Liviu Ciulei
Acting
Biography
Liviu Ciulei was a Romanian theater and film director, film writer, actor, architect, educator, costume and set designer. During a career spanning over 50 years, he was described by Newsweek as "one of the boldest and most challenging figures on the international scene".
Born: July 7, 1923
Place of Birth: Bucharest, Romania
Known For
The Waves of the Danube
Ciulei’s second feature recalls the best of Fritz Lang and Michael Curtiz in its WWII-era espionage tale, set on a barge transporting Nazi munitions up the Danube. Ciulei himself givers a superb performance as Mihai, the barge captain forced to navigate the heavily mined waters along with his new bride, Ana (Irina Petrescu). As the journey wears on, Mihai becomes increasingly suspicious of one of his crew, ex-convict Toma (Lazar Vrabie), and his intentions towards Ana. But Toma has a far graver—and potentially deadly—secret to conceal.
Soldiers without Uniform
An engine driver is taken prisoner in 1944 and ends up in a camp behind enemy lines. He escapes together with a soviet prisoner and a professor and make their way back to Romania.
The Take-Off
Valedictorian in a flight class, he has to complete 2 years of utility aviation before going into military. He is unhappy about that and he clashes with the old commandant Bărcan.
Forest of the Hanged
In 1916 as an officer in the Habsburg Army ethnic Romanian Apostol Bologa is torn between remaining loyal to the Habsburgs or deserting to the Romanian Army across enemy lines.
In Our Village
The film shows that Romanian peasants were divided between those opposing and those embracing collectivization. The heated debates between the pro and con camps would ultimately lead to murder.
Phalanstery
In the early 19th century the Romanian Theodor Diamant was inspired by the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier and established one of Fourier's "phalansteries" in Rumania. The film dramatizes the origins and demise of this effort, called the "Scaieni Phalanstery (the term is derived from "phalanx" and "monastery"). Among the socio-political commentary that is conveyed throughout, there is an important collusion between the army and the wealthy landowners of the time, and as the film points out in its own way, neither of these groups has ever been convicted of socialist/utopian tendencies.
Alarm in the Mountains
An spy film set in a mountainous border area. The grenadiers are confronted with spies parachuted into Romania to retrieve and carry abroad the secret documents of a forestry combine.
Love Begins on Friday
A high school graduate, disappointed by the failure to be accepted in college, finds balance amongst the coworkers at her new job in a factory.
Nepoţii gornistului
The story of three generations of the Dorobantsu peasant family, who fought bravely and selflessly against the oppressors of their homeland. The viewer sees the people who took an active part in the peasant uprisings of 1907 and their descendants who won the war against fascism.
The Romanian Musketeer
During the 18th century when Moldavian Prince Dimitrie Cantemir writes The History of the Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire the manuscript is stolen and offered to the highest bidder.
Filmography
as Dinicu Golescu
as Leibniz
as Dobrescu
as Bărcan
as Klapka
as Professor Bercescu
as Bogdan
as Mihai
as Spion
as Bulldogul
as Dumitru