Emil Botta
Emil Botta was a Romanian actor, poet and prose writer, the younger brother of poet-essayist Dan Botta. Though born in Western Moldavia, the two boys were raised by their Corsican mother in Muscel County; as a teenager, Emil rebelled against his upbringing and ran away to Bucharest. Upon arriving there, he embraced a bohemian lifestyle that clashed with Dan's academic success; he took small jobs, had samples of his poetry and film criticism published, and, upon graduating from the Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, began a short career in boulevard comedies. As an opinion leader in the early 1930s, he rallied with the avant-garde's struggle against the "old folks", forming an anti-establishment club called "Ship of Failures". His career as an actor was finally launched in 1938, when he drew notice for his performance as Young Werther in production at the National Theater Bucharest. He found permanent employment on that troupe, developing an acting style that critics viewed as unique and fascinating, if "mannerist".
Botta also achieved fame as a writer, with poetic cycles which came to be regarded as some of the best in Romanian literature. Rooted in modernism, with surrealist, expressionist and hermeticist characteristics, his verse opened itself to borrowings from neo-romanticism, dark romanticism, and Romanian folklore; increasingly "bookish" in nature, it was also informed by Botta's study of Shakespearean tragedies. Like his parallel forays into fantasy literature, it illustrated Botta's brand of existentialism, and his belief in life as a series of "masks". In the politicized climate of the interwar, Botta was an independent, though he remained close to fascist intellectuals—including his brother, who had sided with the Iron Guard. During World War II, he was preserved as a TNB actor by the Guard's National Legionary State, and then by Ion Antonescu's dictatorial regime; he survived as an actor after the anti-fascist coup of August 1944, being subsequently cast in socialist plays, but also in some early adaptations of American theater. He alternated these with a classical repertory, and was a much celebrated Othello.
After the inauguration of the Romanian communist regime in 1947–1948, and throughout the 1950s, Botta came to be relied upon by the new socialist-realist establishment, appearing in numerous stagings of Russian and Soviet plays. Though he received national accolades for this work, he was effectively banned from publishing his poetry, which was entirely incompatible with the new aesthetic standards; he also led an ascetic and increasingly lonely existence. The de-Stalinization process which began in the late 1950s saw him taking on more diverse roles: on the TNB stage, he was beloved as Crazy Ion in Ion Luca Caragiale's Năpasta; in his film career, he became a favorite actor of Ion Popescu-Gopo, beginning with a celebrated cameo in A Bomb Was Stolen. In the relaxed political climate, Botta was also rediscovered as a writer, and had his work reedited; he also began writing new poems. He became sought after as a voice actor, and earned additional exposure for his work with Lucian Pintilie on The Reenactment—which mounted a direct challenge to the communist regime's official tenets. In the 1970s, Botta's health declined sharply, something which his friends attributed to his years of wanton physical consumption. He died of heart disease at a hospital in Bucharest, shortly before his 66th birthday.
Biography
Early life and debut
Emil and his elder brother Dan were from a mixed family. Their father was physician Toader Bota, a Romanian in Austria-Hungary, who most likely descended from noble stock: his 16th-century ancestors were members of the aristocratic class in the Principality of Transylvania. Toader had supported the cause of Romanian nationalism, and had consequently been harassed in the dual monarchy; he had settled as a political refugee in the Kingdom of Romania. He received Romanian citizenship in December 1899, by which time he was living in Măicănești, Râmnicu Sărat County. By 1907, he had been transferred to Aurora Hospital in nearby Adjud, Putna County. This town became the birthplace of both his sons: Dan was the elder ; Emil is known to have been born on the morning of 15 September 1911. Some confusion as to this date was created by literary historian George Călinescu ; Adjud has been assigned to various administrative jurisdictions in Botta's lifetime, and is now included in Vrancea County—prompting essayist Liviu Ioan Stoiciu to ask what Botta's regional affiliation should ultimately be.Dan and Emil's mother was Aglaia Francisc, who was Toader's junior by 27 years, and who came to Adjud from Lisaura in Bukovina. Her original surname had been "Franceschi", reflecting her status as the daughter of a Corsican expatriate. Poet Mircea Ivănescu, who met her and her son in the 1950s, recounts rumors that she was descended from Corsican nobility. In July 1912, she filed for divorce; it is not known whether this was ever finalized, but local historian Florin Marian Dîrdală believes that the couple was in any case separated after that date. Dîrdală also proposes that the "tormenting and oppressing" atmosphere created by his parents' quarrels may have shaped Emil Botta's early life, accounting for his willingness to break out of his environment. His father died in 1921 ; Aglaia received the pension rights, but found these were insufficient for their survival. She moved with Dan and Emil to another part of the country, in Muscel County. From July 1926, she was headmistress of an orphanage in Dragoslavele.
Dan had been sent to study elsewhere: he graduated from Saint Sava High School and began training in classics at the University of Bucharest, while also taking a degree from the National Institute of Physical Education. Emil was instead a mediocre student at the Dinicu Golescu High School in Câmpulung. Idolizing his brother, he ran away from home at age 15 and followed him to Bucharest; this initiative reportedly drove Aglaia to despair. Emil's formal education remained patchy, though he eventually managed to take his Baccalaureate. Living in Dan's home, he took low-paying jobs, and was for a while a clerk at the Institute of Statistics. His close friend, Arșavir Acterian, calls him "self-taught". He recalls that young Botta had learned by heart all of Mihai Eminescu's poems, and was replicating Eminescu's lifestyle. Botta was additionally reading from diverse other sources, being introduced to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, Friedrich Hölderlin, Alexandru Macedonski, Gérard de Nerval, and Edgar Allan Poe, but also became passionate about Romanian folklore.
