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.!

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!

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!!

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.

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.