TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE

I love Kieslowski's films of morally compromised lives in communist Poland. But communist Poland was never half as scary as Ceacescu's 'Golden Age' in Romania, which is perhaps why it's only now that Romanain cinema appears to be enjoying it's own golden era, with many great films looking back at the dictatorship and its legacy. Chris Mungiu's 'Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days' is perhaps the finest of them; here he has scripted a bunch of illustrative (and not necessarily so tall) tales, which are directed by himself and a number of collaborators (though who produced which episode is not acknowledged). In some ways, the first tale (about an official visit) is almost unbeatable, a black comedy that had me laughing out loud; the last (about a couple of bottle-stealers) has the most obvious stylistic echoes of Mungiu's own work. But all of them capture the mixture of poverty, deference, fear and, paradoxically, individual selfishness, that characterised life under communism. The stories are superficially slight, but the smallest of transgressions carry grotesquely exaggerated weight Bitter wryness and naturalistic acting, camera work and dialogue, mark the films as a whole: a highly recommended set.

There's pretty much no in-between when it comes to this particular movie. In order to love it, one would first need to fully grasp the social environment of the late 80's in eastern Europe. Having achieved that, the movie will suddenly become amazingly familiar. Of course, to a westerner, the movie may seem bland, with very mild comedic content, but to a eastern European, this movie will bring laughter throughout the runtime. In fact, I joined IMDb just to write about it. Yes, I found it to be that good.

There are multiple factors that make this movie so enjoyable, starting with the fact that it is based on urban legends that used to circulate in Romania during the pre 1989 period (and in fact, long afterward as well), and ending with the amazingly detailed portrayal of the characters, while still maintaining a strictly necessary list of features needed to best summarise them. I'd go as far as to compare this movie to "Goodbye Lenin", which is a movie aimed at the same target as this one. I remember watching "Goodbye Lenin", and shedding a tear in the end, due to the amazing feeling of familiarity that it had brought on the screen. While "Tales from the Golden Age" will not have such a dramatic effect on you, I can assure anyone familiar with the eastern Europe social context of the 80's, that they'll definitely enjoy the movie. Of course, should one wish to nitpick, you'd find various anachronisms, mainly related to the props used, but then again, these anachronisms only helped us remember what the actual objects used to be like back then.

Personally, I give it a 9, simply because I consider 10 to be a mark every director should strive to achieve, but never succeed.

I was born in Bucharest in 1980 and we lived there till we emigrated to Canada in 88. I remember a lot of these type of situations vividly. The pig in the apartment....I almost bloody died laughing. The Ceausescu hat one....brilliant. This is movie was absolutely hilarious if you lived, or know, what living in Eastern Europe at that time was like. The lineups for groceries, the lack of basic neccesities, hot water only in certain times of the day, having to line up and push your car to get gas, having to "know a guy" to get certain thing be it gas, meat, bread, fruit.....Romanians became very resourceful. Its movies like this that make me proud of Romanian cinema!!

i was born in 1991, 2 years after the fall of communism. my parents and older brothers used to tell me stories from the commie age and some, you'd think, were outrageous but believe me, nothing you see here is fiction.

it was a pretty hard time and that we still manage to find funny aspects in it is amazing. so, long story short, if you have no idea what communism was like this is the movie for you and it shows everything: fear of the party superiors, stupidity, bad taste, power abuse, lack of simple everyday supplies and most importantly, the will of the communist party

This is a five short films DVD, each being a different story in a particular setting that we may call typical of the Romania daily life as seen during the communist regime that ended in late 1980's.

The films are nicely shot, very in detail as of the memories I have of that time. The dance with the girl's hands around the neck, the green bananas, the hair wash in water warmed on the stove, remember that? This movie is clearly pointing to very specific details of the life back then, more than the story line itself. In a nostalgic, not depressing way. It's a 'feeling' movie, that put a smile on my face.

The play is superb, contrary of what others say here. Please look at details, the actors reproduce the exact emotions related to teenagers, young kids, married adults, couples life. Decors are so accurate, it makes you feel like going right back in time and recognize everything like it was 30 years before. And - my guess - props for filming school scenes at Mihai Viteazul in Bucharest. The story line is slightly exaggerated, but we do understand that sometime, somewhere it really happened that way to someone. I did like more films #2,#3 and #5 because those feel more refreshing and have a good hint of humor. I did not like much the Air sellers film because it's depressing and it feels too unrealistic.

A must see for all 30+ years old roumanians out there.

Here's the list of the films as of Wikipedia:

DVD1 1. The Legend of the Air Sellers Crina meets small-time con-artist Bughi, who ekes a living pretending to be a water inspector: calling door-to-door, he asks residents to provide a sample of their tap water in a bottle they supply, which he turns in for the deposit. She joins him on one of his trips, but persuades him that collecting multiple air samples will be faster. Their scheme unravels when they become overambitious and try to scam an entire apartment block out of its bottles.

2. The Legend of the Chicken Driver A poultry truck driver, disillusioned with his loveless marriage, tries to win the heart of the manageress of a roadside inn. He brings her the eggs laid overnight by the chickens in his truck, but the two of them realize with Easter coming up, it would be more profitable to sell them on to the general public instead. Their scheme collapses when he is found out and jailed for embezzlement. He is eventually permitted a visitor to his prison, though it proves to be not the woman he sought, but his angry wife.

DVD2 3. The Legend of the Official Visit Local Party officials scurry into action when a motorcade of VIPs and foreign dignitaries promises to pass through the village. A government official arrives and attention is paid to the smallest detail, yet the people are let down when a phone call reveals the motorcade is no longer coming. Everyone is disconsolate and the worse for drink, the official orders everyone to ride together on the children's carousel, but as the mayor loses conscience, they realize that there is no-one around to switch the machine off and let them down. Legend tells that they were all still trapped there when the motorcade did after all pass through.

4. The Legend of the Party Photographer Newspaper editors and Party officials fret over a photograph of Ceaușescu and the visiting Giscard d'Estaing to be published in tomorrow's paper. Much argument is had over how best to doctor the photograph to make Ceaușescu appear taller than d'Estaing, and whether he should be wearing a hat. A hat is duly provided for Ceaușescu in the photograph, but no-one notices until too late that he was already carrying one, leaving the image of him comically carrying one hat while wearing another.

5. The Legend of the Greedy Policeman A policeman is promised a pig by his brother, but when it is delivered, is found to still be alive. Uncertain how to slaughter a pig, and unwilling to share the pig with their neighbors, the family manage to gas it with butane in their apartment's kitchen. Believing the gas to have completely dissipated, they try to burn the hairs from its corpse with a blow lamp, but instead succeed in blowing up their apartment.