"The Independence of Romania"-"Independenta Romaniei"-1912-Aristide Demetriade-Eng Sub-Sound
"
Independenta Romaniei" ("
The Independence of Romania"), subtitled "The Romanian-Russo-Turkish War, 1877", is a
Romanian 1912 silent film directed by
Aristide Demetriade.
The Romanian language uses
symbol "ţ" (tz) instead of "t" in the word "Independenta"; as result, the title should be pronounced "Independentza Romaniei" (Independenţa Romaniei).
The
Russo-Turkish War of 1877--1878 was a conflict between the
Ottoman Empire and the
Eastern Orthodox coalition led by the
Russian Empire and composed of several
Balkan countries.
Results: Reestablishment of the
Bulgarian state; de jure independence of
Romania,
Serbia and Montenegro from Ottoman Empire.
The Kingdom of Romania was the
Romanian state based on a form of a constitutional monarchy between 13 March 1881 and
30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania (1866, 1923,
1938). Thus, the
Kingdom of Romania began with the reign of
King Carol I of Romania who gained Romanian's independence in the
Romanian War of Independence, and ended with the abdication of
King Michael I of Romania in 30 December 1947, imposed by the
Soviet Union with the tacit and secret, implicit consent of its allies (as a result of the
Yalta Conference and secret agreements).
The initiators of the movie production were a group of actors: C. Nottara, Aristide Demetriade, V. Toneanu, I. Brezeanu, N. Soreanu, P. Liciu, as well as the young Grigore Brezeanu. They also brought into this effort
Leon Popescu, a wealthy man and owner of the
Lyric Theatre. The group received strong backing from government authorities, with the army and all necessary equipment being placed at its disposal, plus military advisers (possibly including
Pascal Vidraşcu). The cameras and their operators were brought from abroad, and the print was prepared in
Parisian laboratories. On
2 September 1912, at the
Eforie cinema, the largest movie theatre in
Bucharest, the premiere of
Independenţa României took place.
Despite all its shortcomings as the theatrical game of the actors, the errors of an army of extras uncontrolled by direction which provoked unintended laughter in some scenes and rendered dramatically limp those of the beginning, the film was well received by spectators, being shown for several weeks. Through this realization, through the dimensions of its theme, through the distribution method chosen, through the genuine artistic intentions, through its professional editing (for the time), the creation of this film can be considered Romania's first step in the art of cinematography.
Directed by Aristide Demetriade
Military advisors
Produced by Leon Popescu
Grigore Brezeanu
Members of the
TNB Society
Pascal Vidraşcu
Written by Petre Liciu
Aristide Demetriade
Constantin Nottara
Starring Aristide Demetriade
Prince Carol I of Romania;
Constantza Demetriade His wife,princess
Elisabeth;
Pepi Machauer The
Tsar Alexander II;
C-tin Nottara
Osman Pasha;
Aristita Romanescu Doamna de la Crucea
Rosie;
Elvire Popesco Taranca;
M. Vîrgolici
I.C. Bratianu;
A. Athanasescu Penesh Curcanul
(
The wounded soldier):
Jeni Metaxa-Doro Rodica, his fiancee;
Cinematography
Frank Daniau-Johnston
Editing by Aristide Demetriade
Distributed by Societatea Filmul de Artă Leon Popescu
Release date(s)
1 September 1912
"Independenta Romaniei" este considerat primul film romanesc "feature".
Old
Romanian military marches, Old Romanian ballads and popular songs,
Old Russian military marches,
The Royal Anthem of Romania (
Long Live the King).
Great performance of the
Romanian Army Choir and Artistic
Assembly of
the Army.
Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org
New soundtrack and dubbing: CinemaHistoryChannel
Music:
Kevin Mac Leod (incompetch.com) licensed under
Creative Commons licence:
Attribution 3.0 Unported (
CC BY 3.0).
http://creativecommons.or g/licenses/by/
3.0/