Romanian Film Review – A Firey & Fabulous February

Exciting is not my usual adjective for the month of February, but oh boy, is it now! Film-wise it’s such a fiercely fantastic month I had to restrain myself from raving too much about everything, otherwise this column would have turned into a novel.

Il Cinema Ritrovato is arriving to Romania for the third time and I am overjoyed the event has become a February fixture. For almost 40 decades, the Bologna-hosted festival has been celebrating and supporting the preservation and restoration of original film material worldwide. Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour starts in Bucharest (11 to 15 February) and then goes to Cluj-Napoca (8, 15 and 22 February) and Timișoara (20 to 22 February). My colleagues have already featured the facts here and I'm emphasizing the recommendation because the lovingly put-together event brings rare fare to the big screens, and in excellent quality. I don’t have to think what to single out, honestly, just catch everything you can, from Luchino Visconti’s opulent, tragic Sandra (1965), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s less known Location Hunting in Palestine (1965) and the superb The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) or James Bidgood’s cult queer erotica experimental Pink Narcissus (1971).