- Born
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Cristi Puiu was born on April 3, 1967 in Bucharest, Romania. He is a director and writer, known for Aurora (2010), Sieranevada (2016) and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005). He has been married to Anca Puiu since April 21, 1998. They have three children.
- SpouseAnca Puiu(April 21, 1998 - present) (3 children)
- President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 16th Sarajevo International Film Festival in 2010.
- Considers director Lucian Pintilie's Reconstruction (1968) the most important Romanian feature film.[2012].
- Member of the 'Un Certain Regard' jury at the 60th Cannes International Film Festival in 2007.
- President of the jury at the GoEast Film Festival Wiesbaden in 2012.
- Lives in Bucharest, Romania.
- 10 years ago I suddenly decided to make films after I discovered John Cassavetes and 'Direct Cinema', and these kinds of documentaries, Frederick Wiseman and Raymond Depardon and so on. I would say my film is an expression of the way I understand their work. And the way I understand how to make films as well, because I am following in their footsteps. Step by step, I am interested in going further to discover things they couldn't discover in their own work.[2006]
- [on The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)] I don't think I can give you the right answer, just a supposition which is related to a François Truffaut quote: "A film has to tell us something about life and something about cinema." So this is what I think: the film contains a vision of life - the story about a human being who dies alone, surrounded by the indifference of the others - and a vision of cinema. For me, cinema is less an art form than a technique for investigating reality. And this is not a Romanian tale, but a tale from Romania.[2006]
- My main influences come from Romanian literature and poetry, artists that have influenced me in general. One is Eugène Ionesco and his Theatre of the Absurd. The others are two poets whom I'd call "the poets of the silent despair," George Bacovia and Virgil Mazilescu. From universal literature and art I found some other models such as Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi. My conception of cinema is the result of the "lessons" I got from the authors above and the discovery of the works of John Cassavetes, Frederick Wiseman, Éric Rohmer, and Raymond Depardon.[2006]
- I think that every human being has friends and enemies. I am like everyone else and this model applies to the movies I make: some people like them and some others don't. And this is okay. What is really great in filmmaking (and in art, in general) is that people you have never met, from another corner of the world and a different culture, can write about your film and really get it. They understand every detail of your film, your point of view, your philosophy, your pain. You read the review and your fear of death starts to diminish. I call those people potential friends. Being asked so many times for whom I am making films, I'll answer now (and to you, too, even if you didn't ask me this): I make films for myself, for my friends, and for my potential friends.[2006]
- People call me a film director now. And before I started doing this I was a painter. And I think it is stupid in both cases. It's hard for me to believe in this. I enjoy this activity, but it is very hard for me to start because I am questioning the roots, the basis of this activity. What is the point of making films or telling stories? There are too many stories already, and all these stories are the same. Well, maybe the point is to tell the same story differently. There is a character in Franz Kafka's "The Trial", a painter called Titorelli, who paints dozens of paintings of a tree in the middle of a field. So I agree with him: what is the point of making films? But you have to do something, and making films is a part of life as much as teaching people or being a policeman or a doctor. But if you are questioning the foundations of any human activity as Eugène Ionesco did, relating this to God as he did, then everything disappears. Everything loses its sense, so I agree with Ionesco. At the same time, he did write.[2006]
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