"We have some movie theaters. What do we do with them?"

Thematic Dossier

The 9th edition of the Festival Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest (October 19-28, 2018) brought the most important and award-winning films of the year to Romania. The screenings took place at Cinema PRO, Cinema Elvire Popesco, Cinemateca Union and Cinema Muzeului Țăranului.
In an interview for Adevărul Live, filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, organizer of the festival, brought up the thorny problems of Romanian cinema, from legislation that is not suited to the demands of the current industry to the lack of facilities in cinemas. The director deplored the ashen status of Romanian cinema, focusing primarily on funding, but also on the loss of cinemas and the fact that there are no structures directly subordinated to a political decision-maker.
It should be recalled that the film industry is under the aegis of the National Cinematography Center, a subdivision of the Ministry of Culture and National Identity (MCIN).
And yet, according to Mungiu, the main problem of Romanian cinema is not funding, but rather the answer to a simple question: Why do we make movies? For entertainment, as a mode of artistic expression or as a "calling card" for our contemporary artists who have something to show? Or because Romania has something to gain?
Cinema has a dual role: it can be both entertainment and art. What should we invest in? Another problem arises when the state is willing to invest in the production of a movie, but doesn't care where the movies will be screened. We lack movie theaters, we lack the network of distribution in the territory. Paradoxically, in Romania, cinema reached its peak when there were houses of culture, with projectors, where movies were shown, a popular pastime at the time. But today, even in some big cities, there are no movie theaters other than those in shopping malls. Has the time come to reinvent the neighborhood cinema or to rehabilitate the movie theaters that were once the glory of the boulevards of Bucharest?
If the answer is yes, the focus should be very much on directing investment and resources towards rebuilding a system to bring these movies back to their audiences. "Quite a complicated process," according to the director.

The ideas outlined were developed and debated during the round table organized on the occasion of the Festival Les Films de Cannes a Bucarest 2018 and BNA 2018 last autumn, at the Galleries of the Romanian Filmmakers' Union (UCIN), organized in partnership with the National Biennial of Architecture 2018 and the Romanian Order of Architects.
The participants were: architect Bogdan Tofan, commissioner of the National Biennale 2018, architect Ileana Tureanu, president of the Union of Romanian Architects, Alex Trăilă, National Center of Cinematography, Valentina Miu, representative of the Media platform in Romania, Claude-Eric Poiroux, director of Europa Cinemas, Lucian Pricop, vice-president of UCIN.
During the discussions, the director Cristian Mungiu, the moderator of the round table, highlighted a number of key points of the current situation of cinemas in Romanian cities, pleading for their rescue and their reintegration into a national network adapted to the needs of today's audiences. The following excerpts summarize part of this plea made by Gabriela Albu (Cinema coordinator of the Romanian Peasant Museum) and Laurențiu Damian (president of UCIN). (Maria Mănescu)

Cristian Mungiu: "I programmed these conversations in Les Films de Cannes because [...] there are many issues that lie behind the celebration generated by a festival. They [...] are not solved just because we have the capacity to organize screenings of Cannes award-winning films for the public. It's probably the best time to bring them up again, because it's during such a moment that the cinema gets some visibility. I brought up the discussion about legislation [...], I brought up the discussion about cinemas not just to inform what stage we are at with these legislative and administrative restructuring processes, but to try to see if there are concrete and immediate steps that we can take or influence or encourage. What I have always wanted is for us to have more than just small one-off measures, namely, a plan, a strategy, and not just any strategy, but a phased strategy. We laugh at the communist period, but a five-year plan is a "good thing", otherwise we are left with halls of this kind only on paper. We invest [...] a lot of time and energy in structuring these themes, in identifying the problems on the ground, in trying to do the work of an NGO that brings together people who should be helping each other, getting to know each other. We, as a civil film society, try as much as possible to push things forward. But, of course, we can't have structural investments at the level of commune, city, county, we can't rebuild a network of cinemas. We travel more, we have more expertise that we can offer, because we know better than others how things should be organized so that these restructurings are not done chaotically and local resources are not consumed in creating cinemas that do not lead to what we all want. In fact, what do we all want? To re-offer to the community in Bucharest, in other cities, some central places where they can spend quality leisure time in a less "consumerist" way than at the multiplex. Sure, you go there to buy clothes, see a movie, that's fine. But we want to encourage the redevelopment of downtown cinemas (now largely disused) into familiar places where you go to the movies, have a coffee, surf the internet, where you can leave your child somewhere safe for a while, read a book. In fact, we want such places to become small cultural institutions composed of several small cultural structures that create a "vibe" in the heart of the city, a state already gained by some private initiatives in Bucharest or other big cities in the country. I'm talking about the fresh air brought to the city centers by the small bars, tearooms, clubs, bookshops that are operating.
We should focus on the creation of a dynamic and vibrant cultural movement in city centers, by combining actions to capitalize on the resources of the cinema, which still has some sufficiently large central spaces, with the attraction of local authorities that have the money to invest in this kind of actions that, we hope, intelligently grouped, will be able to create a flow of interest oriented towards different types of public, theater, bookstore, cinema. In this sense we are trying to push things forward, to put people in contact, to support them in making the best possible decisions. It would be dramatic if, after so many years in which measures have been completely lacking, well-meaning people take the wrong measures, make useless investments (for example, [...] some mayors have renovated movie theaters, but they also made windows...) [...] [...] And we must understand to offer expertise without arrogance, people (in the administration) are not qualified for this kind of actions [...] and they need our help, they must understand that we are willing to offer advice.

