'Silence' is golden for Romania

Nae Caranfil's film chosen as Oscar entry

By JOHN NADLER

BUDAPEST — “The Rest Is Silence,” an ambitious epic movie within a movie, has been nominated to rep Romania’s hopes for the foreign-language Oscar at the Academy Awards.

Directed by Nae Caranfil, the movie chronicles the making of “The War of Independence,” Romania’s first cinematic epic shot in 1912 barely 35 years after the bloody national conflict it depicts.

The story follows the struggles of its fictional director to win the support he needs to get his underdog project off the ground, and prevent a big French studio from stealing his idea. In this way, the pic has the comic appeal of Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway.”

Critics have lauded both the film’s well-crafted writing and cinematography. Paul Moore compared the pic’s style and “eye candy” to the elegant period sets of “Godfather II.”

With a budget of $4 million, “The Rest is Silence” is one of the most expensive pics in Romanian film history.

Pic preemed in competish at Locarno Film Festival last year and also screened at this month’s Telluride Film Festival, where it was well received.

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