Evento

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu

Monday, September 26 at 7:00pm
In Person:Filmmaker Andrei Ujicâ

Members $9 / Public $13 (Includes Reception)

Cinema's propagandistic power is in full effect in Andrei Ujicâ's montage epic,
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, a fresco starring Romania's fallen
ruler and his wife, Elena. Ujicâ edits his images in order to illustrate a higher truth. But
what constitutes reality when its images have been stage-managed into baroque
pageantry or quasi-Hollywood musicals by a delusional dictator? Nicolae Ceausescu's
megalomania and self-aggrandizement are legendary. As Romania's tyrannical
President from 1974 to 1989, he created a bizarre cult of personality for himself. As
Romania plunged into mass poverty under his draconian austerity program and his
banning of contraception (which caused widespread child abandonment, botched
clandestine abortions and countless AIDS-infected orphans), Ceausescu continued to be fêted the world over. He was knighted by the
Queen of England, visited by President Nixon and was received warmly by Charles de Gaulle, Mao Tse-tung and most auspiciously
by the North Koreans, whose welcoming ceremonies for him rivaled those of the Beijing Olympics. Eschewing voice-over commentary,
the film's brilliant montage and subtle sound reconstruction create a sui generis film. Four years in the making and culled from one
thousand hours of archival footage both state sanctioned and private this spellbinding adventure unfolds as if from the nostalgic,
solipsistic memory of Ceausescu himself." Andréa Picard (Romania, 2011, 180 min., color, Digibeta