Cinematograful ca instrument ideologic: filmele, sfârșitul anilor ’40 și Alba Iulia
The Cinema as Ideological Instrument: the Movies, the Late 40s and Alba Iulia

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the phenomenon of cinema in the last years of the 1940 decade, generally in Romania, and especially in Alba Iulia city. During the years 1945-1949, Romania went through major political transformations, due to the penetration of the communist regime, adopted in the Stalinist version. All these political and social transformations are heavily reflected in the evolution of the cinema. The major shift was to avoid and even forbid the American movies and other occidental products, which were very popular earlier, in the meantime filling up the cinemas with Soviet movies. Starting with 1948, the American films were officially strong criticized, considered as deranged, having a bad influence on the youth, presenting fascist ideas, or being too shallow, frivolous and so on. The control was very rigid starting with the end of 1947. The films, the documentaries and the newsreels needed special authorization forms; many scenes were censored (if the censored part would exceed 20% of the movie length, the film was completely forbidden); and only 10 distribution companies, mostly Soviet, were allowed. The Soviet pictures received all the praises. They were considered as portraying “glorious examples” for the Romanian working class in its mission to develop the socialist regime. The appreciated subjects were: the genius of Stalin, the struggle against the Nazis, the class-struggle, the New Man, the New Man’s pure love, the major enemies: bourgeois and the landlords, the Soviet scientists etc. Going to movie shows was no longer seen as loisir, but as part of the educational process of learning and assuming the communist knowledge. The Romanian cinema fell under total Soviet influence, and this evolution continued until the second half of the 50’s, when the “defrost” or “de-stalinisation” process started. The nationalization of cinema was begun in November 1948. Until 1949, Alba Iulia had two cinemas, called “Capitol” and “Parc”. At that time, “Capitol” was closed, and “Parc”, under a new name – “Victoria” –, became the only cinema in the city for the next decade. The activity of the cinemas in Alba Iulia and generally in the Alba district was controlled by the institution Cultural Counselor of Alba, directly subordinate to the Ministry of Arts and Informations. The present article also depicts the activity of this institution in the cinema sphere; it also present and describe the categories of movies screened in Alba Iulia and their main subjects.

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