We know for sure that you missed #weekendfilms. Here it is the first one of 2018, dedicated both to those who would want to go to the cinema in a winter day, and to those who prefer watching movies from the comfort of their house, with a cozy blanket and a hot tea. We have Romanian films, dramas, comedies, biography films, for all moods and tastes.

1. 2018 will surprise us with several Romanian films, but let’s take it step by step. This month starts with Pororoca (dir. Constantin Popescu, drama), a long-awaited film with an unusual authenticity. The feature film tells the story of Tudor, played by Bogdan Dumitrache, and Cristina (Iulia Lumânare). They have a pretty ordinary life couple, focusing on raising their two children – Maria and Ilie. On a Sunday morning, Tudor and the children go to the park near the block. In a moment of distraction of the father, Maria disappears. Together with some other parents, Tudor desperately searches for her. After 30 minutes he calls the police, and Maria is officially considered missing.

It is really intriguing, right? The film’s premiere will be on Friday, January 19^th, and this weekend it can be seen at Grand Cinema & More, Happy Cinema and Peasant Museum Cinema.

2. The Disaster Artist (dir. James Franco, comedy); you have probably already heard this name lately. The film, directed by James Franco, re-enacts the events which led to the birth of the worst film of all times – The Room (dir. Tommy Wiseau). Tommy Wiseau, an outsider of the cinema industry whose dream has always been to be accepted by Hollywood as a true filmmaker, meets the wannabe actor Greg Sestero. They become friends and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.

We could not have #weekendfilms without some fun facts, right?

• Greg Sestero stated that when Tommy Wiseau was writing the book, he said that there are only two actors who could play him in the adaptation: James Franco or Johnny Depp.
• To promote the film, the distributor rented the same billboard on Highland Avenue in Los Angeles that Tommy Wiseau rented five years ago to promote The Room (2003). The distributor even imitated the original graphic layout.
• In almost every interview for The Disaster Artist, James Franco mentions that Tommy Wiseau approves “99.9%” of the film. Tommy’s only objection was the lighting of the first scene. But Franco believes that this objection is influenced by the fact that Tommy was wearing sunglasses when he was watching it.

The film had its Romanian premiere on January 12th. This weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) it is scheduled at Movieplex Cinema, Grand Cinema & More, Happy Cinema and Glendale Studio.

3. Our last recommendation from the cinema is Darkest Hour (dir. Joe Wright, biography), a film for those who want to watch a biographic drama. During the early days of World War II, when the capitulation of France was imminent, Great Britain has to make a decision which will change the course of this war. As the Nazi forces seemed unstoppable and the Allies were blocked on the beaches of Dunkirk, the faith of Western Europe was in the hands of the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Darkest Hour’s Romanian premiere will take place on Friday, January 19^th, and can be seen during this weekend at Movieplex Cinema, Grand Cinema & More, Grand VIP Studios and Happy Cinema.

From the comfort of your home:

1. After the holidays, our friends from CINEPUB have a new website and new Romanian films recommendations, which can be watched for free from home. The premiere of the week is The Childhood of Icarus (dir. Alex Iordăchescu, drama). The film, which is the first feature film of Alex Iordăchescu and the last film of Guillaume Depardieu, tells the story of Jonathan Vogel, who suffers a serious accident and goes to Professor Stivlas Karr’s clinic for a leg regeneration treatment, which he lost. The result isn’t the one expected. Jonathan Vogel also has ‘to repair’ something from his past, and he would want to go back in time.

The film is a valuable entry in the online list of Romanian films of CINEPUB and can be found here.

2. Also on CINEPUB, but this time from the documentary category, we recommend Romanian Cinema (dir. Vlad Nedelcu, documentary). The film brings the well-known contemporary New Romanian Cinema face to face with the public. You can watch Florin Șerban (director), Ana Ularu (actress), Victor Rebengiuc (actor), Ada Condeescu (actress), Ada Solomon (film producer), Radu Muntean (director), Adrian Sitaru (director) and Irina Margareta Nistor (film critic) talking about the latest years of the Romanian cinematography.

The documentary can be seen right here.

3. Inside Out (dir. Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen, animation). Last but not least, the animation film of 2015 and one of our favourites, Inside Out enters on our recommendation list. In this colorful animation, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together and fight in trying to make Riley, a cheerful and carefree young girl who is about to relocate to San Francisco, to move on and make new friends.

Three fun facts:

• The writers considered up to 27 different emotions, but settled on 5 (Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger) to make it less complicated. Some of the major emotions that ended up being cut included Surprise, Pride, and Trust.
• Some of the memory balls in Riley’s mind contain scenes from other Pixar movies, such as Carl and Ellie’s wedding in Up (2009).
• When Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera pitched the film to Mindy Kaling (the voice of Disgust), she was moved to tears and said, ‘I think it’s great that you guys are making a film which shows that it is difficult to grow up and that sometimes it’s okay to be sad about it.’

The film is broadcasted on Saturday, January 20^th, starting at 8:00 PM on Antena 1 and Antena 1 HD.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.