The meanings of the road in the films inspired by Ion Creangă’s stories

Abstract

The article highlights the paradigm of the road, starting with biblical stories, myths and folk stories up to the image of the road presented in the youngest art - cinematography - where it is involved both functionally and symbolically-metaphorically. The road becomes a fundamental element, especially in the road movie genre, which obviously broadens its boundaries, discussing the most current issues. The emphasis will be on the meanings of the road in a special genre, the films-tales, and in particular, those inspired by Ion Creangă’s works. Arming ourselves with the theories of Vladimir Propp and those of Joseph Campbell, we will go through the interpretations of Crengian fairy tales in the films: De-aşi fi…Harap Alb/If I were Harap Alb (1965), Povestea dragostei/Love story (1976), Maria Mirabela (1981) - all directed Ion Popescu Gopo, Se caută un paznic/ Looking for a guard (1965) by Gheorghe Vodă and Dănilă Prepeleac (1996) by Tudor Tătaru. The road in the mentioned films is one of the basic elements: from the road of knowledge of the world and the internal road to oneself, to becoming a personality, as well as other meanings that we will detect in the analysis process.