Online Magazine Edited by The national union of filmmakers
The “Cinema” magazine was born in January 1963, having Victor Iliu as the chief editor. As the cover of the first number announced, it promised to become a
“monthly magazine for cinema culture”, meaning a publication that was absolutely necessary in a cinema with high ambitions which was just trying to take off, based on having a fully up to date equipped studio in Buftea, another one for documentaries (“Alexandru Sahia”) and a third one for animation – “Animafilm”. There were filmmakers that had been trained in Bucharest and Moscow and also many young critics (the IATC – Theatre and Cinema Art Institute – already had a section for theatre and cinema studies) who had plenty of topics to write about since the annual production of feature films was around 10-12 titles. They had topics, alright, but they had no platform to make their materials be seen, since the only two film publications from the `50s – “Cinema issues” and “Film” – had disappeared for quite a while.
Of course, compared to the nowadays glossy magazines, the “Cinema” from the `60s with its A4 size, its low quality paper, its black and white photos and its way of publishing that truly lacked fantasy may seem old fashioned, a little piece of antique shop. Compared to the previous publications mentioned above, this one was a daring, modern attempt, which was not at all very far from sister-publications from Europe.
But compared to what they write today about film, the “Cinema” magazine was a proof of professionalism. Of course, you were supposed not to take into consideration the articles on-command with its themes and photos, which were usually on the beginning pages of the magazine. This was the price that had to be paid for what the rest of the magazine was offering.
The magazine which had been started by Iliu, then continued by Ecaterina Oproiu as the chief editor, lived its life until 1990 when it changed its title a bit (“The New Cinema”) and somehow also its structure and it was run by Adina Darian until December 1998, when it simply died.
To those who are curious or nostalgic, aarc.ro offers the chance to “browse” the very first number.
by Cristina Corciovescu