The Yellow Tie / Cravata galbenă screening in Brussels on the Romanian Culture Day

The Romanian Cultural Institute Brussels and the Romanian Embassy to the Kingdom of Belgium have offered a tremendous film to the public through the multiple screening of The Yellow Tie conducted by the great conductor Sergiu Celibidache’s son and written by the same Serge Ioan Celibidachi and screenwriter James Olivier.

Ben Schnetzer, John Malkovich, Sean Ben, Charlie Rowe, that is Celibidache interpreted in his youth, then him senior, his father Demostene, his son Miki and also the conductor’s child version, offer a generational insight into one of the most representative destinies which point to Romania’s cultural ascension in the 20th century. An orchestra of actors, all distributed to perform and show the magnitude of a life. Graciously interpreted by the actresses Miranda Richardson, Kate Phillips, Olivia Popica, Bianca Rogoff, Tamzin Merchant, the roles of female presences in the conductor’s life, be it Ioana, Sonia, Golda, Hortancia, they are resources of links between past and present, showing the flow of actions and resorts that bounce from one memory to another, the support and the confidence these characters have endorsed the great conductor and composer with. Not to forget the childhood friend much cherished. The film is a passage into the personal life of a legend, allowing the public to know him more intimately and render his memory eternal. The most sensible thing to keep the memory of a parent alive is to tie it up to memories, to other family members, to times and happenings that took place and may seem so far away and difficult to reach to. In the literary sense, the story follows a life of epiphanies and music itself seems to burst out of this source that great Celibidache was so tied to, his soul.

The plot grows on multiple narratives: the prodigy and his destiny to follow outpassing the emotional family clash in the foreground while history and politics take the stage on the background and mould people’s lives after their matching. Conductor, composer, musical theorist and teacher, Sergiu Celibidache has navigated his life through tough but self-growing experiences always letting the musician inside his being shell be triumphant. This can easily be told from the story that has taken away cinemas lately in a biographical yet mythical manner not only for presenting this particular figure, but also dwelling on the path of great film making. The two co-producers have worked together on rendering a story to the whole world, a narrative of music and the love for it, the vocation of building and being one’s own teacher to the heights of success.

In a Europe devastated by war, we have young Celibidache at the height of his becoming, leaving behind past values that no longer frame in the new world, escaping defeat and fleeing totalitarian regimes. None happier would he have been by surrendering to the family’s patriarchal values and drowning his enthusiasm and belief in the waves of temporary power although coming from a strong built up kin that have served the country with patriotism and believed in its cause. Even so, Celibidache overcomes barriers and builds up a world of his own, where talent and the permanent seek for perfection, for doing things better as a life philosophy, make him a real master of becoming and representing an ideal. Many a point of view the film offers towards values, determination, resilience, love, pursuit of happiness and forgiveness through the father and son theme, the iteration of the age gap, adapting to business and technology versus staying faithful to the live experience.

Touching yet full of philosophical innuendos about the purpose of life and the implications of taking one’s path in one’s own hands, merely not choosing the foreseeable way to succeed, but taking the risk of all loosing, the drama of the film becomes unique through the story itself, away from being easily categorized into a mainstream story but rather working on a major subject and proving it nevertheless innovative. A chain of fathers and authorities becomes one of the main themes of the film and the psychological way the story unfolds through each patriarch’s perception an personality make it a continuous story, a pick up and let go sequence, without altering the tempo, the pitch or the intensity we witness in Celibidache’s life.

To a greater extent, the film renders a story about the Romanian culture itself, hence its representation in Brussels, at Cinema Vendome, on the 15th of January, on the Romanian Culture Day, has nothing out of ordinary in a world that cherishes talent and open spaces between cultures, an example of paying tribute to a great man and in the same time bringing the story to the attention of the public everywhere through the universal language of music. A story of ourselves nowadays in the looking glass of time worthy being presented to younger generations.

May Sergiu Celibidache’s sensible cinematographic evocation be well received, for eternal memory in the gallery of Romanian cultural representatives and world prominent figures!

Do not miss the future screenings of The Yellow Tie: https://cravatagalbena.ro/