Film director Lucian Pintilie dies at 84

Film director Lucian Pintilie died on May 16 2018, at the Elias Hospital in the Capital City, the spokesman of this hospital unit, Silvius Negoita, told AGERPRES. 

Lucian Pintilie was born on November 9 1933, in Tarutino, Basarabia, today in Ukraine, according to the www.cinemagia.ro Website. He graduated from the Institute of Theatre and Cinematography "I.L. Caragiale" (1956). 

After graduation, he mounted a series of shows at the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest, among which "Copiii soarelui" (Children of the Sun, 1961), "Prostii sub clar de luna" (The Idiots in the Moonlight, 1962), "Cezar si Cleopatra" (Caesar and Cleopatra, 1963), "Bidermann si incendiatorii" (Biedermann and the Arsonists, 1964), "Inima mea e pe inaltimi" (My Heart is at Heights, 1964), "D'ale carnavalului" (Only during a Carnival, 1966), "Livada de visini" (The Cherry Orchard, 1967), notes the www.cinemarx.ro Website). 

In 1965, he directed his first film, "Duminica la ora 6" (Sunday at 6), and in 1968 "Reconstituirea" (Reconstruction), a dark social satire, banned in Romania for two years. 

After the banning of the "Revizorul" play (The Inspector General, 1972), after its third performance, Lucian Pintilie received a passport and he was urged to leave the country. He settled in France. He came back to Romania to finish the shooting for "De ce trag clopotele, Mitica" (For Whom the Bell Tolls, Mitica?, 1982), based on his own screenplay based on the "Only during the Carnival" play, which film could only be seen after the Revolution of 1989, according to the www.imdb.com Website. 

In Paris, he debuted in 1973 with the film "Le Tableau," by Eugen Ionescu. Between 1974 and 1990, a time of exile, Pintilie directed very successful plays for the great stages of this world, both in the theatre and the opera house, such as "Turandot" (Carlo Gozzi), "Three sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard" (Cehov), "The Last" and "The Night Asylum" (Gorki), "Tonight We Improvise" (Pirandello), "Tartuffe" (Moliere), "The Magic Flute" (Mozart), "Carmen" (Bizet) etc., according to the Website aarc.ro. Moreover, in the same period, he directed the "Ward No. 6" film for the Yugoslav television, after the homonymous short story by Cehov, which premiered in Yugoslavia on June 1 1978. 

After his return to Romania, in 1990, he directed a series of films such as "Balanta" (Balance, 1992), "O vara de neuitat" (Unforgettable Summer, 1994), "Prea tarziu" (Too Late, 1996), "Terminus Paradis (1998, for which he was awarded the Special Price of the Jury of the Venice Festival), "Dupa amiaza unui tortionar" (The Afternoon of A Torturer, 2000), "Nikki Ardeneal, colonel in rezerva" (Nikki Ardelean, a reserve colonel, 2003), the short-lentgh "Tertium non datur" (2006), after Vasile Voiculescu's novel, "Capul de zimbru" (Bison Head). 

For "Duminica la ora 6" (Sunday at 6), he received several international awards, and a series of his films were selected for the Cannes Film Festival: "Reconstruction", "Ward No. 6", "Unforgettable Summer", "Too Late". The film "The Afternoon of a Torturer" was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2001. The film "Nikki Ardelean, a reserve colonel" was presented in 2003 at the Cannes and represented the main attraction point of the Romanian Film Festival in London (October 9-14, 2003), the first of its kind in the UK. The Romanian-French co-production "Tertium non datur" was presented for the first time at the Berlin Film Festival (February 9-19 2006). 

In 1992, he published the volume "Patru scenarii" (Four screenplays) and in November 2003 he launched the autobiographic volume "Bricabrac." 

In June 2013, Lucian Pintilie participated in the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), in the launch of the DVD called "Pintilie. Filmmaker," which includes all his 11 films, as well as a CD with 200 minutes of recording about the one who brought the Romanian film to the first line of the cultural life: cinema lessons, press conferences, colloquia, TV shows, respects and retrospections. 

Among the events of the 2017 edition of the Bucharest International Film Festival (BIFF), there was also the launch of the "Bricabrac" volume by Lucian Pintilie, the revised edition. 

He received the Excellence Award of the Romanian cinematography (2002), the Gopo Award for his entire career (2007), the National Order "Romania's Star" in rank of Grand Cross (2008) from President Traian Basescu, the Award for the best foreign book about film ("Bricabrac", 2010) from the Trade Union of the French Film Critics, the Excellence Award of the Transylvania International Film Festival (2011).