“Mrs. Buică”, a documentary by Eugene Buică

Mrs. Buică, directed by Eugene Buică, premiered in Romanian cinemas at the end of last year

România Internațional, 27.07.2024, 14:00

Selected in the local competition of the 30th ASTRA International Documentary Film Festival, the documentary Mrs. Buică, directed by Eugene Buică, premiered in Romanian cinemas at the end of last year. A family flees communist Romania and gets to live the American Dream, but cannot escape the sins of the Balkan soul. Love, scandal, tragedy and the breakup of parents’ marriage, under the eyes of a son who documents everything. When in 1998 some of the members of the Buică family return for a short time from America (the adopted country) to their native country, Romania, Mrs. Buică playfully attacks her husband, making mean comments. Their son Eugene manages to capture the couple’s dysfunctionality as their marriage falls apart.

In 2000, Eugene manages to film professional interviews with each of his parents in New York. Mrs. Buică marks an important moment in Buică’s career, which is distinguished by outstanding achievements as an actor, director, writer and pedagogue. The documentary captures images filmed over 24 years in Romania and America. Although he has worked with many actors as a teacher of acting, Eugene Buică says he has rarely met better actors than his parents. In addition, through the documentary Mrs. Buica he wanted to tell their story.

I realized very quickly, in 1998, when I started working on this film, that these people – my parents – are loved by the camera and the camera, in turn, loves them. That is why, in a very short time, they forget that they are in front of a camera, that they are being filmed. It’s why they don’t even self-censor when they speak. They became very natural in a very short time, that’s why I said that it was like I was working with real actors, with some extremely dynamic performers, who were telling a story. I’ve been asked by people if this movie helped me in a therapeutic way but I didn’t do it for that purpose, I’m fine. The idea was to tell a good story cinematically, to make a good film. If I had found a better story then, in the late 90s, I would have made another documentary. Indeed, it is a story related to my family, but that is not why I chose to tell it. I chose to make this film because it has a dramatic effect, people laugh, people cry, that’s the idea. I wanted to tell a good story, not to bore people who come to the cinema for two hours. I think you have to give the viewers something that touches them somehow.

Eugene Buică was born in Bucharest, and at the age of 10 he moved with his family to New York. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he graduated from The Neighborhood Playhouse In N.Y., where he had the legendary Sanford Meisner as his acting teacher. As an actor, he had roles in over 50 plays, films, television series, commercials. Notable stage appearances include The Sound of Music on Broadway, Coriolanus at McCarter Theater in Princeton or The Swan at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. In terms of films, we mention Glass Necktie, The Group, Merchants of Venus, Float, and most recently Jolt (with Kate Beckingsale), and as series: ER, Goode Behavior, Days of Our Lives, or Becker.

Making the documentary Mrs. Buică, Eugene Buică tells the honest, tense story of his parents which, with all the misunderstandings and arguments between the two, he likens to a symphony.

I thought of this film as a debt to my parents. I know it’s a risky story but I chose to tell it anyway, after all important things contain an element of risk. And I can say that I feel very good that I made this documentary, as I said, there are always risks wheter it’s theater, cinema, directing, writing, art in general. Besides, everyone will have an opinion and there will always be people who won’t like what you’ve done. But what makes me happy about this documentary is that so far, most people who have seen the film and written reviews have expressed extremely favorable opinions. And if I didn’t meet everyone’s expectations, it’s no problem, it can happen, I don’t mind that. I think it would have been disappointing to make a conventional movie that wouldn’t upset or intrigue anyone, a boring movie where my parents only talk nicely about each other. I could have done that, but it wouldn’t have been my story or their story.

Between the years 2000 and 2019, Eugene Buică was the artistic director and founder of The Acting Corps Academy, which benefited both the American and the international community, training a number of over 4700 actors. (MI)