Contributor Introduction – Irina 🇷🇴

Hello to all cinephiles out there! I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship (who wouldn’t start a bio with one of history’s most cited quotes from Casablanca? I sure would!)!

My name is Irina; I am from Romania, and I love spending every ounce of my free time reading books and watching movies. My childhood was spent baking cookies with my mother, caring for our house plants, and listening to old cassette audiobooks of abridged versions of The Wizard of Oz and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde over and over again. Among the first movies I watched were Victor Fleming‘s 1939/1941 cinematographic adaptations of these stories.

Growing up in post-socialist Romania, daily life for everybody there was a bit chaotic, so this might be why my taste in movies developed accordingly. The echoes of my young years are full of a peculiar mix of Romanian cinema – some days, the 9-year-old me was eating milk and cereal while watching The Death of Mr. Lazarescu along with my parents. On other days, I’d be enjoying blockbusters like the timeless Harry Potter and LOTR film series, and last but not least, the gothic horror universe of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, or Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Oh, the rush of nostalgia!

Later, my taste in movies started to expand, as well as my love for plants and my interest in climate change narratives. This is why you will see me ranting about ecohorror productions and how plants can be both fascinating and terrifying. I can’t wait to share more about the movies I love and how they define everything I am now and hope to become. Finally, I hope you will do the same after watching them for the first time, or after ReSeeing some of the movies we will delve into together!

Get to know me better with the following Q & A: 

Q: In a couple of sentences, how would you describe your taste in movies?

A: I am a person of contradictions – two worlds live in me, which is why there are some nights when I can’t decide for 3 hours what to watch. On the one hand, I have an affinity for horror and fantasy settings that are as dark and humid as a misty winter night – movies like mother!, Get Out, or The Witch (2015). But, on the other hand, I love indie movies and dramas with full-on tenderness and adolescent angst, like Lady Bird or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 

Q: What was your favorite childhood movie(s)?

A: During my childhood and teenage years, I would have done everything for my parents to let me watch fantasy movies all day. My favorite ones were The Golden Compass, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Mary Poppins. 

Q: Who is your all-time favorite actor/actress?

A: There is no hiding here; my final and unequivocal answer is and will always be Tilda Swinton; I have watched all her movies – hundreds of times!

Q: What is your go-to movie when you need cheering up?

A: Hayao Miyazaki‘s anime My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away will always be my happy place. It is more than the genuinely fantastic animated artworks, these movies are so heartwarming, and they introduce the viewers to Japanese culture and folklore in a wonderful way.

Q: Which movie, from any era of cinema history, would you most like to ReSee in a theatre near you?

A: I can’t believe that I am going to say this. Still, the first movie that came to mind was Alain Resnais‘s unconventional movie Last Year at Marienbad. The whole dynamic of the movie is so cryptic and enigmatic that I need the entire theatre experience to activate my full-on sensibilities and resonate with the character’s labyrinthian chain of memories. 

Q: What is your unpopular movie opinion?

A: I am sure this will be a tremendous blow for many cinephiles. So here we go: I don’t particularly enjoy George Lucas’ Star Wars original trilogy. Nothing less, nothing more. There, I said it, and I am not taking it back!

Q: As a parting gift to the reader, recommend a movie you love that they may not have seen.

A: As an ardent lover of Asian cinema (I just barely scratched the surface of this universe), I think that Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a must-see, as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, an independent Thai director, is one of the most original voices in world cinema today. This would surely be another movie I would ReSee whenever the opportunity presents itself.