WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS for screenings of
THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD
Tickets are available for the screenings on
Thursday 15 October 2009, 13.45, NFT2 (National Film Theatre), BFI Southbank, London SE1 8XT Saturday 17 October 2009, 21.00, Curzon Mayfair , 38 Curzon Street , London W1J 7TY
For your chance to win a pair of tickets for these two special screenings, all you have to do is to
name director Radu Jude’s short film shown in London as part of ‘All Change’, the 2009 edition of the Romanian Film Festival (hint: you can always find details of our film festivals on our website).
Send your replies by 14.00 on Wednesday 14 October 2009 at mail@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk. Don’t forget to include in your message your FULL NAME and a TELEPHONE NUMBER where we can contact you. Please mention for which day you would like your tickets. The winners will be selected through a raffle from all the correct answers received by 14.00 on 14 October, and will be notified in writing at the e-mail address provided.
THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (Cea mai fericita fata din lume)
Romania / 2009 / 90 mins / Romanian with English subtitles
Directed by Radu Jude. Cast: Andreea Bosneag, Violeta Popa, Vasile Muraru.
The latest find from Romania: an acerbic comedy about a young girl who wins a soft-drinks competition and finds that success comes with a catch.
You could call Radu Jude’s ‘The Happiest Girl in the World’ the latest Romanian film-about-nothing (or about one small thing extended to breaking point). The title may suggest one-joke irony, but Jude – who worked as assistant director on Cristi Puiu’s ‘Death of Mr Lazarescu’ – scores by following the premise of this bitter comedy to genuinely excruciating lengths. Delia (Andreea Bosneag) is a small-town girl who has won a car in a soft-drinks competition; as part of her reward, she is doomed to spend a day in Bucharest shooting a commercial through clenched teeth, while her parents (Violeta Popa, Vasile Muraru) lay on the moral blackmail. Delia gamely speaks her lines, over and over again, but what looks like becoming a protracted gag about the capitalist dream gradually evolves into a resonant tragicomedy, its insight all the more trenchant for being executed with such casual economy. Long takes and a no-nonsense realist aesthetic perfectly capture the oppressive feeling of a day badly spent in a crowded city. […] One of the wittier and more honest films of the year. (Jonathan Romney)
Screenings on:
Thursday 15 October 2009, 13.45, NFT2 (National Film Theatre), BFI Southbank, London SE1 8XT
Saturday 17 October 2009, 21.00, Curzon Mayfair , 38 Curzon Street , London W1J 7TY
Sunday 18 October 2009, 18.30, Curzon Mayfair , 38 Curzon Street , London W1J 7TY
Tickets: £9.00.
Booking: Online at www.bfi.org.uk/lff or at Telephone 020 7928 3232 (9.30-20.30 daily). In person at the BFI Southbank Box Office (11.30-20.30 daily).
• This year’s programme of the LFF also includes and the critically acclaimed ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ – Romania / 2009 / 131 mins / Romanian with English subtitles. ‘Tales form the Golden Age’, a film exploring with humour and irony the idiocies of daily life in a dictatorship, is directed by Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or, Cannes 2007), Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Constantin Popescu. Cast (selected): Ion Sapdaru, Teo Corban, Vlad Ivanov, Tania Popa, Gabriel Spahiu.
Screenings on:
Saturday 17 October 2009, 21.00, Vue West End, Screen 6, Leicester Square, London WC2H 7AL
Monday 19 October 2009, 12.45, Vue West End, Screen 6, Leicester Square, London WC2H 7AL
Tickets: £12.00.
Image above is from ‘The Happiest Girl in the World’. Courtesy of The Times BFI London Film Festival.
The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London
Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. +44 20 7486 0295; Fax: +44 20 7486 0307
E-mail: mail@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk, Web site: www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk