Contes de l'âge d'or

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

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.

This is how we lived. We were forced. We were not naive. Looking back 50 years I feel my life was unreal, but not. It is true to the letter. Only, what? Looking back the stupidity of the system (it did not build in 50 years a war destroyed country, but destroyed what was left from the war) appears funny. We had to cheat in order to survive. To cheat ourselves and others, on many levels. But mostly we cheated the system. This is so funny and sad about the movie. And yes, there are inconsistencies in many details, but is is so important the color of the license plate, or some uniform detail? No, IMHO. It is the impossible situations people were forced to live every day and survive. And among it all there was love, honesty, theft... A life. It is a wonder how people can smile and laugh at those hard to believe "legends", but that's life. The movie is funny, cause stupidity is funny. The movie is human because it is about simple human being in stupid situations. If you will not laugh, at least will enjoy realistic acting and directing.

A Humorous Look at the Dark Days of Communist Romania in the 1980's. A look back at Soviet Block Romania before transition - Ceacescu's

so-called 'Golden Age', and told in a series of short stories and

events based on urban legends that used to circulate in Romania

during that period. The dark humour, stoicism and pathos are abundant

and the whole cinematic experience is a true joy to watch. Tales from

the Golden Age can be equally likened to other slow paced cinema

gems such as Lake Tahoe, Vodka Lemon, Goodbye Lenin, The Return, 4

Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days, The Banishment and the wonderful Legacy. It

is one of those films that you can watch over and over again and

still find something new. So much different from standard mainstream Hollywood formula tosh of

today. To me they all provide to an outsider an education and greater

understanding of these peoples and places. An absolute gem.