Occupation novelist, essayist Role Novelist Nationality Romanian Spouse Cristina Breban | Period 1957– Books Francisca: Roman Name Nicolae Breban | |
Born February 1, 1934 (age 90)
Baia Mare ( 1934-02-01 ) Movies Sick Animals, A Woman for a Season Parents Vasile Breban, Olga Constanta Esthera Breban Similar People Horia‑Roman Patapievici, Gabriel Liiceanu, Augustin Buzura, Nicolae Manolescu, Andrei Plesu | ||
Interviu Nicolae Breban
Nicolae Breban ([nikoˈla.e breˈban]; born February 1, 1934, Baia Mare, Romania) is a Romanian novelist and essayist.
Contents
- Interviu Nicolae Breban
- Biography
- Novels
- Novels translated in other languages
- Short stories
- Essays diaries
- Plays
- Poems
- Translation
- Filmography
- Awards
- References
Biography
He is the son of Vasile Breban, a Greek Catholic priest in the village of Recea, Maramureş County. His mother, Olga Constanţa Esthera Breban, born Böhmler, descended from a family of German merchants who emigrated from Alsace Lorraine. In 1951, he was expelled from school on account of his social origin when in the penultimate year at the „Coriolan Brediceanu” High School in Lugoj. He worked as an office clerk in Oradea, and finally passed the graduation exams at the „Oltea Doamna” High School. As he intended to study at the Polytechnical Institute, he had to work first as an apprentice at the "23 August” Works in Bucharest. He enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy by „forging personal documents” as he candidly admitted in Confesiuni violente ("Violent Confessions"). His reading of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer made him, in fact, suspicious in the eyes of Dean Athanase Joja. He made his literary debut in „Viaţa studenţească” (no. 5, May 1957), with the sketch Doamna din vis ("The Lady in the Dream").
At the 10th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, held between 6 and 12 August 1969, he was elected a substitute member of the Central Committee. Beginning with issue no. 20 of 14 May 1970, he was editor-in-chief of the literary review "România literară”, around which he attracted some of Romania's most important writers. In 1971, the première of the movie Printre colinele verzi/Among the Green Hills (written and directed by Nicolae Breban), the film version of Sick Animals, took place. The communist authorities were quite annoyed by this movie, but it was nevertheless included in the official selection for the International Festival of Cannes. While in Paris, Nicolae Breban remained shocked by the so-called "July Theses”, by means of which Nicolae Ceauşescu, following the Maoist model, was trying to start some kind of the Cultural Revolution. The writer publicly repudiated the cultural policy of the Romanian regime in a number of interviews published in the Western media, and, in protest, resigned his position as editor-in-chief of "România literară”. Back home, in 1972, the communist authorities regarded him as an outcast. He was therefore marginalized, watched by the police, and not allowed to travel abroad again until 1975, despite having also acquired German citizenship that year. Without actually becoming an exile, he lived mostly in Paris with his wife, Cristina, between 1986 and 1989. He returned to Romania, and in 1990 launched a new series of the literary review "Contemporanul. Ideea europeană”. On the 24th of October 1997, he became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, and on the 14th of January 2009, a full member.
Novels
Novels translated in other languages
Short stories
Essays, diaries
Plays
Poems
Translation
Filmography
(as screenplay writer)
(as screenplay writer and director)