The Phantom Carriage and A Bomb Was Stolen at TIFF.22

The screenings of The Phantom Carriage (d. Victor Sjöström, Sweden, 1921) and A Bomb Was Stolen (d. Ion Popescu-Gopo, Romania, 1962) set to original music by Icelandic and local artists complete the series of cine-concerts programmed at TIFF.22

Tickets on sale online - https://tiff.eventbook.ro/

Part of the Nordic Focus, The Phantom Carriage cine-concert is an original production of the festival, which invited Icelandic artist Barði Jóhannsson to compose and perform, together with the female post-punk trio Kælan Mikla, a new score for this classic of world cinema, voted the best Swedish film of all time by FLM (Sweden's leading film magazine). The Phantom Carriage has a special place in film history because of its artistic innovation and major influence on directors such as Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick. The event will take place on June 16 at 9:30PM at the Evangelical Lutheran Church and is supported by the Swedish Film Institute and the Icelandic Film Center.

Based on the novel by Swedish Nobel Prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf, the film stars David Holm (played by director Victor Sjöström) as an alcoholic forced to reflect on his past mistakes on New Year's Eve. The film has been praised for its mastery of technical processes and its revolutionary use of camera and special effects to heighten the drama of the scenes and the intensity of the atmosphere, for its innovative narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and for its social commentary, political underpinnings, and moral themes. The Phantom Carriage has left an extensive legacy in cinema, having a significant impact on Ingmar Bergman's work, from his use of the figure of Death in The Seventh Seal (1957) to the production of The Image Makers (2000), which presents a fascinating fictionalisation of Sjöström's film production. Another admirer of the film was Stanley Kubrick, with stylistic and thematic reiterations found in The Shining (1980).

Icelandic composer, musician and writer, Bardi Jóhannsson is familiar to Transilvania IFF audiences thanks to his success at Bonțida in 2016 with the Haxan cine-concert. He is famous for his work with the Bang Gang, Starwalker (a collaboration with JB Dunckel, one half of the iconic French duo AIR) and Lady & Bird (a project with Keren Ann). An acclaimed composer of original soundtracks, Jóhannsson has scored numerous films, and was awarded Best Original Score at the Edda Film Awards for Reykjavik Rotterdam (d. Oskar Jonasson, 2009).

Kælan Mikla is an Icelandic post-punk band known for their unique blend of eerie sounds, angelic vocals and dance beats. The band has been supported by Robert Smith of The Cure and has opened for famous bands such as Placebo and Alcest.

On June 17th, Transilvania IFF celebrates the Gopo Centenary with a cine-concert at the Students House of Culture at 6.30PM. The 1962 Cannes Film Festival competition film A Bomb Was Stolen will be screened both in its original form and with a new soundtrack created especially for this event by composer Alexei Țurcan and performed live by artists from Cluj-Napoca, part of the Romanian Film Orchestra, conducted by Tiberiu Soare. The main partner of this special event is The Romanian Cultural Institute.

A Bomb Was Stolen is an excellent example of Ion Popescu-Gopo's versatility; a slapstick comedy, a spy thriller, a science-fiction-political creation that relies on farce, satire and surrealism to deconstruct the spy thriller and deliver a pacifist message. A young unemployed man (Iurie Darie) comes into possession of a briefcase concealing an atomic bomb, and this triggers a series of adventures and gags that could stand in the cinematic universe alongside those of Charlie Chaplin or Jacques Tati. Completely devoid of dialogue, A Bomb Was Stolen allows Gopo to build a rich soundscape that helps to move the story along and heighten the comic.

Alexei Turcan is a musician, composer and music producer. He began his career as a member of the band Travka, but has been part of numerous alternative projects, later moving into theatre and film music. Recently, Alexei composed the soundtrack for the documentary Wild Romania, an important musical endeavour that won him the Gopo Award for Best Original Music.

Tiberiu Soare is conductor of the Bucharest National Opera Orchestra and principal conductor of the Sibiu Philharmonic Orchestra. Internationally, he has collaborated with many prestigious ensembles such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Kammer Ensemble N, Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra, Osaka Chamber Symphony Orchestra, Bad-Reichenhaller Orchester, "Bedrich Smetana" Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Phantom Carriage and A Bomb Was Stolen join the TIFF.22 programme of cine-concerts. The programme also includes Manasse, The Unknown and Tabu - a story from the South Sea. Tickets are on sale online - tiff.eventbook.ro

TIFF Cine-concerts are presented by MOL Romania.

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Festivalul Internațional de Film Transilvania este organizat de Asociația pentru Promovarea Filmului Românesc și Asociația Festivalul de Film Transilvania.