VIDEO When did Orson Welles come to Romania? What movie did he make? It played directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu

When did Orson Welles come to Romania? The brilliant American actor and director, the creator of the film considered the best of all time, “Citizen Kane” (1941), visited Buftea Studios in 1967.

His presence was justified by the desire to make a film, which was to be filmed here the following year and in which Romanian directors and actors were also involved.

When did Orson Welles come to Romania? What movie did he make? It played directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu

In August 1967, the great Orson Welles, the author of the best film of all time, “Citizen Kane” (1941), was arriving at the Buftea Studios for an appearance.

The American actor and director was already 52 years old and was considered a living legend of world cinema. Therefore, the fact that a personality of his stature would arrive in Romania was the dream of the authorities.

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It was a time when international collaborations aimed to bring our country, as well as the Buftea Studios, inaugurated in 1957, publicity and international visibility, in an intense propaganda effort.

The August visit materialized a year later, in the filming at Buftea of ​​the film “Battle for Rome”, directed by the German Robert Siodmak.

Orson Welles, in the role of Emperor Justinian in “The Battle for Rome” – Photo: Facebook/Buftea Studios

Images from Welles’ visit to Buftea can be seen in the clip at the end of the article. Also, the Buftea Studios Facebook page posted photos both from the visit in 1967 and from the filming that took place a year later.

The production was a project financed with 15 million West German marks, wanting “the greatest German film of all time”, according to adevarul.ro.

Orson Welles played the role of the Roman Emperor Justinian, with a cast that included other big names of the era, such as Sylva Koscina, Laurence Harvey and Michael Dunn.

Romanian actors also had some important roles, these being Florin Piersic, Emanoil Petruţ, Ion Dichiseanu, Mircea Anghelescu, Adela Mărculescu or Fory Etterle.

Initially, Sergiu Nicolaescu was co-opted into the project as the director of the battle scenes, having only the experience – intense, by the way – from the only film he had directed until then, “The Dacians”, in 1966.

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Theo Partisch and Doru Năstase were nominated as second directors, from the Romanian side.

Sergiu Nicolaescu was one of the directors of the film with Orson Welles – Photo: Facebook/Buftea Studios

But, in his book “Destiny, life and film”, Sergiu Nicolaescu claimed that, being dissatisfied with the lack of vigor of Siodmak who was 68 years old and suffering from diabetes – the foreign actors would have asked the producer to change him and to hand over the baton to him.

“We were both present. I stood up and said something like this: «I will never accept to change a 68-year-old director (I looked at him). I will continue to film alone if necessary, but in the end, we will swim together”, revealed the Romanian director.

Moreover, he also added, in the same book, that as a thank you, director Robert Siodmak wanted to offer him an island in the Caribbean Sea.

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“The next day he invited me to his hotel. He wanted to give me a present. What do you think it was about? A coffee island in the Caribbean Sea. Of course I refused, to the disappointment of those who were listening to the microphones”, wrote Nicolaescu, according to the cited source.

Emanoil Petruț and Florin Piersic were among the Romanian actors who starred in the film “Battle for Rome” – Photo: Facebook/Buftea Studios

On the other hand, in Romanian territory, Orson Welles behaved like a real star, according to the confessions of one of the participants in the filming, the stuntman Adrian Ștefănescu.

“As far as I know, Orson Welles’ per diem alone was 18,000 lei. I don’t even want to think what contract he had! He only smokes $100 cigars. He had a man constantly following him around with a gorgeous ebony box full of cigars!

You can’t even imagine the “fights” that took place in the team to get their hands on a piece from Welles”, recalled the stuntman, who played a small role of a Byzantine soldier.

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The film itself was a failure, both artistically and, above all, financially, recording losses of 4 million German marks.

Scene from the movie with Orson Welles, Sylva Koscina and Michael Dunn – Photo: Facebook/Buftea Studios

In Romania, “Batălia pentru Roma” was circulated only in a shortened version of 90 minutes, premiering on December 21, 1969, one year after the Berlin launch.

In a rather strange distribution and release strategy, the two parts of the film – originally made in two parts – were combined into one that was shortened to about four and a half hours, minutes before it was shown in cinemas in USA in 1973.

The film had, moreover, a rather discreet presence outside of Germany. In Belgium it arrived in cinemas in 1974, and in France it entered only in the following decade.