

Abstract

Mircea Săucan — The Best-Kept Secret of Romanian Cinema in the 1960’s-1980’s Mircea Săucan, one of the most atypical figures of Romanian narrative cinema, is yet to be unveiled. He only directed a few full-length features which were either banned or isolated from the rest of the films produced at the time. “When Spring Is Hot” (190) was one of the first Romanian movies to challenge propaganda clichés. Its poetic visuals had but one rival in Romanian cinema: “The Mist Is Lifting” (1958) by Iulian Mihu and Manole Marcus. “The Endless Shore” (1963) was meant to depict the socialist transformation of agriculture in Dobrogea, South-Eastern Romania. It ended up as a non-narrative poem about the miracle of love. “Meanders” (1967) is “one of the most daring quests for a highly expressive cinematic language so far”, said film theorist George Littera. “Alert” (1967) caused a big scandal because Săucan twisted the original subject story into a poetic film essay. “100 Lei” (1973) depicts a young misfit, as a victim of an indifferent and merciless society. The movie premiered in a truncated version, with some additional scenes that were meant to replace the tragic ending of the main character with a soft, “positive” conclusion.

Keywords

• poetic visuals
• experimental cinema