Interview: Corneliu Porumboiu

There is a line in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia that states “we might be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us. This is a telling prophecy for events that struck up a deep nerve in the political shifting found in most Eastern Europe states means that the older generations who were first victimized by the red state politics are now finding themselves lost in the shuffle. The current defrosting of old communist state shows that the collective memory may intricately be different – but there is a truth that unifies the people on the different sides of the fences.    

With a deadpan realism that reminds of films from European neighbors of the north, following in the footsteps of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and preceding some of the more recent successes at Cannes with California Dreamin’ and 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, Corneliu Porumboiu’s 12:08 East of Bucharest is one part of a cinematic evolution that discusses elements from Romanian’s revolution.  

The past is brilliantly being brought up in present terms and Porumboiu’s slice of life sample is structured in wit, deadpan humor and minimalism – not your typical import, the film takes long pauses and really plunges into the memory and historical wounds without over-exploring the themes. With a visually amusing comic relief that laughs at the limited resources, the mise-en-scène and the characters speak volumes about this nation’s growing pains. Recognized by Cannes as a best first film – Porumboiu has delivered a small gem.  

Question: You wrote the script for 12:08 East of Bucharest five years after watching a show in which participants from your hometown of Vaslui were asked whether their town had had a revolution. In the actual show it becomes clear that the inhabitants of Vaslui did not take to the streets until after the events of the Romanian revolution took place in Bucharest. Why then do you give Mr. Manescu (Ion Sapdaru) a faulty memory placing himself squarely in the ranks of the revolutionaries who took to Vaslui’s square before 12:08, the time the events in Bucharest were broadcast?
Corneliu Porumboiu: Actually, Manescu was in the market place. The problem with him is that he only confesses a small part of the truth.

IONCINEMA: Your film, 12:08 East of Bucharest, deals with heroism both real and imagined. How do you think TV talk-show host Mr.Jdesrescu’s attempt to find heroism among Vaslui’s inhabitants relates to Romanian and Western media’s own quest to create heroes?
CP: All over the world, media and especially television channels create heroes. One of Jderescu’s problems is that he is a “hero” himself.

IONCINEMA: You have said that like the talk-show host’s cameraman who wants to participate in the debate on the revolution by giving his point of view via zooms and wide angles, you wanted to involve yourself in 12:08 Bucharest in the first person. What cinematic techniques do you use to accomplish this in the film? Are you or the talk-show host’s cameraman ultimately more successful?
CP: After seeing the TV show which inspired me, I felt the need to tell the episode using the first person, and the rest of the movie using the third person. I created the character of the cameraman because, when I saw the TV show, I was first of all interested in the subject, then I was amused and in the end I got angry. I tried to communicate all these feelings through an implicit commentary, suggested by the style of filming.

IONCINEMA: The stillness of the long shots and unmoving frames in the first half of 12:08 Bucharest contrast greatly with the wandering frame of the talk-show cameraman during the TV interviews. Was this contrast deliberate? If so, what did you hope to accomplish with it?
CP: Because the beginning of the movie is told using the third person, I chose an almost theatrical mise en scene: the fixed camera, perpendicular on the set, which created realistic pictures of the characters. The second part, which is told using the first person, talks about what I’ve elaborated in the answer of your previous question.

IONCINEMA: 12:08 East of Bucharest focuses on the lives of three protagonists as a means of showing what has happened in the sixteen years since the revolution. What expectations did people have at the time that went largely unfulfilled?
CP: I think that after each revolution, the expectations are huge. I believe that people imagined that Romania will become in two years time a state comparable with the USA. Obviously things aren’t like that at all, and the distance between the big expectations and the grim reality generates frustration. Thus, the imaginary heroism.

IONCINEMA: An agent of the Security becomes the successful owner of a factory while a drunken schoolteacher fails to advance. In what way do these characters reflect transformations typical of post-communist Romania?
CP: These can be two trajectories typical for the transition period: an idealist teacher, who expected for everything to totally and easily change and a pragmatic guy, who did well in both the totalitarian and the capitalist regimes. 

IONCINEMA: 12:08 Bucharest has a very realistic feel, with little artifice and characters whose flaws lie largely exposed. Which dramatic conventions did you consciously avoid to achieve this effect?
CP: The movie is the story of three regular guys who were once involved in a major historic event. That’s why I tried to present three regular destinies, without using too many artificial means. Because “12:08 East of Bucharest” is, first of all, my vision of one day in the lives of these three men.

IONCINEMA: Did you have the events of 9/11 in mind at all while writing 12:08 Bucharest? The detail with which people claim to remember where they were and what they were doing when both events took place seem rather parallel. Could you imagine a film revisiting heroism at the time of 9/11 and memory ten years from now?
CP: I didn’t think of 9/11 when I made the movie. My opinion is that the two events are very different one from another. I don’t think that the 9/11 attacks could inspire me to write a scenario, because I don’t know the context of the events very well.

IONCINEMA: Placing the central debate of 12:08 Bucharest in a show airing on a local TV station shows how major events are often remembered at the level of personal experience. What role do you see local television as having today during a time when big news events can be experienced on numerous major media networks?
CP: Television is the most important medium of information. As for the local communities, TV is really essential, because of our need to find out what is happening with us from the television.

IONCINEMA: 12:08 Bucharest shows TV to have been a major catalyst for ideas at the time of the revolution. What role do you feel cinema has today with the growing emergence of issue-based cinema such as “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Sicko,” and “11th Hour?”
CP: The Romanian revolution was the first major event which was live broadcasted. The big majority of the Romanian people saw a revolution that happened on TV. Television is a synonym with the present. Movies tell stories, television give press reports, and both dwell in a certain amount of subjectivity.

IONCINEMA: You have cited Jim Jarmush and Vermeer as two influences on your filmmaking in 12:08 Bucharest. How specifically do you feel their work influenced the film?
CP: I was influenced by Jarmush on the matter of script structure and aesthetics. He is one of my favorite authors. I thought very much of Vermeer when I conceived the aesthetics of the interiors in the first half of the movie.
 

IONCINEMA: What do you feel the film had to gain from being shot as a realist documentary?
CP: It gained in sincerity.

IONCINEMA: You wrote the script for 12:08 East of Bucharest in a month to temporarily escape another screenplay you’d been working on for two year previously. Would you recommend this as a technique for emerging filmmakers?
CP: There are subjects you can work on for ten years, and others only for one year. That depends on the sincerity towards the subject and on the feeling of timing. On the unstoppable feeling that this is definitely the next movie you have to shoot. I was not fully content with the other scenario. I took a part of it and put it in the project I’m working on in the present.

IONCINEMA: What particular challenges do young Romanian directors face today? What advice would you offer them?
CP: Among the biggest challenges would be the fact that a truly cinema market for the Romanian film doesn’t really exist, not even in Romania. In the last few years our movies started to be broadcasted outside the country. I’m not really in the position to give advice. As long as they will be sincere in their work, everything will be fine.

IONCINEMA: Did you ever finish the screenplay you set aside to work on 12:08 Bucharest? What are you working on next?
CP: I’m superstitious and I don’t like to talk about my present or future projects.

Thanks to Anastasia Frank for contributing to this piece.
 

Tartan Films released Corneliu Porumboiu’s 12:08 East of Bucharest on June 6th. Look for the film on DVD tomorrow, October 9th.