Franco-Romanian cinema in late communism: Sergiu Nicolaescu's François Villon - Poetul vagabond (1987)

In the late 1980s, against the backdrop of worsening Franco-Romanian relations and internal crisis, Sergiu Nicolaescu, who had established an international reputation for epic films about Romanian history, agreed to make François Villon – Poetul vagabond in co-production with TF1 and Cine Berlin, firstly as a television series broadcast in 1987, then as a feature film, released in Romanian cinemas in 1989, the final year of the Ceaușescu regime. This article studies Nicolaescu’s film, its production and its reception, drawing on archival documents, the Romanian press of the time, and Nicolaescu’s memoirs. To what extent was Villon’s story used to criticise the regime? And how far does this co-production mark a watershed in both Nicolaescu’s career and in Franco-Romanian film collaboration?