page_title: Sergiu Nicolaescu
section_title: Film director, writer and actor
hierarchical_section_title: Sergiu Nicolaescu / Film director, writer and actor
caption_attribution_description: Română: premiera Carol I
context_page_description: Sergiu Florin Nicolaescu was a Romanian film director, actor and politician.
  He was best known for his historical films, such as Mihai Viteazul, Dacii, Războiul Independenței, as well as for his series of thrillers that take place in the interwar Kingdom of Romania, such as Un comisar acuză. Joanna Pacuła starred in his film Ultima noapte de dragoste in 1980 before eventually emigrating to the United States, where she went on to a very successful career.
context_section_description: Nicolaescu was considered during his lifetime, as he is now, the most popular, loved and prolific Romanian movie director. His overwhelming film career spanning 55 years, leaves us today his legacy of some 60 movies, for the making of which he used to act at times, simultaneously, as film director, as an actor, and the writer/screenplayer. In his native Romania he is remembered as a superstar for his patriotism, the high praise he gained as a film director, and his charismatic and strong personality.
  Nicolaescu's debut as a director was in 1962 with the short film Scoicile nu au vorbit niciodată (Shells Have Never Spoken). His first feature film was the 1967 French-Romanian co-production Dacii (Les Guerriers). The film was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival. Nicolaescu continued his film-making career by both directing a large number of movies and starring in many of his own films. His 1971 film Mihai Viteazul was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival. As an anecdotal detail, in Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extraterrestrial (original version only), the young boy Elliott watches this movie on TV - Mihai Viteazul in the US version - the scene with the battle of Calugareni. His 1976 film The Doom was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Festival.
  Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave) ruled the Romanian-speaking principalities (Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania), a union he accomplished under his reign for a very brief period (1600–1601). It was initially planned that Sergiu Nicolaescu would produce Mihai Viteazul with Hollywood superstars playing the lead characters. The communist authorities of the time drastically ruled for an all Romanian cast. The obstacle, eventually, was circumvented by means of casting, in the lead role of Mihai Viteazul the actor Amza Pellea, who achieved a masterful rendition of the hero. Sergiu Nicolaescu was able, throughout his career, to select the best actors available for the characters they had to portray.
  Most of Nicolaescu's films are built around figures and events in Romanian history, and although showing superior mastery, in the (imposed) realistic approach they somewhat follow the patterns of historical movies from the Communist governed countries. During the Communist period, some of these movies were seen as ground-breaking through either their way of publicly presenting Romanian history, or the masterful depiction of the heroical dimension of its history. For instance, the movie "Războiul independenţei" was the first picture made during the Communist-era in Romania to describe a King of Romania (namely Carol I) in a positive fashion. On the other hand, Mircea (1989, also known as Proud Heritage) was considered by some critics as being a less artistically fulfilled endeavour. Nevertheless, Mircea was officially blocked from distribution, until the Romanian Revolution of 1989 ("All I've done was to present a different state leader than Nicolae Ceaușescu. He understood and stopped the movie [from premiere]").  Yet, when Mircea was finally released to the public the film was very well appreciated.
  Nicolaescu produced impeccable renderings of the historical battles and costumes. For example, through his reenactments of the Battle of Călugăreni in Mihai Viteazul and both the Crusade of Nicopole and the Battle of Rovine in Mircea, Nicolaescu shows a brilliant command of his craft, masterfully directing a huge acting crew (actors, extras, etc.) towards the rendering of accurate details, by these means forging widely successful movies. For instance, when making Mihai Viteazul, Nicolaescu successfully managed a 5,000-member crew, actors and extras and, despite the obvious technical limitations of the communication means in the 1970s (no mobile phones were available at that time, for instance), he imposed a strict discipline during filming of every cannon fire and every attack scene, thus helping everything to fall in place under his unique order.
  His movie Mihai Viteazul was considered the best of the Romanian historical movies and is one of t
caption: Sergiu Nicolaescu and Prince Paul
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