I worked very hard together with ChatGPT to find this spectacular pun of a title. So please, a round of applause everyone.
- if you only want the event info, check out the Ceau, Cinema! website
- pentru detalii în limba română, vă invit să vizitați site-ul Ceau, Cinema!
Backstory
Thank you. Now, to the story behind the matter at hand: next week marks the start of the 11th edition of our Timişoara film festival, Ceau, Cinema!. Around 40 movies await, with a selection covering Romanian and French movies, remastered classics movies and many more (mostly) Eastern European productions. Alongside these, in the series of events that accompany the festival, is one that I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to.
At the beginning of 2023, a chance encounter of a Twitter post from Notebook, Mubi’s magazine for cinephiles, brought to my attention the exceptional work of Boryana Ilieva aka Floor Plan Croissant. Former architect turned full-time artist, she illustrates film houses with the greatest attention detail, in a process that is not only visually fascinating, but also…narratively revealing. There’s always a story behind every painting, that sheds light on the technicalities of set design and the work world famous directors as well as so many “under the line” artists and craftspeople put into creating the world that films inhabit.
It didn’t take long for me to furnish my walls with prints of Boryana’s paintings – my selection featuring the likes of Alien Covenant, Parasite, Phantom Thread or Columbus. I felt a compulsion was coming on, so through no minor effort on my part, I managed to reign in the desire to fully cover my walls in gorgeously colourful windows into so many of the movies that I love.
This effort produced some nugget of a thought though: what if some form of exhibit could be organised in Timişoara together with Boryana? Remember, this was 2023, Timişoara was European Capital of Culture, so these thoughts were easily induced by the tumultous cultural life of the city. It didn’t come to pass last year, but thankfully it will in 2024.
Event details
Less than a week from now, on the 17th of July, at 17.30, before the opening of the Ceau Cinema film festival, both myself and Boryana (and many other equally name-worthy people) will be attending the unveiling of an exhibit entitled “Houses in Films”. It will feature twelve paintings which will be housed for the duration of the festival at Cinema Timiş. People going to watch stuff at the festival will inevitably walk by them, but the exhibit is open to all those interested to view it daily, between 16.00 and 21.30.
Then, on the 18th of July, at 18.00, Boryana will hold a talk about her creative process, revealing fascinating facts that will forever change the way you watch movies. Ok, maybe I got carried away a little, but you might just discover details that you would never have thought about from some of your favourites movies, as well as the effort and skill it takes to reconstruct something that we take for granted.
Finally, on the 19th of July, at the somewhat ungodly hour of 16.30 (but hey, it’s Friday, call it Feierabend and join!) there will be a screening of Parasite, one of the central movies in Boryana’s exhibit. Coming into this one with the knowledge gathered in the previous days should make for a new experience that even I am looking forward to.
Boryana will (most likely) be around the exhibit for most of the event on the days of 17-18-19 July. You might even be able to somehow acquire some of the works being exhibited. I’m still contemplating if my walls can bear more of this.
So I hope those of you in Timişoara will be able to make it – do call your friends and neighbours too, especially if you can hear them watching Fellini movies through the walls. And for those not in Timişoara, I will cover the events in a future post with pics and interview snippets or some such things.
A thank you to all those involved in this project – firstly Boryana, of course, and Martina Koleva on the Floor Plan Croissant side, then Ionuţ Mareş and the Ceau, Cinema! team, Cinema Timiş for housing the event, Virgil Babusciov for the framing at Prima Photo Studio and Lipoplast and the Timisoara Center for Projects for the financial support.
More Info
More (official) info at: https://www.ceaucinema.ro/en/unique-exhibition-with-illustrations-of-houses-from-famous-films-at-ceau-cinema/
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1222064782491039
Floor Plan Croissant: https://www.instagram.com/fplancroissant/
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