
Acting
Irina Petrescu
Born — Died
1941-06-19 — 2013-03-19
Place of birth
Bucureşti, Romania
Known for
Acting
Credits
26 titles
Irina Petrescu (1941–2013) was a celebrated Romanian stage and screen actress, also active in radio and television. She was discovered while still a university student by director Savel Stiopul, whose screen tests eventually reached Liviu Ciulei and led to her film debut in *The Danube Waves* (*Valurile Dunării*, 1960). Although she had initially enrolled in the Faculty of Letters, she went on to graduate from the “I.L. Caragiale” Institute of Theatre and Film Arts in Bucharest in 1963 (class of Ion Șahighian and David Esrig). Petrescu quickly became one of the most refined and distinctive presences in Romanian cinema of the 1960s, admired for her elegance, intelligence, and emotional prec…
Known for
6.4Romania, 1940. A boy meets a girl. They fall in love without suspecting anything about their real identities. They chose an eventful, tense and dangerous life as underground anti-fascists fighters. The significance of their activity is manifest in the consequences it has on the tormented progress of their love. Reality is against it. Two parallel lines which meet for a second, only to drift apart for ever.
Sunday at Six
1965
6.5After graduating from high school and failing the university entrance exam, young Vive leaves his parents’ home in order to find his own way in life and assert his independence.
The Mornings of a Sensible Youth
1967
10.0The celebrated actor considers his wife a nitwits actress of a mediocre talent. But an influential playwright, a friend of theirs, has written a play with the main role designed for her, Kati, particularly. Its title is "The Most Intelligent Woman in the World". On the day of the first night performance Kati recalls their past, the times she had together with her husband.
Story of My Foolishness
1966
6.0The film presents the drama of a proud man, full of himself, proud of his physical and intellectual qualities. Palaloga, whose life had been an uninterrupted succession of gallant, professional and spiritual successes, finds out at one point that he is seriously ill and is approaching death. In full dying delirium, almost like a confession, he realizes that his life until then was just an empty lie, in which he never lived something true, pure and beautiful and asks an imaginary Mephistopheles to give him another month of life, because in the meantime to achieve something great to stay after him…
A Woman for a Season
1969
5.8The love of two adolescents for the same girl, in 1944, which is disrupted by the demands of war. From the novel by Titus Popovici.
The Stranger
1964
7.2A woman tries to regain her dignity, both in her personal life and her career, after spending five years in prison, because of a false accusation that she was a saboteur.
A Light on the 10th Floor
1984
Film credits
1990s · 2 titles
7.0Christina's ghost haunts the mansion where she was born.
Miss Christina
1992
6.0An ambitious young manager's plans to reform and revitalize a fading luxury hotel are abruptly thwarted by his superiors, leading to his demotion and exile to the basement, where he navigates the institution's rigid social hierarchy and rigid system of control.
Luxury Hotel
1992
1980s · 7 titles
7.2A woman tries to regain her dignity, both in her personal life and her career, after spending five years in prison, because of a false accusation that she was a saboteur.
A Light on the 10th Floor
1984
5.8In late 19th century, a Transylvanian revolutionary fleeing the Imperial authorities goes to Italy where he meets a beautiful soprano who later disappears under mysterious circumstances.
The Carpathian Castle
1981
7.3An epic love story set during the troubled moments of Romanian history that culminate in the Great Union of Alba Iulia.
The Moment of Truth
1989
7.4Calin Surupaceanu is a simple boy, convinced by the engineer Dan to accompany him in building a new city. Along the way, he meets his future wife and subsequently source of unrest and rebellion against fate. The movie is based on a novel by Marin Preda called "The Intruder".
The Impossible Love
1984
5.1An uncompromising journalist obsessed with the idea of absolute justice ends up committing suicide after reading his father's biography. Based on three novels by Camil Petrescu.
Those Who Pay with Their Lives
1989
5.6Mișu and Mitică are two best friends. Everything changes when Cornelia shows up.
Fourth Fence, by the Wharf
1988
Pavel is a teenager who has been just released from prison, unsuccessful in overcoming his guilt over a car accident which killed both of his parents. His reintegration in society is met with difficulty, the boy only having a few friends who still understand him, a painter and a sailor.
Alone on Watch
1983
1970s · 6 titles
7.4Around the nationalization in 1948, a worker's daughter, as a student, is attracted by the social life offered by a breed horse owner. The relationship will sour by the cruelty with which he kills the horses, rather then give them away.
