Tales From the Golden Age
- Starring: Tania Popa, Liliana Mocanu, Alexandru Potocean, Teodor Corban, Emanuel Parvu, Calin Chirila, Romeo Tudor, Avram Birau, Paul Dunca, Viorel Comanici
- Release date: 30 October 2009
- Runtime: 155 mins
- Rating: NR
- Genre: comedy, history
Synopsis:
“Tales from the Golden Age” is an unconventional personal history of the late communist period in Romania, told through its urban myths from the perspective of ordinary people. Comic, bizarre, surprising, these myths drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime. Humor is what kept Romanians alive, and “Tales from the Golden Age” aims to re-capture that mood, portraying the survival of a nation having to face every day the twisted logic of a dictatorship.
“Tales from the Golden Age” is composed of five short stories – connected by mood, narrative pattern and the details of the historical period: the only car you can see on the streets is the locally produced Dacia, everybody survives by stealing from the state, party orders must be obeyed no matter how illogical or absurd. The people appear grim yet deep inside they are alive, they desire to love and to beloved. —Cannes Film Festival
Review:
Noted director Cristian Mungiu (noted for the bleakly brilliant 4 Months, 3 Weeks, And 2 Days) gathers together some of his fellow Romanian filmmakers to offer up five stories set during the final 15 years of Ceausescu’s reign, Mungiu’s 2007 Cannes winner originally planned as one of the short films here, and a sixth, The Legend Of The Zealous Activist, having been dropped since this film’s debut in the French festival earlier this year. There’s still plenty on offer here. The Legend Of The Official Visit kicks off proceedings, as a small village pulls out all the stops for a passing of an official motorcade. In The Legend Of The Party Photographer, a newspaper decides their beloved leader needs a hat in a photograph of his meeting with French president Giscard d’Estaing, no one noticing that Ceausescu is already holding a hat in his hand. And so it goes on, to The Legend Of The Chicken Driver and The Legend Of The Greedy Policeman to The Legend Of The Air Sellers…
THE VERDICT: That none of the directors (which also includes Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu and Constantin Popescu, amongst others) or the writers are given individual credits here makes Tales From The Golden Age a mere guessing game when it comes to asserting credit. Which is the way Mungiu wanted it.
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