Tiempo de gitanos

This is the kind of movie I cannot forget. Well, to be honest, the reason why I watched it was to see my girlfriend, who suggested to watch it at her's. I wasn't really impressed by the movie and I thought it'd be another of those I'd forget about. And I wouldn't comment on it if there wouldn't be something special to it. I just keep thinking about it again and again, and I get the feeling it wasn't so boring as I thought. That's exactly what I find interesting. There are movies which you think are bad, and forget about them. There are movies where you see they are great and you never forget them. And there are movies which you think they haven't impressed you at all, but after some time you still think about them and you keep remembering them whether you like it or not. And eventually you find that they were quite good just the way they was. And so is this movie. What it wants to tell you is not the story it tells - a story which you may find uninteresting, longish, alien, of no matter to you. This film wants to give you an impression of the Gypsy way of life. And after seeing it and thinking about it, you feel like understanding the Gypsies somewhat more.

Surreal, amazing and absorbing, there are not enough words to explain how great this movie is. I watched it late night on ITV in London from 2am to 4am only to catch a train the next day to Kent, but i don't regreat one moment of it. Am not even going to bother telling you what the film is about, because it really is one of those stories thats best kept to oneslf. Its like a good memory you keep to yourself. I have not seen any of the other Emir Kusturica films, but i will highly recommend this movie for all those that love fantasy, film and a good story.

Dom za vesanje: Approved

'Time of the Gypsies' is a big, full movie.

It is full in the way a magic realism novel is full, with its intergenerational cast of characters; its vivid sense of place, the weather and community life, where private is always public, where joy and tragedy are inextricable; where magic, dream and delusion are indistinguishable.

It is full in the Fellini sense, with its grand, often hallucinatory, set pieces; its profusion of grotesques; its bursting compression of many plots; its general noisiness.

It is one film containing many simultaneous films (a gangster film; a surreal road movie; a romantic comedy; a rites-of-passage; a Christian allegory).

It somehow feels a little thin, like a tapestry of chunks from a massive novel. It is certainly a prime example of retrospective dating - at the time it seemed a masterpiece; over a decade on, it's pastiche Kusturica.

When I see a Kusturica film, I see the magic of Fellini but with a sinister edge. His characters may be crude and immorally incorrect, but interesting enough as an observation piece that represents the madness of life. All this done through an epic journey taken by the young and shy Perhan, who discovers the crudeness of live that alters his whole believes and existence. The film plays like an opera, but without the soap, making it another Kusturica masterpiece that mixes the real with the bizarre.

This movie shines as an example of pure art in cinema. So powerful with symbolism and story telling, "Time of Gypsies" delivers amazing performances on acting, settings, musical scores, and overall directing.

In year 1988, this movie was one of the most awaited films in the Istanbul International Film Festival. I was one of the lucky ones who had a ticket for the film. When the show time arrived, it was obvious that there was a problem since the film did not started. A lady from the festival committee came to the stage announcing their appology and explaining what the problem was; they were expecting the copy of the film from the its distributor in USA. Unfortunately there was a logistics problem, so they had to get it directly from Yugoslavia. When the festival organisation put their Yugoslavian translators at work they did not understand which language it was! And a cleaning lady, who was an actual gypsy figured out that the movie was in Gypsy language. So it was not possible to translate it for the festival.

So they offered an apology and refund in case anybody did not want to watch it without subtitles.

Nobody left the theatre. We watched the movie without understanding a word. But, at the end there was a standing ovation at the theatre went on for a couple of minutes.