Prisaceaua Mehedintilor, the village where director Geo Saizescu was born and spent his childhood, is 40 kilometres from the nearest railway station. People there had other preoccupations than theatre or film. They had never heard of directing, nor about the soldier Svejk or about Lopahin, the trader, all characters that will be involved in Geo’s life who had got sent to high school in the town of Severin.
At the time, Geo was a little bookworm, withdrawn and unable to communicate. One day, as he was reading out loud for the class a piece from a comedy theatre text, he discovered he had the talent to make people laugh. He became the official mascot of the class. Then it was time for Lopahin.
A French teacher in Severin, passionate for theatre, had the original idea of setting up a theatre play for the end-of-the-year, the “Cherry Orchard” where the young aspirant was supposed to play Epihodov. As Opahin was cast the prettiest boy in the class, lacking in memory what he made up in good looks.
He was not pleased with the length of the lines and he renounced the part in Geo’s favour. Encouraged by his first successes as an actor, Geo Saizescu goes to Bucharest intending to pass the exam at the Cinematography Institute. Destiny decided otherwise.
The doorman at the institute told him: “Go away boy, this is no place for short boys like you. Only tall people stand a chance here.” Then a colleague advised him to try the Philosophy Faculty. He passed the exam but a report filed by people in his village gets him expelled.
Finally, he discovers an add in the no 5 tram and ends up in a directing class at the Cinematography Institute. He studies directing and acts in some plays set by his colleagues. He played the director of the sanatorium in “Peer Gynt” and one of the anarchist leaders in the “Optimist Tragedy.”
Then he became obsessed with the soldier Svejk, who becomes the hero of his project film. He makes his debut in cinematography with an adaptation from Arghezi (“Two neighbours”), and draws the attention of the author. He even got him to come to the set.
Geo Saizescu made many movies and if Romanian cinematography had funding, he would still be making movies today. He was the only Romanian director who made almost exclusively comedies because he believes in the therapeutic qualities of laughter.
The moments, be they bitter or sweet, of his experience make the subject of a voluminous book he is currently writing. As a matter of fact, he is still waiting for sponsors to come up and help him out.
The book is called “The journal of an old cinematography lone wolf” and tells the story of a man who tried all his life to make people happy. Laughter, in Geo Saizescu’s vision, has the weight of a philosophy.