[4] Suchianu Sr, originally from Focșani, took a position at Saint Sava National College in Bucharest, and became close friends with the celebrated comedic writer Ion Luca Caragiale.

[10] Together, the two boys planned to write a French-language book outlining their shared views on human intelligence; its working title was L'honneur de comprendre ("The Honor in Understanding").

[15] Suchianu frequented a larger literary circle which included poet Ion Barbu and critic Tudor Vianu (he left anecdotes about the latter's complete admiration for the former), and also networked with actress Marioara Ventura, in whose home he met the politician Joseph Paul-Boncour.

[20] Later in 1923, Suchianu introduced the Romanian public to Émile Durkheim's outlook on values, suggesting that the bourgeoisie could rally around rationalism or scientism, while the lower classes could be socialized into faith, as long as these two forms of education cultivated "the same ideal".

His stance was ridiculed by jurist Mihail Pașcanu in the National Liberal paper Viitorul: "young Suchianu [has] elevated himself as a Cato of the Romanian mindset, which he censures down to its minutes manifestations.

[26] On 23 January of the following year, he became a permanent counselor of its Historical and Economic Studies Bureau,[27] but by February 1935 had been demoted back to titular clerk at the same section (supervised by Filitti).

He admitted however that most films Romanians were watching were of the basest variety: "We wish it with all our heart that our cinema-goers [...] would lose their habit of falling asleep whenever they're not shown a naked breast, a hip that's getting some action, or a character who's turned millionaire overnight.

[18] Suchianu wrote several books of essays: Puncte de vedere ("Points of View", 1930), Diverse însemnări și amintiri ("Some Records and Memoirs", 1933), Amica mea Europa ("My Friend Europe", 1939).

As biographers such as Radu G. Țeposu and Ileana Ciocârlie note, these are marked by erudition and style, subtle observation and deft analogies; they also employ ideas and information in an elevated intellectual manner.

[1][38] He claimed to have personally ensured an extension of the literary and political circle, obtaining paid contributions from Graur, Geo Bogza, Miron Constantinescu, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, and Gogu Rădulescu.

Journalist A. Bucur notes that, in October 1937, Suchianu wrote in Parlamentul Românesc about the various doctrines competing in the coming elections, with some praise reserved for the far-right Iron Guard—though generally favoring the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) as a "most balanced" force in society.

It characterized the Guard's rhetoric as "simplistic", but also noted that its followers were genuinely committed to a "moral regeneration"; if it discouraged Guardist agitation, it was only because it could also legitimize a "socialist uprising, plainly communist in its scope".

[42] In early 1938, Suchianu used his high standing to secure a light sentence for Ștefan Voicu, who had been prosecuted for collecting information on Romania's readiness for war, disguised as a report on economic conjecture.

[45] He spoke admiringly of Nazi Germany's Strength Through Joy (KdF) programs, quoting one of their artisans on the need to have "thing[s] of the best quality" set aside for the workers, including in the field of cinema.

[46] In an interview with the official paper România, Suchianu made note that the MVB was unlike both the KdF and Fascist Italy's Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro, since the latter two were "totalitarian", "socialist", and unsuited to the Romanian mindset.

[56] By January 1941, this new regime was organizing an investigation into the activity of Carlist bureaucrats; the Propaganda Ministry team, including Titeanu and Suchianu, was still formally indicted for criminal acts, though, as noted by journalist Ion I. Nedelescu, the prosecution had fumbled the case.

In April 1941, with Romania ruled upon by the military regime of Ion Antonescu and aligned with Germany, Suchianu was being formally prosecuted for allegedly embezzling 282,000 lei while employed by the Propaganda Ministry.

Some four years later, the PNȚ's Dreptatea newspaper publicized claims that he had been sponsored to research fascist legislation; Suchianu defended himself with an article in Națiunea, arguing that he never completed such an assignment, and that he was in fact a liaison with the French Resistance.

[60] Dismissing this claim as self-serving fabrication, Dreptatea alleged that Suchianu was in fact mainly active as an "economic collaborationist",[61] one of Antonescu's "middlemen and jobbers" (samsari și misiți), but also that he ran errands for his wife, Florica, who had founded a film distribution company.

As a member of the editorial staff at the time, Ion Caraion recalls meetings in which both Suchianu and Călinescu had trouble making themselves heard over the "oral debit" of another doyen, Camil Petrescu.

[74] At the PNP's Națiunea, also put out by Călinescu, Suchianu drew attention with his criticism of the PNȚ, inaugurating his long polemics with Dreptatea, which included having his own connections with the far-right revealed for the public.

[83] Also that month, Suchianu appeared at the Bucharest students' film society, newly established by Paul Barbă Neagră and Geo Saizescu, to give a lecture that drew comparisons between the art of Charlie Chaplin and that of René Clair.

As noted by film historian Călin Căliman, who attended this and other lectures by Suchianu, the halls were always "packed full" with young men and women eager to hear him speak.

"[86] According to Suchianu himself, his success with the reading public was in large part because he identified with moviegoers, telling them the "novellas that each spectator creates in his own mind"—what he called the povești-bis ("encore stories").

Vedetele showed Suchianu as fully committed to Hollywood films: he described Chaplin's Tramp as one of the major achievements in art, and John Barrymore as "perhaps the greatest actor that mankind ever had", while noting that Jeanne Moreau was overrated.

[88] He followed up with critical biographies of Marlene Dietrich and Erich von Stroheim, lauded by his fellow interwar cinephile, Ion Filotti Cantacuzino, for recognizing the centrality of actors in the cinematic experience.

[96] In a 1980 piece, partly written as a free verse poem, Radu Cosașu recounted that a parka-wearing Suchianu had been seen braving the blizzard, taking the trolleybus from his home to the Press Palace and never missing out on his lectures at the People's University.

[97] As noted by fellow columnist Mircea Alexandrescu, Suchianu was greatly affected by the successive deaths of his daughter, Teți, his niece, Catinca Ralea, and his nephew-in-law, Emanoil Petruț; he therefore lost his cheerful demeanor and apparently gave up sports,[98] spending his final period writing only in his bed.

[12] Beginning in 1983,[100] Suchianu had been regularly visited by film critic Grid Modorcea, who was running a project of oral history, including records of "our country's literary climate before and after August 23, 1944", on behalf of Editura Minerva.

[103] The biographical portion of the conversation also featured a "shattering retelling of Mihail Sebastian's tragic end",[101] with an "ambiguous" statement which, according to literary historian Mihai Iovănel, appeared to credit a conspiracy theory about his death as having been arranged by the communists.