Nae Caranfil (; also Nicolae Caranfil) (born 7 September 1960) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Career

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

, Nae Caranfil is the son of important Romanian film historian and critic

Tudor Caranfil Tudor Caranfil (14 September 1931 – 23 March 2019) was a Romanian film critic. He was the father of film director Nae Caranfil. Biography He attended V. Alecsandri College in Galati and last year, as well as a bachelor's degree at the M ...

. He graduated in 1984 from the

Caragiale Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography The Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea Națională de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică "I.L. Caragiale") is a public university in Bucharest, Romania, founded in 1954. It is named in honour of pla ...

(UNATC) in Bucharest, where he has also taught as a professor. In the beginning of his career he directed only

short films A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

: ''Venice in September'' (1983), ''Thirty Years of Insomnia'' (1984), and ''Backstage'' (1988). Caranfil made his

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

debut with ''E Pericoloso Sporgersi'' (1993) and continued with road movie

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

''Asfalt tango'' starring

Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role ...

(1996) and with ''Dolce far niente'' (1998). His movie ''

Filantropica ''Filantropica'' (alternate spellings ''Philanthropy'', ''Philanthropique'') is a 2002 Romanian dark comedy film directed by Nae Caranfil and starring Mircea Diaconu. Critically acclaimed and considered a landmark film of the Romanian New Wave, it ...

'' (2002) was a critical success and increased Caranfil's popularity. Some consider Nae Caranfil to be the best Romanian director of the 1990s. Nae Caranfil wrote the

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, f ...

for all his movies and worked on the

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

for the first two of them (''E Pericoloso Sporgersi'' and ''Asfalt-tango''). In 2011, Caranfil began production on the English-language feature film ''Closer to the Moon''. An early version of the script entitled ''Alice în Țara Tovarășilor'' (''Alice in the Land of Comrades'') won a grant of €576,600 from the National Centre of Cinema in 2007. The story is based on the 1959 bank robbery in

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian Peop ...

for which a group known as the Ioanid Gang were convicted and sentenced to death. As they awaited execution, the prisoners were forced to film a reenactment of their crime. ''Closer to the Moon'' stars Mark Strong,

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films ''The Conjuring'' (2013), ''The Conjuring 2'' (2016), ''Annabelle Comes ...

, Harry Lloyd, Joe Armstrong, Christian McKay,

Tim Plester Timothy Marc Plester (born 10 September 1970) is a British actor, playwright, and filmmaker, best known for the documentaries ''Way of the Morris'' and ''The Ballad of Shirley Collins'' - plus a multifarious number of cameo roles for film and TV ...

Anton Lesser Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is an English actor. He is well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', as Thomas More in ''Wolf Hall'', as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in ''The Crown'', as Prime Minister ...

, and Allan Corduner. Filming took place in Bucharest in the autumn of 2011. '' Closer to the Moon'' premiered at the Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema festival at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

on 29 November 2013. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "a surprisingly entertaining black comedy."Scheib, Ronnie
"Film Review: ''Closer to the Moon''"
''Variety'', 6 December 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-11.

Awards

*2009 Gopo Award for ''The Rest Is Silence'' *2003 Würzburg International Filmweekend - Audience Award for ''

'' *2002 Mons International Festival of Love Films - Young European Jury Award for ''Filantropica'' *2002 Paris Film Festival - Public Prize for ''Filantropica'' *2002 Wiesbaden goEast - Special Jury Award for ''Filantropica'' *1998 Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film - Golden Bayard Award for Best Screenplay for ''Dolce far niente'' *1993 Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival - Critics Award for ''E Pericoloso Sporgersi''

Filmography as director

*2016 ''

6,9 pe Scara Richter ''6.9 on the Richter Scale'' (original title in Romanian: ''6,9 pe scara Richter'') is a 2016 Romanian musical comedy film directed by Nae Caranfil. It stars Laurențiu Bănescu, Maria Obretin, Teodor Corban Teodor Corban (; born 28 April 19 ...

'' *2013 '' Closer to the Moon'' *2007 '' The Rest Is Silence'' *2002 ''

'' *1998 ''

Dolce far niente "Dolce far niente" (literally “sweet doing nothing, sweet idleness”) is an Italian saying. See also * Critique of work * Dolce far niente (poem) * Dolce vita * Idleness Idleness is a lack of motion or energy. In describing a person, ...

'' *1996 ''

Asphalt Tango ''Asphalt Tango'' ( ro, Asfalt Tango) is a 1996 Romanian comedy film directed by Nae Caranfil. Cast * Charlotte Rampling - Marion * Mircea Diaconu - Andrei * Florin Călinescu Florin Călinescu (; born 29 April 1956, Timișoara, Timiș County ...

'' *1993 '' E pericoloso sporgersi'' *1983 ''Frumos e în septembrie la Veneția''

References

External links

*
Romanian National Cinematography Center page for Nae Caranfil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caranfil, Nae 1960 births Living people Film people from Bucharest Caragiale Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography alumni Romanian film directors Romanian screenwriters Romanian male film actors