The film explores the image of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu using unknown official footage from the Romanian National Television and National Film Archives.
During the summary trial that he and his wife were submitted to, Nicolae Ceausescu is reviewing his long reign in power: 1965-1989. From a formal point of view, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu proves that it is possible to only use existing images to yield films focused on recent history, yet with an epic vein similar to that of the historical fiction cinema. This is an eminently syntactic endeavor, where montage plays a twofold part: mise-en-scene, as it builds scenes that do not exist as such in the rushes, and classical editing, connecting scenes together.—Cannes Film Festival
Cinemas propagandistic power is in full effect in Andrei Ujicas montage epic, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, a contemporary fresco starring Romanias fallen ruler and his wife, Elena. A radical and chilling project, the film concludes the filmmakers trilogy exploring the end of communism which began with the landmark Videograms for a Revolution, co-directed with German film essayist Harun Farocki. Autobiography defies categorization and functions closest to a Vertovian film-object wherein fragments of reality are edited together from an inventory of images in order to illustrate a higher truth. But what constitutes reality when its images have been stage-managed into baroque pageantry or quasi-Hollywood musicals by a delusional dictator?Nicolae Ceausescus megalomania and self-aggrandizement are legendary. As Romanias tyrannical President from 1965 to 1989, he created a bizarre and seemingly infectious cult of personality for himself. As Romania plunged into mass poverty under his draconian austerity programme and his banning of contraception (which caused widespread child abandonment, botched clandestine abortions and countless AIDS/HIV-infected orphans), Ceausescu continued to be fêted the world over. He was knighted by the Queen of England, visited by President Nixon (during the Cold War, no less) and was received warmly by Charles de Gaulle, Mao Tse-tung and most auspiciously by the North Koreans, whose welcoming ceremonies for him rivaled those of the Beijing Olympics.Autobiography begins with the infamous television footage of the frail-looking Ceausescus in captivity undergoing a mock trial prior to their execution on Christmas Day. The film opens onto scenes of pomp and circumstance, chronicling Ceausescus twenty-five-year reign. Eschewing voice-over commentary, the films brilliant montage and subtle sound reconstruction create a sui generis film, lying somewhere between Godards Histoire(s) du cinéma and Vertovs Man With a Movie Camera.Four years in the making and culled from one thousand hours of archival footage both state sanctioned and private this spellbinding adventure unfolds as if from the nostalgic, solipsistic memory of Ceausescu himself.
Official description, Toronto International Film Festival 2010, by Andrea Picard
