Romanian Film Review – Leopards, romcoms, and melodrama: An all-time classics January

Happy new year, dear Insiders! May it be healthy, peaceful, and jolly. And filled with good films!

The beginning of January is not particularly active in terms of releases; everyone is still on holidays or recovering from them. But the classics never disappoint and there are plenty of those to kick off the new year in style (scroll below for trailers).

Cinemateca Eforie in Bucharest has a terrific programme these days. You can catch the forever-quotable love story Casablanca (1942). Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart are the screen couple of legend, and there is even more Humphrey Bogart fare, like the noir Dead End. Honestly, anything with Bogart is worth seeing, rugged charm guaranteed.

Speaking of legendary screen couples, THE most epic must be Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable as Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler in the love story/ Civil War drama Gone with the Wind (1939). Some aspects of the films have aged badly (the depiction of ‘happy’ slavery, for one) but otherwise this is grand Technicolor spectacle, unapologetically melodramatic and over the top. You have to see it on a big screen in all its glory (and four hours running time).

The weekend of 12-14 January is dedicated to Cary Grant, another legend – terribly overused and cliché, I know, but so fitting here. Bringing Up Baby (1938) is one of the fastest, funniest screwball comedies. Not, it is not about babies, but about a certain leopard called Baby. Watch it to believe it; when they say "they don't make them like that anymore", they must mean one brilliant gag after the other, often at breathtaking speed. Only Angels Have Wings (1939) is a sharp, fun adventure pic, and so good to see they are also showing the fabulous melodrama curiosity that is Blonde Venus (1932), pairing Grant with another legend (last time I am using the term, I promise), Marlene Dietrich.

And a little info (or tip) on the films above: when you visit Eforie and get your ticket at the box office, you can suggest films to be screened. This is as interactive as it gets.

In Cluj, cinema Victoria is showing excellent new fare (Justine Triet’s clever, gripping courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall) and New Year’s Eve love story favourite When Harry Met Sally (1989), also endlessly quotable, lovable, and an absolute classic in the canon of romantic comedies. 

To many more treats at the theatre in 2024!

By Ioana Moldovan, film columnist: [email protected]
Picture: Matusciac | Dreamstime.com