Comic Ironic Modes in New Romanian Cinema

Abstract

ETHICS IS THE NEW AESTHETICS: COMIC IRONIC MODES IN NEW ROMANIAN CINEMA Irony irritates us because it denies us our certainties by unmasking the world as ambiguity.– Milan Kundera Irony indicates saying (or showing) as little as possible and meaning as much as possible …[thereby] relying on complete objectivity and suppressionof all moral judgements.– Northrop Frye In a study on the role of irony in New Romanian Cinema (NRC), entitled The New Romanian Cinema Between the Tragic and the Ironic, we referred to the proximity - indeed, interchangeability - of the NRC realism with the tragic and the ironic, which 'sometimes, as in Corneliu Porumboiu's and Radu Jude's films,' colludes with the comedic 'by balancing on the verge of dead-pan black humour, suspense and existential angst' and even absurdity (Stojanova, Duma 2012:14). In light of Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism...