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Bucharest, Romania — Sergiu Nicolaescu, a prolific and popular Romanian director known for his historical epics who also served as a Senator, died Thursday. He was 82.

The Elias Hospital said Nicolaescu died from heart and lung complications following surgery for digestive problems.

Nicolaescu quit politics in December, having been Senator for the Social Democracy Party since 1992.

Nicolaescu made some 50 movies in his lifetime, and despite his career in politics, continued to direct films such as the `'Orient Express" in 2004.

He was best known for historical films which found favor with the Communist regime before it collapsed in 1989. His 1979 movie `'Mihai the Brave" is considered a cinematic classic in Romania.

`'A star of Romania has been extinguished," said Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

Nicolaescu was also an actor, and had several leading roles during his career, notably playing King Carol I in "Carol I," a movie he also directed that was released...

Above: A Romanian poster by “Manescu” for Anne of the Thousand Days (Charles Jarrott, USA, 1969).

When Christopher Landry emailed me the other day he apologized for not replying sooner and said he’d been “working nights up in the Carpathians on a horror movie,” which is the best excuse for a tardy email I’ve ever heard (and it wasn’t even that tardy). Landry is an expat film producer and writer from Massachusetts who has been living and working in Romania since 1995. He is also the author of The Silver Screen in the Golden Age: Romanian Film Posters 1965-1989, a lavish coffee-table book of more than 300 posters from the country’s Communist era.

Romanian cinema has of course undergone a post-Ceaușescu renaissance in the past twenty years, and this weekend sees the opening of the week-long festival Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

2010 has been another good year for Romanian cinema. Lots of awards and many new young directors that confirmed films like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu or Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective weren't accidents. As some people call it, the "Romanian New Wave", continued to gain the world’s attention at film festivals through 2010, featuring new filmmakers that have just made their first feature film. Florin Şerban’s If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, Bogdan George Apetri’s Periferic or Marian Crişan’s Morgen are among the highlights of the year. For the next year, there are many films waiting an international film festival and domestic release: Adrian Sitaru’s second feature From Love, with Best Intentions (Din dragoste, cu cele mai bune intenții), Virgil Nicolaescu’s The Godmother (Nașa), Alexandru Maftei’s Hello! How are you? (Bună! Ce faci?), Cătălin Mitulescu’s second feature Loverboy, another...

Gerard Depardieu and Harvey Keitel will be heading to Romania to play in an adaptation of Titus Popovici novel Moartea lui Ip (The Ip's Death) - the feature will be known as So I Say. In the director's chair we find Bogdan Dumitrescu Dreyer, whose previous work includes Never Enough (2004), The Last Station (1998) and also Thalassa, Thalassa (1993) – the Tiger Award winner at Rotterdam Film Festival. The French actor plays the lead character in the project which will be filmed at Sighişoara, Romania, starting with August 22nd. Apart from Keitel, the film will feature Romanian actors Dorel Vişan, Alexandru Bindea, Gabriel Spahiu, Bogdan Iancu, Adina Cartianu and Mihai Constantin. A previous adaptation of Popovici novel was made by Sergiu Nicolaescu, back in 1972, which was known as Then I Sentenced Them All To Death. Written by Piero de Bernardi (co-writer of Sergio Leone's 1984 film, Once Upon a Time in America) and...

Oscar 2005: Best Foreign-Language Film Entries (Afghanistan to China) Oscar 2005: Best Foreign-Language Film Entries (Croatia to Malaysia) Mexico, Innocent Voices, Luis Mandoki, director; The Netherlands, Simon, Eddy Terstall, director; Norway, Hawaii, Oslo, Erik Poppe, director; Palestine, The Olive Harvest, Hanna Elias, director; Philippines, Crying Ladies, Mark Meily, director; Poland, The Welts, Magdalena Piekorz, director; Portugal, The Miracle According to Salomé, Mário Barroso, director; Romania, Orient-Express, Sergiu Nicolaescu, director; Russia, Night Watch, Timolir Bekmambetov, director; Serbia and Montenegro, Goose Feather, Ljubiša Samardic, director; Slovenia, Beneath Her Window, Metod Pevec, director; South Africa, Yesterday, Darrell Roodt, director; Spain, The Sea Inside, Alejandro Amenabar, director; Sweden, As in Heaven, Kay Pollak, director; Switzerland, Mein Name Ist Bach, Dominique de Rivaz, director; Taiwan, 20 : 30 : 40, Sylvia Chang, director; Thailand, The Overture, Itthisoontorn Vichailak, director; Uruguay, Whisky, Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll, directors; Venezuela, [...]...