Emil Botta's own debut as a poet came on 10 June 1929, when his verse was taken up in Tudor Arghezi's Bilete de Papagal; the same magazine later hosted his first sketch story. He and Camil Baltazar visited Arghezi, and Botta declared himself touched by Arghezi's "warmth" and "zest for understanding". In time, he became associated with the newspaper Vremea, which featured his film chronicles, as well as with a magazine called România Literară, which published his essays and poems—as well as fragments from his incomplete novel, Meridian. As attested by Ivănescu, some thirty years later Botta would not clarify if the novel was ever completed, and showed little interest in having it published.
Other contributions by young Botta saw print in modernist magazines such as Discobolul, Caravana, XY, Cristalul, and Lucian Boz's Ulise. He announced that he would publish a play, as well as a small selection of his poems in a collective volume. In 1929–1933, Botta was enlisted at the Bucharest Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, studying under Ion Livescu. He made his stage debut with George Mihail Zamfirescu's troupe, "13+1", in a December 1932 production of Ferdinand Bruckner's Illness of Youth. Livescu brought his pupil to Chișinău, in Bessarabia, but Botta apparently never managed to obtain a role in any Livescu production. He was reportedly incompatible with Livescu's acting methods, but found value in his Conservatory years, mainly because of the instruction he received in matters of theatrical history—as provided to him by the in-house specialist, Alice Voinescu.
"Ship of Failures" period
In the early 1930s, the Bottas developed distinct outlooks on society, and consequently had distinct paths to success. In 1935, Dan embraced elitism, "with borrowings from the far-right's ideology", slowly developing an "ecstatic vision on Romanian history and spirituality." Emil took a political stance in March 1932, when he signed up to a manifesto against Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga. It was published in a special issue of Sandu Tudor's Floarea de Foc, alongside similar pieces by Zamfirescu, Eugène Ionesco, Horia Stamatu, Ionathan X. Uranus and Mircea Vulcănescu; their collective stance prompted Iorga to ban their magazine. In 1933–1937, Botta was in Bucharest, having largely abandoned his calling; a bohemian tormented by anguish about his future, he joined the "Ship of Failures" —some of whose other members were Acterian, Stamatu, Emil Cioran, and Pericle Martinescu. Acterian himself notes the additional participation of other figures, including Temenschi, poet Alexandru Robot, and violinist Gheorghe Popovici. The latter was also a financial backer, lending money at no interest ; these funds were spent on frugal luncheons at Herdan Coffeehouse. This informal society is described by Marinescu as anti-bourgeois, and by Stoiciu as ultimately avant-garde. It worshiped Arthur Rimbaud and used his exhortation, Oisive jeunesse!, as a members' salute. They played pranks on more established writers and journalists, and once managed to stick a sign reading Șalău proaspăt to the coat of a local press magnate. Botta was happy to discover an abandoned prop, shaped like a ship, outside Oteteleșeanu Restaurant, which he then claimed as belonging to him and his colleagues.The group had a "fleeting existence"; Cioran, who regarded Botta as "one of the most easily lovable creatures I ever had the chance of encountering", reports that they never again saw one another after 1935. Despite his radical poses, Botta continued to have a measure of artistic discipline, and was regularly published in magazines such as Facla, Arta și Omul, Meridian, Reporter and Litere, also returning as a permanent columnist in Vremea. He began working as a comedian at Marconi beer garden, located in northern Bucharest and rented by stage director Sică Alexandrescu; in summer 1936, he appeared there in an adaptation from Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach. From September, the same company, as a subsidiary of Comedia Theater, had him starring in Dodie Smith's Call It a Day—with the female lead played by Leny Caler. Botta reportedly felt shame for doing such work, viewing the productions as exceptionally lowbrow.
Botta eventually managed to sign a contract with the National Theater Bucharest, but only played minor parts until 1938. In 1935–1936, he led another literary circle, called "The Lovers of Muses", which was explicitly directed against the "old folks" in Romanian culture. Around that time, he reportedly spent much time loitering outside Casa Capșa restaurant, catching glimpses of literary "gods" such as Ion Barbu, Ion Minulescu, and Al. T. Stamatiad. A younger poet, Petre Pascu, was happy to meet him there, counting himself among Botta's admirers; Botta received this tribute somberly, and announced that he would burn all his Bilete de Papagal poems. The journal Ideea Românească hosted Botta's poetic cycle, Marele păianjen, which was enthusiastically welcomed and advertised by Ionesco; Romania's official publishing house, Fundațiile Regale, presented it with its annual award, and then published it, as part of the larger volume Întunecatul April, in 1937. This was followed in 1938 by a selection of Botta's novellas, put out by Editura Vremea as Trântorul.
For a while in mid-1937, Botta appeared at Comedia Theater in Axel Nielsen's Kontuschowka. He ultimately had his breakthrough in late 1938, upon appearing on stage as "Young Werther"—the show was created for the TNB by Marietta Sadova and Lucia Demetrius. This was also his first collaboration with director Ion Șahighian. The premiere was attended by a group of friends, including Mircea Eliade and Jeni Arnotă. The latter noted that "Emil was a bit stiff at first. It's obvious, if we're being objective, that he still has much work ahead of him before we may consider him a great actor." Reviewer Ion Anestin was more impressed, describing his surprise that "such a very young actor" had managed to captivate in a demanding role. Anestin opined that Botta "is the only person who could have brought to life at least part of that passionate character." Șahighian gave Botta his first film role, in the 1939 production Se-aprind făcliile. In early 1939, Botta was used by Ion Sava in his acclaimed adaptation of L'Annonce faite à Marie—the only one of Paul Claudel's plays to have been performed in Romania at that moment in time.