The Making of the World
1971
7.2In 1946, Northern Transylvania, an armed band is annihilated by the local communist organization, which manages to rally the locals on they side.
Three Days and Three Nights
1976
7.8The secret plan "Margareta II", drawn up by the German General Staff for the intervention of German troops in case of Romania's exit from the war, is discovered by the army and the patriotic forces through a captain who was a schoolmate of the German officer in charge of completing the plan. In the end, the two officers will fight each other, each leading his own tank unit.
Stejar, extremă urgență
1973
7.0In 1950 a Western spy is clandestinely parachuted into Communist Romania to retrieve secret WW2 codes and agent lists and also to assist a group of anti-Communist guerrillas escape but the Communist police is setting a trap.
Operation 'The Bus'
1978
6.2Mara, a hard-working widow, brings up her two children in a developing industrial Transylvanian town.
Beyond the Bridge
1975
5.7This movie presents 7 days of a secret agent's life. Unlike most other movies that glamorize secret agents, this one shows the routine, nitty gritty work.
Seven Days
1973
1960s · 10 titles
6.4Romania, 1940. A boy meets a girl. They fall in love without suspecting anything about their real identities. They chose an eventful, tense and dangerous life as underground anti-fascists fighters. The significance of their activity is manifest in the consequences it has on the tormented progress of their love. Reality is against it. Two parallel lines which meet for a second, only to drift apart for ever.
Sunday at Six
1965
6.5After graduating from high school and failing the university entrance exam, young Vive leaves his parents’ home in order to find his own way in life and assert his independence.
The Mornings of a Sensible Youth
1967
10.0The celebrated actor considers his wife a nitwits actress of a mediocre talent. But an influential playwright, a friend of theirs, has written a play with the main role designed for her, Kati, particularly. Its title is "The Most Intelligent Woman in the World". On the day of the first night performance Kati recalls their past, the times she had together with her husband.
Story of My Foolishness
1966
6.0The film presents the drama of a proud man, full of himself, proud of his physical and intellectual qualities. Palaloga, whose life had been an uninterrupted succession of gallant, professional and spiritual successes, finds out at one point that he is seriously ill and is approaching death. In full dying delirium, almost like a confession, he realizes that his life until then was just an empty lie, in which he never lived something true, pure and beautiful and asks an imaginary Mephistopheles to give him another month of life, because in the meantime to achieve something great to stay after him…
A Woman for a Season
1969
5.8The love of two adolescents for the same girl, in 1944, which is disrupted by the demands of war. From the novel by Titus Popovici.
The Stranger
1964
7.0Ciulei’s second feature recalls the best of Fritz Lang and Michael Curtiz in its WWII-era espionage tale, set on a barge transporting Nazi munitions up the Danube. Ciulei himself givers a superb performance as Mihai, the barge captain forced to navigate the heavily mined waters along with his new bride, Ana (Irina Petrescu). As the journey wears on, Mihai becomes increasingly suspicious of one of his crew, ex-convict Toma (Lazar Vrabie), and his intentions towards Ana. But Toma has a far graver—and potentially deadly—secret to conceal.
The Waves of the Danube
1960
8.5In a textile factory, the cultural supervisor falls in love with a typist. To impress her, he pretends to be friends with a famous composer whose operetta was to be performed by the company's artistic brigade. However, the typist, an uneducated woman, sees him only as a means to become the protected one of an influential person.
I Don't Want to Get Married
1961
6.8Adapted from a folk legend, it tells the story of a bad-tempered nobleman and his chronically useless younger son - who dreams of being the mythical hero Harap Alb.
The White Moor
1965
7.4Magdalena, a young chemist, imagines how the perfect man should look like. Gore, a meteorologist, former friend who was in love with her identifies in the end with the true love imagined by Magdalena.
Chief of the Souls Sector
1967
6.5Georgie, a young talented and respected doctor, leaves his job at a hospital in the capital and goes to work in a remote fishing village. Georgie has a hard time in the new place, where the fishermen prefer the witch doctor to the doctor. Boredom and unsettled life irritate his wife Irina, and she returns to the city. After some time, when Georgie managed to defeat the distrust of the fishermen, win their respect and love, he persuaded Irina to return. During a noisy and merry celebration, Irina carelessly climbed a precipitous bank and fell to her death.
Sentimental Story
1962

