Director Andrei Ujica. Andrei Ujica. Top credits Director Andrei Ujica. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit. Nicolae Ceausescu Self as Self archive footage. Elena Ceausescu Self as Self archive footage. Stefan Andrei Self as Self archive footage. Gheorghe Apostol Self as Self archive footage. Ana Aslan Self as Self archive footage. Ion Avram Self as Self archive footage. Iosif Banc Self as Self archive footage. Eugen Barbu Self as Self archive footage. Elena Barbulescu Self as Self archive footage.
Lica Barbulescu Self as Self archive footage. Alexandru Barladeanu Self as Self archive footage. Ion Birlea Self as Self archive footage. Emil Bobu Self as Self archive footage. Emil Bodnaras Self as Self archive footage. Leonid Brezhnev Self as Self archive footage.
Cornel Bulica Self as Self archive footage. Ilie Bulucea Self as Self archive footage. Cornel Burtica Self as Self archive footage. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. During the summary trial that he and his wife were submitted to, Nicolae Ceausescu is reviewing his long reign in power: From a formal point of view, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu proves that it is possible to only use existing images to yield films focused on recent history, yet with an epic vein similar to that of the historical fiction cinema.
This is an eminently syntactic endeavor, where montage plays a twofold part: mise-en-scene, as it builds scenes that do not exist as such in the rushes, and classical editing, connecting scenes together. We want some great revelation to happen that will reveal the nature of corruption, the evils of a communist system, or the wicked soul of Ceausescu.
But this achievement in found footage documentary isn't looking to dismantle the image of Ceausescu with explosions, but allows the decay of the dictator to be revealed slowly and subtly. Yes, I have now twice sat through a 3-hour film consisting of nothing but 25 years of Romanian state-TV footage of Nicolae Ceausescu, without any deliberate contextualization.
I told that joke to Andrei Ujica outside Film Forum and he laughed. An astounding documentary. Over three hours of archive footage we see Ceausescu age from a fresh-faced young radical who managed to walk a tight foreign policy line between the East and West into a doddering old man who walks around bakeries criticising the thickness of their bread to rapturous applause and starves his country.
As it's free of narration or talking heads we're allowed to think for ourselves. The resulting sense of continuity and history is really interesting - we see the format change from black and white to colour film and suddenly tape and we're up to date. Every piece of footage here is "official", recorded for propaganda purposes, yet assembled in this way the cracks in the image show through. A lot of it is silent, most of it feeling like propaganda.
However, there was something powerful and deeply unsettling watching this man. He only showed emotion during the numerous ceremonies and parades held in his honor. And the rest of the time, whether he was laying his mother to rest or viewing collapsed buildings, he had the same unaffected almost smirk on his face. Maybe that said more than a voice over ever could.
I found it almost impossible to sympathize or stay interested in this; I regret the three hours I spent watching it -- and that's a thing I rarely or never say. Other people have found something of value in this document, though, so scan the other reviews if you have a mind to. A documentary of the Romanian leader-genius comprised exclusively of footage from the official state archives, with no voice over or text explanations and only the most infrequent montage commentary by Ujica.
Which makes this one of the most interesting essay films I've seen: it provides a perfect example of how the audio-visual clip itself -- the unadulterated mechanical reproduction of the phenomenal world -- can somehow express ideas.
And in this case, those ideas are quite damning: the film shows the grotesqueries of the communist cult of personality. We see very little of its material effects, but the images are bizarre enough to paint Ceausescu as incompetent, and then insane.
And this, too, is philosophically interesting, since the footage, after all, comes from the great leader's own team. A powerful film, a tour-de-force of Found Footage compilation and editing, this documentary will test the viewer's patience, but is rewarding and thought-provoking in a very unusual way. A key to understanding the intent behind the film lies in its title. With no context provided, no on screen descriptions, narration or other guidelines for the viewer to follow, all that is possible is to immerse oneself in the footage.
Which can be daunting; at over 3 hours in length, and without an intimate knowledge of Romanian history of the last 50 years, watching the film took me on an emotional journey that was subtle and impressive. Consisting entirely of state-produced propaganda footage from Ceausescu's year reign, the film at….
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