Lucian Pintilie was born in 1933 in Bessarabia, then a province of Greater Romania. He studied at the Institute of Cinematographic and Theatre Arts in Bucharest and spent his entire life working between stage and screen.

Between 1956 and 1965, he filmed reports for television and simultaneously produced classical and contemporary plays. He tried his hand at cinema in 1965 with "Sunday at Six O'Clock", in which he revisited his country's fascist past. He continued his satirical style against the communist dictatorship with "The Reconstitution" in 1968 and Carnival Scenes in 1981, both of which were censored.

He then went into exile in France and performed in the greatest Parisian theaters. Pintilie gave free rein to his devastating humor upon his return to Romania after Ceausescu's death, with "The Oak". His subsequent films continually engage in what he calls a "dialogue with Evil."

His film "Niki and Flo" was presented during the Directors' Fortnight at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.