Contes de l'âge d'or

A time. And its crumbs. Nothing more. Game of testify and irony, pieces of lost memories and joy to describe, not very bad, Romanian Communism. The details are not important. The exaggeration is only for taste. It is not a documentary. But an exercise to say truth in soft way. So, it is nice and amusing. A form to imagine a death world who lives in every slide of Romanian reality. A story about people in the skin of totalitarian regime. A masterpiece if compare it with Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceaușescu. With small ambitions and great sense of ridiculous. With desire to amusing and rediscover years when to survive was the first preoccupation. And title of two talented young directors. That is all.!

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

a bizarre film. first because its target seems be the generations under Ceaușescu regime. then, because it gives the illusion to recreate the essence of a period. not the last, because it is only one of films after 1990 from the Romanian cinematography who represents a fight against a corpse, a form of exorcism against the past. for me it is not easy to say if I hate it or I am amused about it. because it has the desire to be a honest exam about the hypocrisy of Communism. but itself is far to be honest. because, in a new political system, after twenty years after the fall of Ceaușescu dictatorship, the scenes are like joke contest around the fire , in a trip. ferocious, clever, amusing, ironical. but the presented events are pieces of a lost past. so, the reality who is blamed is itself a form of fiction.

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!!

For those who never "experienced" communism, this may seem off the charts but rest assured as such stories could be more than simple legends. In fact, communism provided numerous stories.. some were true, some were a bit dramatized but as the Romanian saying goes, "there is some grain of truth in every story". Every film should be judged on the period in which it was created and given the story it tells and this movie should make no exception. Considering the fact that a movie has to be an excellent blend of a good scenario, perfectly balanced acting, inspiring music and stunning visuals, it's hard to make a 10 out of 10 movie so, I have to conclude by giving it a 9. As I am a native Romanian you would have to consider my 9 an actual 8, stripping down my subjectivity. The scenarios are excellent and not far from the truth, we have indigenous music and the acting is extremely picturesque and relevant. There are many great Romanian actors here! At this point I have to remind the reader that this is not a documentary as misleadingly written previously, but a artistic movie. As far as the stories go, I don't find them to be over exaggerated. The reviews that pointed out an over exaggerated perspective are in fact misleading. Street mopping / sweeping was not something close to science fiction at all. In fact, in reality, a party inspection was often accompanied by highly more absurd but true actions, such as hanging additional fruits in fruit trees in order for the production to seem misleadingly larger..etc and all kind of similar tricks in order to distort reality and conceal the raw and painful truth - misery, cold, hunger, poverty, sadness and many more. So, in fact, what seam to be funny stories are in fact allegorical screen played facts that speak of a naked truth. Through these allegorical perspective, every story tells or focuses on an actual truth telling fact like: gullibility, poverty, tyranny, servitude, lies and censorship and many more. Try to read between the lines of the script, try to connect with the era and the Balkanic mood and enjoy the well screened stories of ages not long past. Enjoy!