Manole Marcus

Manole Marcus 8 January 1928 12 October 1994 was a Romanian film director and screenwriter Many of the actors who starred in his films won awards for their performances In 1955 he graduated from the IL Caragiale Institute of Theatre and Film Arts IATC He made his directing debut with the short film La mere ro 1953 directed together with Iulian Mihu The 1950s was a difficult period for Romanian film as filmmakers had to give up most of the conquests in terms of cinematic language obtained before the end of World War II Culture was then subjected to a pseudoartistic socialist realism which called for works with excessively politicized topics In this climate Marcus made a number of comedy films of lesser value such as such as I do Not Want to Get Married 1960 and The District of Joy 1964 Towards the second half of the 1960s the director adopted a more serious tone His talent as a director started to be appreciated and recognized after the dramatic tone of the movies Virgo 1966 The Canary and the Blizzard ro 1969 and The Power and the Truth ro 1972 The 1969 movie which talks about the price of freedom of political underground mission pursued by the authorities and whose soundtrack is between the Phoenix bands tracks was banned in the early 1970s The climax of his artistic career came at a time when it was hard to tell the truth easily as freedom of expression was restricted see Censorship in Communist Romania In the 1970s Marcus made two films which were greatly appreciated by the public and by critics The Actor and the Savages 1974 and Operation Monster ro 1976 a drama and a comedy which sometimes fail to convey emotions through subliminal messages powerful to make characters