Film info: The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu

Film Information

Original Title	The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
English Title	The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
Director	Andrei Ujica
Country
Year	2010
Format	DCP
Colour	Color
Duration	187 min

Cast:

Nicolae Ceausescu, Elena Ceausescu

Production:

Guión: Andrei Ujica
Montaje: Dana Bunescu
Produccion: Velvet Moraru

Synopsis

A perfect companion for Videograms of a Revolution, this compilation of footage shot by Ceaucescu’s propaganda machine allows us to doubt about the point other film had made: that for one moment, film was no longer inspired by History but became instead its secret engine. The images the tyrant uses to celebrate himself –gatherings, popular celebrations, speeches, meetings with heads of state, family life scenes– aim at fixating the symbolic eternity of autocracy, while the revolution that had put the wheel of time back in motion was carried out precisely against those pieces of film. If Videograms’ urgency of the moment gives us an exceptional glimpse into the backroom of power, Autobiography, however, is both the rule and the proof that power is quite effective to express itself, even with a certain Eisenstenian beauty (just look at, for example, our recent Bicentennial). It’s easy to see the film today and reasonably deduce Ceaucescu was little more than a mediocre bureaucrat. But we should remember this was not what was said about him, even outside Romania.