Film Criticism and Film Culture in Communist and Post-Communist Romania: The Case of Cinema Magazine

Cinema still stands as Romania’s longest-lasting film periodical. Between 1963 and 1989, it was the only Romanian film magazine published during the communist regime. After the fall of Communism in 1989, the magazine changed its title to Noul Cinema and

continued to be published until 1998. Because of its singularity during Communism, Cinema has had a central role in the development of Romanian film criticism and culture. The periodical holds an important position in Romanian film history, yet there is no detailed academic research on the magazine. The present thesis addresses this gap in research by approaching Cinema as autonomous material of study, and analyses how Hollywood film was presented to readers and audiences in the context of Romania’s totalitarian communist regime, and then in the post-communist context.

The PhD. project focuses on coverage of the Hollywood film scene as that which was most affected by the political backdrop. During Communism, Cinema was State-owned, censored and obliged to fulfil the ideological requirements of the Romanian Communist Party and its leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu. These demands specifically shaped the coverage of Hollywood films and stars, depending on Romania’s political relationship with the West. The national cinema dominated the pages of the magazine, while Hollywood film was dismissed as entertainment, and used to illustrate the superficiality of America’s capitalist society. However, at times Cinema magazine was also a window to the outside world, sneaking in coverage of Hollywood films and stars when the oppression of the communist regime was at its peak.

During the violent context of Romania’s 1989 revolution, Cinema became Noul Cinema. Censorship and political pressures were lifted, and coverage of Hollywood cinema came to dominate its pages. Cinema magazine survived Romania’s communist dictatorship, and as Noul Cinema witnessed the 1989 revolution, the most important event in contemporary Romanian history. The analysis of the magazine provided by this thesis adds primary evidence to existing scholarship on Romanian national cinema, further revealing the reception of the globally popular Hollywood film in a once isolated country that continues to struggle with the trauma of its communist past.