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www.unatc.ro Academic Journal of National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” – Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 UNATC PRESS UNATC The academic journal of the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale“ publishes original papers aimed to analyzing in-depth different aspects of cinema, film, television and new media, written in English. You can find information about the way to submit papers on cover no 3 and at the Internet address: www.unatc.ro Editor in chief: Dana Duma Deputy editor: Andrei Gorzo [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Managing Editor: Anca Ioniţă [email protected] Copy Editor: Andrei Gorzo, Anca Ioniță Editorial Board: Laurenţiu Damian, Dana Duma, Andrei Gorzo, Ovidiu Georgescu, Marius Nedelcu, Radu Nicoară Advisory Board: Dominique Nasta (Université Libre de Bruxelles) Christina Stojanova (Regina University, Canada) Tereza Barta (York University, Toronto, Canada) UNATC PRESS ISSN: 2343 – 7286 ISSN-L: 2286 – 4466 Art Director: Alexandru Oriean Photo cover: Vlad Ivanov in Dogs by Bogdan Mirică Printing House: Net Print This issue is published with the support of The Romanian Filmmakers’ Union (UCIN) National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Close Up: Film and Media Studies Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 UNATC PRESS BUCUREȘTI CONTENTS Close Up: Film and Media Studies • Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 Christina Stojanova Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Evil in New Romanian Cinema 7 Dana Duma Hypothesis on Tararira, Benjamin Fondane’s Lost Film 19 Andrei Gorzo Making Sense of the New Romanian Cinema: Three Perspectives 27 Ana Agopian For a New Novel. Alain Robbe-Grillet. Screenplay versus Novel 43 Irina Trocan The Protagonist in Essay Cinema 57 Wang Yao Re-politicization of Space, or Spatialization of Ostalgia: Big Cities as a “Fold” in Recent Balkan Films 65 Radu Nicoară The Hero Paradox. An Introduction Toward Hero Morals 75 Anca Ioniţă Greek Tragedy and the Films of Cristian Mungiu. A Comparative Analysis 89 BOOK REVIEW Feminist Film Theory and Pretty Woman by Mari Ruti Reviewed by Iulia Voicu 101 Close Up: Film and Media Studies | Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 | 3 Editor’s Note Dana Duma PhD Professor UNATC “I.L.Caragiale” Bucharest he ongoing interest generated by the evolution of New Romanian Cinema con- tinues to fuel the exploration of recent developments in papers we include in T this new issue of “Close up”. Christina Stojanova’s text scrutinizes the directors penchant to describe the proliferation of evil in a post-communist society in terms closer to genre formula or to self-reflexive narratives, which confirms the movement is switching from radical realism to more familiar or more self-conscious forms of storytelling. Andrei Gorzo’s contribution provides a critical look at some of the recent academic literature (in English) on the New Romanian cinema, mainly on recent books by Monica Filimon, László Strausz and Bogdan Popa. Some Romanian recent films are looked through the prism of re-spatialization of ostalgia, the topic of Wang Yao’s paper dedicated to Balkan post-com- munist cinema and its political subtext. Anca Ioniță’s comparative analysis between Greek tragedy and Cristian Mungiu’s screenplays wants to demonstrate films such as 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Beyond the Hills and Graduation are based on a plot constructed as a paradigm for choice and decision, as they are defined by Aristotle in the The Poetics. A study on myths, narratives and their hero is tackled by Radu Nicoară’s article within a large scale perspective which links human culture as a whole and Darwinian evolutionary biology. An episode of diasporic Romanian cinema, the disappearance of the film Tararira made by Benjamin Fondane in Buenos Aires, is reinterpreted, within the framework of Argentine cinema industry and international context of 1936, by Dana Duma. Two other articles of this issue are dedicated to more theoretical topics. Irina Trocan’s text establishes similarities between Antonioni’s film Blow up and recent essay films, trying to define the specificity of this genre, while Ana Agopian proposes a comparative analysis between Alain Robbe-Grillet’s novels and his screenplays, in an attempt to draw a conclusion regarding the possibilities for defining the screenplay as a literary form. The book review section is focused on a new book on feminism and cinema, “Feminist Film Theory and Pretty Woman” by Mari Ruti, reviewed by Iulia Voicu. I want to thank to all the contributors for their efforts and invite other authors to publish in our journal papers on the amazing developments of the medium. Close Up: Film and Media Studies | Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 | 5 Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Evil in New Romanian Cinema Christina Stojanova University of Regina, Canada [email protected] It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed. Ethics