Cinema for me is…
Romania – Anastasia Gavrilovici from Europa Cinemas on Vimeo.
Anastasia in 23 Frames
1. Describe yourself in ten words.
Poet. Book lover. Cinephile. Sensitive. Ambitious. Funny. Adventurous. Chocolate addict.
2. Your best quality? Your worst habit?
I think being empathic is my best quality. Maybe tenacity as well. As for the worst habit, what I really hate about myself is procrastinating and getting things done at the last minute.
3. Your dream job?
Speologist. Or panda nanny.
4. What do you like most about your country?
The beauty of its imperfections. The diversity and the chaotic rhythm of life, Bucharest, the mountains.
5. Your favorite dish in your country?
It’s a dessert, called “Papanași”, which are basically fried cheese doughnuts with jam and sour cream.
6. Which word or phrase in your native language do you like the most and what does it mean?
There are two, both a word and a phrase. The word is “dor”, which is untranslatable, it stands for missing something or someone and for the sense of longing, but it also implies an amount of pain and a certain degree of intensity, like a basic human need, because it appears in the same contexts as the ones that express this kind of needs, like “I’m thirsty” or “I’m cold”. And the phrase is „a-ți sări muştarul“ which could be literally translated into “mustard will jump off of you” and it means “losing your temper”.
7. What European capital have you visited lately?
Berlin.
8. Other than your own, which European country would you love to live in?
Portugal. Italy. Germany.
9. What does Europe mean to you? 3 values.
Freedom, cultural diveristy, gender equality.
10. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
To be honest, it was Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936, US), when I was just a kid. After watching almost all of his other films I became fascinated by the use of the moving image in expressing general human feelings, obsessions and situations and its capacity to produce emotions, to immerse the viewer into it.
11. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
Cinema Elvire Popesco in Bucharest. I like it because it’s intimate and cosy, for the people working there and for the big beautiful yard it has, where people gather after the screenings and talk about the films they’ve just seen. But also because it’s the place where I met valuable people and watched movies with the dear ones.
12. Who is your movie hero?
I might be predictable: Anastasia Romanov, the only “surviving” child of the last Czar and Czarina of Russia from the animated musical fantasy Disney production.
13. Which movie director would you like to be?
David Lynch.
14. Briefly describe your favorite scene.
The beginning scene from Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful (2010, MX) seems to me not only a very poetical and philosophical one, but also a sort of a brief essay on life, love, memory and misery. The first minutes of it focus on two arms, a woman’s and a man’s one, touching themselves and passing a ring from one to another while telling its story. The way in which the scene is shooted also creates an overwhelming sense of melancholy, intimacy and tension at the same time, because on the screen we can only see these two arms in the darkness, delicate and loving and in a heartbreaking contradiction with the real story of the people they belong to.
15. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Touch Me Not ( Adina Pintilie, 2018, RO)
On Body and Soul ( Ildikó Enyedi, 2018, HU)
In Praise of Nothing (Boris Mitic, 2017, RS).
16. Which film character do you most identify with?
Chow Mo-wan from 2046 (Kar-Wai Wong, HK, 2004).
17. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
It hard to choose between In the Mood for Love (Kar-Wai Wong, 2000, HK), soundtrack by Shigeru Umebayashi’s and the one from Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001, FR) made by Yann Tiersen.
18. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010, US).
19. Your life becomes a bio-pic. Who plays the role of you?
Isabelle Huppert or Marion Cotillard.
20. Which talent would you most like to have?
Being able to read people’s minds. Or to play the harp.
21. What is your most treasured possession?
The books written by my boyfriend.
22. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Overcoming depression.
23. What is your motto?
“La beauté sera convulsive ou ne sera pas.” Beauty will be convulsive or not at all. André Breton.
