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Cinema Elvire Popesco -
Thursday, December 11, 2014 - 20:00
Written by:
Mihai Sofronea
Cast:
Adrian Văncică, Costina Ciuciulică
Cinematography:
Toni Cartu
Editing:
Sorin Baican
Sound:
Ioan Filip, Marius Obretin
Producer:
Cezara Armașu, Adina Dulcu, Cosmin Ionescu, Adrian Smarandache, Mihai Sofronea
Production:
Danubius Film Production
An experiment on immobility and motion referencing the beginning of cinema, THE TREE combines a photographic approach to films with dramatic elements which need to be progressively decoded. Long-shots show from a distance two silhouettes, one of a woman, another of a man, a tree, a car, a book, and a story told in reverse. A minimalist film with an original concept, The Tree brings variations on the same tableau, in which every return unveils a new layer of meaning, and the almost imperceptible differences in color and shadows build a different atmosphere each time, while keeping the viewer’s narrative expectations in suspense until the very end. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF)
Director:
MIHAI SOFRONEA graduated the University of Theatre and Cinema of Bucharest (UNATC), departure point for so many „New Romanian Wave” cinema artists. He worked along the years as a first assistant director for various prestigious feature films (especially with Corneliu Porumboiu), TV series, commercials and videos. He now directs for television and in advertising. In 2010 he co-founded the independent production company Danubius Film Production, which allowed him to produce the short films WAITING FOR SUNRISE (Best Short Film at Cottbus International Film Festival, in 2011) and THE TREE (2013).
Contact:
mihaisofronea[at]gmail[dot]com
Curator's comment:
The movie is composed of six scenes. The first three of them take the project on a path that few dare to choose. Not many people enjoy a discussion about the essence of cinema, about the way in which motion and time meet the questions and expectations of the viewer and about the way in which the author of the project anticipates and investigates the possible questions and expectations of the viewer. In the first three scenes, THE TREE is an exercise in cinematography. A photographic shot in which a leafless tree sometimes sways in the wind while a woman walks towards it. A second shot, a cut-in compared to the first one, in which the wind turns the pages of a book left behind by the woman sitting next to the tree. A captivating approach of the crossing from photography (the ontological statics that Roland Barthes mentions, at least in the case of analogic photography) to film (anima-tion). In the third scene - with sharp irony - MIHAI SOFRONEA overturns the current set-up. What follows is a detouring of the discussion on Cinema towards drama. (Lucian Maier, FilmSense.eu)
The movie is composed of six scenes. The first three of them take the project on a path that few dare to choose. Not many people enjoy a discussion about the essence of cinema, about the way in which motion and time meet the questions and expectations of the viewer and about the way in which the author of the project anticipates and investigates the possible questions and expectations of the viewer. In the first three scenes, THE TREE is an exercise in cinematography. A photographic shot in which a leafless tree sometimes sways in the wind while a woman walks towards it. A second shot, a cut-in compared to the first one, in which the wind turns the pages of a book left behind by the woman sitting next to the tree. A captivating approach of the crossing from photography (the ontological statics that Roland Barthes mentions, at least in the case of analogic photography) to film (anima-tion). In the third scene - with sharp irony - MIHAI SOFRONEA overturns the current set-up. What follows is a detouring of the discussion on Cinema towards drama. (Lucian Maier, FilmSense.eu)