Independenţa României, 1912

Independenţa României
programul filmului, 1912
cu imaginea producătorului (Leon Popescu)
source: Biblioteca Academiei Române
(wikimedia)
no copyright infringement intended

An amazing film for that era... This was the first feature film to last 2 hours (from which about 20 minutes are lost).
Ionuț Niculescu and Tudor Caranfil discovered in 1985 the movie's scenario, begun by Petre Liciu and continued by Aristide Demetriade and Constantin Nottara. This led to the establishment of the real director: Aristide Demetriade, not Grigore Brezeanu, as thought before. Grigore Brezeanu, along with Leon Popescu were producers.
Carol I was not present in the film (although the Royal House gave a sum of money for the production) except for the final parade which was set not in 1877/78, but in 1912 (actually a cut from a news reel, like a 30 years later...). In the movie he was impersonated by Aristide Demetriade, the director himself. The critics emphasized the merit of make-up artist Pepi Machauer (who also played czar Alexander).
Also, this was not the first Romanian film ever. Previous titles are: Păpușa, a theater play, 1911 Amor fatal, a theatre play, 1911 Inşir'te, mărgărite!, a fairy tale, 1911/2
In December 1911, the theatrical magazine Rampa published a note under the heading The Cinema in the Theatre (signed by V. Scânteie) indicating that Maestro Nottara is in the course of making a patriotic work re-creating the Romanian War of Independence on film, so that today's generations might learn the story of the battles of 1877, and for future generations a live tableau of Romanian bravery will remain.
As a result, the director of the Bucharest branch of the Gaumont-Paris studio, Raymond Pellerin, announced the premiere of his film Războiul din 1877-1878, scheduled for 29 December 1911. A film made in haste, with a troupe of second-hand actors and with the help of General Constantinescu, who commanded a division at Piteşti, from whom he had obtained the extras needed for the war scenes, Războiul din 1877-1878 was screened a day before by the prefect of the capital's police, who decided that it did not correspond with historic fact. Consequently, the film was confiscated and destroyed, Raymond Pellerin was declared persona non grata and he left for Paris, while the collaborationist general saw himself moved to another garrison as a means of discipline.
On 5 May 1912, the magazine Flacăra brought to its readers' attention the fact that "as it is known, a few artists have founded a society with the goal of producing a film about the War of Independence... Such an undertaking deserves to be applauded". The initiators were a group of actors: Constantin Nottara, Aristide Demetriade, Vasile Toneanu, Iancu Brezeanu, Nicolae Soreanu, Petre Liciu, as well as the young Grigore Brezeanu, associate producer and the creative force behind the whole operation. Since a large amount of money was needed for the production, they also brought into this effort Leon Popescu, a wealthy man and owner of the Lyric Theatre. The group received strong backing from government authorities, with the army and all necessary equipment being placed at its disposal, plus military advisers (possibly including Pascal Vidraşcu). The camera and its operator was brought from abroad, and the print was prepared in Parisian laboratories. The film's production crew was as follows: Producers: Leon Popescu, Aristide Demetriade, Vasile Toneanu, Nicolae Soreanu, Petre Liciu, Grigore Brezeanu, Constantin Nottara, Pascal Vidraşcu. Screenwriters: Petre Liciu, Constantin Nottara and Aristide Demetriade. Director: Aristide Demetriade. Cinematographer: Franck Daniau. Makeup and hairstylist: Pepi Machauer.
On 1 September 1912, at the Eforie cinema the premiere took place. Despite all its shortcomings as the theatrical game of the actors, the errors of an army of extras uncontrolled by direction which provoked unintended laughter in some scenes and rendered dramatically limp those of the beginning, the film was well received by spectators, being shown for several weeks. Through this realization, through the dimensions of its theme, through the distribution method chosen, through the genuine artistic intentions, through its professional editing (for the time), the creation of this film can be considered Romania's first step in the art of cinematography.
And yet he who had realized this work, the man who kept the whole team together, the theater director Grigore Brezeanu, was left disappointed. The press of the time made ostentatious mention of Leon Popescu, who financed the film and made sure to distance the other financiers, buying their part; no such praise was heaped on the artistic makers of the film. This caused producer Grigore Brezeanu to say in an interview given to the magazine Rampa and published on 13 April 1913: My dream would have been to build a large film studio. I have come to believe that this is impossible. First of all, we are missing a large capital investment. Without money we cannot rival the foreign studios...A studio, according to our financiers, is something outside art, something in the realm of agriculture or the C.F.R. Hence I have abandoned this dream with great regret.

(bansaraba on IMDB)

Independenţa României, 1912
(video by Cinema History)

Hai să o dau puţin şi pe româneşte :) Nu a fost chiar primul nostru film, dar pe aproape. Pentru mine filmul ăsta e o minune: să îi vezi în carne şi oase pe câţiva din cei mai mari actori pe care i-a avut teatrul românesc, pe Demetriade, pe Nottara, pe Romaneasca (aşa o alintau, pare-se cronicarii dramatici ai vremii). Şi nu numai ei, Brezeanu, Toneanu, Soreanu, Liciu... Am citit în copilărie o Istorie a Teatrului Naţional (scrisă de Ioan Massoff), am citit-o din scoarţă în scoarţă, şi toată viaţa am regretat lipsa unei maşini a timpului, să îi văd şi eu în carne şi oase. Iar filmul acesta mi-a dat prilejul să pătrund şi mai adânc în epoca aceea, să aflu de Teatrul Liric din Piaţa Walter Mărăcineanu şi de directorul său Leon Popescu... sau de Pepi Machauer, formidabilul as al machiajului din acest film...


(Filmofilia)