Directed by Lucian Bratu • 1967 • Romania

Romania’s answer to the French New Wave delights of Truffaut and Varda, this sixties cult classic is shot through with cinematic joie de vivre. Popular singer Margareta Pâslaru stars as Ruxandra, a young woman with a deficit of talent and an abundance of charisma who decides to charm her way to the top of Bucharest’s cultural scene after flunking out of theatre school. Along the way she must choose between two suitors: frustrated artist Paul (Ştefan Iordache) and stern engineer Şerban (Emmerich Schäffer). Carried along by Richard Oschanitzky’s jazz-infused score, the film depicts a modern, metropolitan lifestyle rarely seen on the Romanian screen. Attacked by the censors for its “amoral” protagonist, A Charming Girl still retains its seductive allure.

A CHARMING GIRL • UN FILM CU O FATĂ FERMECĂTOARE
Directed by Lucian Bratu
Written by Radu Cosaşu
Cinematography by Tiberiu Olah
Music by Richard Oschanitzky
Starring: Margareta Pâslaru, Ştefan Iordache, Emmerich Schäffer

In Romanian with English subtitles