Today we didn't get any response from the public authority, we sent 80 invitations to 80 town halls that have recovered their movie theaters, [...] we hoped, we expected, we would have liked someone from the public administration in Bucharest to come. [...] I will keep you informed if we get an answer. Obviously, it is essential to have an answer. [...]
I expect the city hall to create the framework, to have a strategy [...] we need their help because we, as an NGO, cannot manage this city. We need their involvement. [...] it's difficult, I don't know why it's easier for me to open the subject with representatives of the European Commission for the funding that I'm trying to generate for the re-creation of cinemas in Romania, than to discuss with local authorities. Maybe it is just a stage, I hope that today's discussion will sensitize them to some extent, I hope we will have a concrete answer".

Cinema Patria © Daniela Puia

Gabriela Albu: "[...] In 2015 and 2016, at the Romanian Peasant Museum [...] we (Studio Horia Bernea - Cinema Muzeul Muzeul Țăranului) were doing very well. Apart from the screen in the auditorium, we had the screen outside, the garden of the auditorium [...] we ensured good image, acceptable sound, the audience forgives you the small breakdowns. It was basically a complex, where a man could spend all day, with or without children - being a fenced area, children were free to move around in the courtyard. Parents would sit on the terrace, in the restaurant, then they would go to the movies, if it was summer, they would come to the garden. [...] the idea discussed so far here works very well, even better at the level of a movie theater with one or two screens, not necessarily a complex, although I subscribe to the idea of a cultural hub because there is a need for something like that. Both can work very well. It was very interesting because there were all kinds of people in the space, all ages. I fulfilled a dream, because I wanted to have an audience with a unifying thread [...] we modernized, we created a Facebook page, a set program, the possibility to buy tickets online. Young people started to come to us and [...] so the audience became very diverse in age, [...] which was really nice to see at the premieres [...] the talks were from 18 to 80 years old and they were sharing ideas. People like that, but only as long as all the elements work. When they started to turn off, we were left with just a survival line. But in 2015-2016 it became clear that such a model works, even if imperfectly."

Cristian Mungiu: Laurențiu Damian, [...] two years ago, the solution was found to replace the Studio hall, closed for seismic reasons, with the Corso. It seemed like a big step forward [...] Every year when we organize the festival, we give you a call and ask if we can use it this year. Two years ago we were told yes but it wasn't possible, a year ago we were told yes but it wasn't possible, this year we didn't even ask. I don't understand what is happening, why it is happening [...]".

Laurențiu Damian: "It's a good thing you didn't ask [...] first of all, welcome to the lobby of the Romanian Filmmakers' Union Cinematograph! The Studio Hall is in perfect condition and if you want to open it, we will open it. I would have liked us to enter the theater, because it is in perfect condition, the building above it is not in perfect condition, and that is why the theater was closed. We got the Corso hall from RADEF and for 2 years or 2 something years we got all the permits. We hope that [...] we will even have two halls [...] we will have Corso and we will also open the Studio, because it is not of very high seismic risk, as was said. Basically, we're only being accosted with the block above at screen level. [...] In relation to the Corso, the last permit is the building permit, because it doesn't belong to sector 5, but to the PMB, given that Bd. Elisabeta is a protected area. I can't make any kind of prediction, all I could do was to make it easier to make the movie theater available to filmmakers [...]."

"Has the time come to reinvent the neighborhood cinema or to rehabilitate the movie theaters that were once the glory of the boulevards of Bucharest?" (Cristian Mungiu)

SUMMARY OF ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE, NR.1/2019
Architecture. Film. Cinema