Director Liviu Ciulei died | TIFF

Director Liviu Ciulei died

26.10.2011 03:00

Liviu Ciulei, film director, actor, scriptwriter, architect and professor, died on the 25th October at the age of 88.

Born on the 7th July 1923, Liviu Ciulei studied theater at the Music and Theater Royal Conservatory and later on Architecture. He made his debut as an actor in 1946 playing Puck in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Odeon Theater in Bucharest. Later, he joined the Bucharest Theater, now Bulandra Theater where he made his debut as a director in 1957 with “The Rainmaker” of Richard Nash.

Liviu Ciulei’s career includes more than 20 films, as director, actor or scriptwriter but also theatre plays as director or actor, all of them distinguished in Romania as well as abroad.

His filmography includes, along one of the titles that remained in the Romanian Cinema history “The forest of the hanged”, also “The Waves of the Danube” (1959) and “Eruption” his direction debut in 1957.

“The forest of the hanged” was awarded with the Prize for Direction in Cannes Film Festival.

“The Waves of the Danube”, the second feature of Liviu Ciulei tells the story of three men forced to travel on a barge loaded with weapons, on the Danube, in August 1944, through the water mines of the Germans The film is a love story and was rewarded with the Cristal Globe Prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1960.

Among the awards Liviu Ciulei received in his career we can mention the UNITER (Romanian Theater Union) award in 1996, UNITER Excellence Award in 2001 as well as the Excellence Award in Romanian Cinema in 2002.

His carrier comprised also the position of Artistic Director, for ten years at the “Bulandra” Theater in Bucharest but also at the “Tyrone Guthrie” Theater  in Minneapolis.

Liviu Ciulei, father of director Thomas Ciulei, taught theater at two prestigious universities, Columbia University and New York University nut he was also honorary member of the Architect’s Order.

Last year, at the ninth edition of Transilvania International Film Festival, director Liviu Ciulei was honored by presenting three of its movies in the “3X3” section. The movies screened were “The forst of the hanged”, “The Waves of the Danube” and “Eruption”. Liviu Ciulei was also rewarded by the Transilvania International Film Festival with the Excellence Prize.