Studii si Cercetari de Istoria Artei : Teatru, Muzică, Cinematografie (Dec 2015)
Westernul românesc – între modelul american şi corectitudinea politică naţională
Abstract
As early as 1957 Romanian critics recognized a "local" Western movie in At the Lucky Mill while director Victor Iliu admitted that he was influenced by American Westerns. Since 1968 Romanian cinema has participated in several co-productions with Western character. The three Romanian westerns: The Prophet, the Gold and the Transylvanians (directed by Dan Pița and Mircea Veroiu), The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians (directed by Mircea Veroiu) and The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians (directed by Dan Pița) were made between 1979 and 1981. They were preceded by a cartoon with a Western plot, The Far West Girl (1970, directed by Olimp Vărăşteanu), the documentary If I were a Cowboy (1972, directed by Ion Moscu), as well by Western short stories and novels written by Petru Popescu in 1972, respectively by Nicolae Nicolae Frânculescu in 1975 and 1980. The advent of the Western as a genre in Romanian cinema is partly due to the influence of American genuine Western movies, as well as of spaghetti westerns, but mostly to the policy of the Romanian communist government. In this respect we have to consider the ideological "thaw" and a period of liberalism inaugurated by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, a distancing from Moscow and an opening to the West after 1968, the visits of two American presidents in Bucharest (in 1969, respectively in 1975), as well as Ceausescu's visits to USA (in 1971 and 1978) and even promoting national-communism after 1971.
