Cristian Mungiu

“I would start with Modern Times which is one of the first films that I loved a lot and I could watch for very many times because it speaks to me on a lot of levels... I still like to watch this from time to time with my children, especially that moment when they bring this machine which is supposed to feed people while working. I find that to be a great moment especially because every five Seconds there is that thing that has to clear his mouth which I like a lot.”

“A third film which I could watch back home when I started watching a little bit of older cinema was Bicycle Thieves. At some point they started having this Cinematheque in Romania... For me what was important was to discover the strength of this Italian Neorealism and later on in the film school I watched this film several times and I think that somehow it became part of my Education about and desire just making very realistic films in which most of the tension is coming from things.”

“The other thing I wanted to talk about my childhood is this Dekalog. In the 80s they were not having enough money to keep on buying films so they started trading films with the other socialist countries... This became a cult film with us, the Dekalog, and when I got to the film school the decisive question was to comment a fragment from the Dekalog so it has a very special meaning to me. I still remember that moment because it brought me to the film school.”

“And then two films that I like a lot. I don't remember when I've seen Blood Simple for the first time but I liked it a lot and I became a fan of these people and it was very funny for me to get that old that I met him later on in Cannes years after watching this film which I can still consider to be very, very strong and very good and I was even in a jury in Cannes when they were having a film which I thought is very funny in closing this kind of circle.”

“Last but not least this is a film Easy Rider with a special kind of impact for me... Dennis Hopper wanted to meet me... I flew back to Romania and what was happening is that Dennis Hopper was shooting as an actor a film in Bucharest... I spent time with him rewriting that screenplay and I think the experience was better than the screenplay but it brought me closer not only to his films but to him as a character and he was a character.”