are transcendental. (Ethics and aesthetics are one.) Ludwig Wittgenstein, Proposition 6.421, 1922/2015: 108 We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man, far too little. His psyche should be studied, because we are the origin of all coming evil. Carl Gustav Jung, 1959/77: 436 Abstract Starting from relevant claims (by Wittgenstein, Jung, Paul Ricoeur) on the difficulties to examine and define evil, the article tries to scrutinize a new trend in the representation of evil in three recent Romanian films. Although the subtle narratives of New Romanian Cinema usually avoid self-nominating melodramatic villains, the three films signed by Bogdan Mirică, Marian Crișan and Gabriel Achim show less discretion in the portraying of wicked characters. The directors’ penchant to describe the proliferation of evil in a post-communist society in terms closer to genre formula or to self-reflexive narratives confirms the movement is switching from radical realism to more familiar or more self-conscious forms of storytelling and tackling of the good-evil dilemma. Keywords New Romanian Cinema, representation of evil, film ethics, film aesthetics, Carl Gustav Jung, moral dilemma, Cristi Puiu, Bogdan Mirică, Gabriel Achim, Marian Crişan s discussed elsewhere, New Romanian Cinema owes its edge to the unusually demanding concern of its directors with the artistic and moral integrity of their A characters, which I believe is best described by the cited above Wittgenstein’s pronouncement ‘ethics and aesthetics are one.’ It should therefore come as no surprise Dr. Christina Stojanova is a scholar, curator and writer, currently teaching at the University of Regina. Since moving to Canada in 1989 she has published more than 100 articles in the specialized print media and on-line. Over the last 10 years or so she has contributed twenty chapters to anthologies on Central and Eastern European, Quebec and Canadian cinemas and culture, and her articles were published into Polish, Hungarian Spanish, Romanian, Russian and Bulgarian. She has co-edited the critical anthologies Wittgenstein at the Movies: Cinematic Investigations (Sping 2011, Lexington Books), The Legacies of Jean-Luc Godard (Summer 2012, Wilfried Laurier UP) and is the author, together with Dana Duma of The New Romanian Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2018). Close Up: Film and Media Studies | Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 | 7 Christina Stojanova that, at Transylvania International Film Festival (2016), there were premiered three films, which openly deal with the issue of evil, its representation and repercussions, and with one’s choices in the face of it: Bogdan Mirica’s debut Dogs (Câini, 2016), Marian Crisan’s Horizon (Orizont, 2015) and Gabriel Achim’s The Last Day (Ultima zi, 2016). The question of evil has been amongst the most troubling for Western philosophical and psychological thought, where the interconnectedness between the concepts of evil, morality and God has created a growing conundrum of sorts as our contemporary society has become predominantly atheist (Eagleton, 2014). Like ‘evil’, ‘moral’ is a religious term, and the idea that morality cannot exist without a belief in God, is deeply ingrained in Western culture (McKay: online). Indeed, there are precious few philosophical discussions on the nature of good and evil, which openly challenge the religious discourse on this issue (Nietzsche’s defiant Beyond Good and Evil being one of the most notorious). In his ground breaking text Culture and the Death of God, Terry Eagleton holds fast onto Nietzsche’s view that the “project of unifying all values under the aegis of a rational reconstruction of morality is merely a long shadow cast in the slow eclipse of Christian transcendental faith” (Eagleton, 2014). Moreover, upon closer examination of modern Western language, used to describe repulsive or dark entities, words reveal – through their relationship to religion despite our desire to be rational – the ongoing dilemma Western society grapples with in its attempt to eradicate religion through reason. It is not, however, easy to just replace the religious discourse with a secular and atheistic one. The modern and post-modern rejection of the word ‘evil,’ yet our inability to ‘call it what it is,’ proves this point by creating a cultural blind spot, related to ‘evil’ concepts, usually mired in elaborate terminological discussions, which in their turn tend to branch into irresolvable arguments between theology and philosophy, as the enormous body of interpretations, generated by the publication of Paul Ricœur’s seminal work The Symbolism of Evil (1960) teaches us. In short, one of the reason we cannot recognize evil for what it is, is because we have no language to describe it. And therefore, because we cannot name evil outside of religion, it doesn’t exist. As the famous line in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov proclaimed: ‘If God does not exist, then everything is permitted’ (Lewy, 2008: 1).

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