Home
search
more | tips
Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 3:[1] [2] [3] [Next]
Index 24 comments in total 

34 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
A beautiful film about the hard times of our childhood when we still dreamed, 8 November 2006
10/10
Author: adrian-claudiu (adrian.claudiu@gmail.com) from Romania

Beautiful indeed. The beauty of this film is that it presents with high fidelity a era not so long ago in our life but so long ago in our memories. It's like you were closing your eyes and go back in those time. The atmosphere is recreated in the smallest details. Even the bottles of milk are the same they were 20 years ago. The director is not a judge, he just presents facts through eyes of different persons, as he recreates the every day life of people. this film is not a film of hate as we were used 17 years when we saw film about that times. It is a film to see with your heart open, with your soul free of any ideeas. It is a film of making peace with the past and with ourself. Take just little from your time and go see it.

Was the above comment useful to you?

40 out of 49 people found the following comment useful :-
A beautiful coming of age story during Communist Romania, 8 June 2006
9/10
Author: tionfiul-1 from New york

Not too strong on plot, "How I spent the end of the world" is strong on mood and feeling, and it very well compensates. I usually don't go crazy about "mood pieces" but this is definitely more. I caught the film at the up and coming Transylvania Film Festival (Tiff for short) where the film had its national premiere after a decent reception at Cannes only a few weeks earlier. The film is a MUST for any Romanian who has lived through the Ceausescu years as the filmmakers went through great pains to accurately depict the mood of those days from general landscape to the toy trucks, school uniforms and furniture all Romanians possessed and shared during an era of uniform mass-production. The film stands out as the harbinger of something historians will hopefully refer to as "the Romanian New Wave." With films like this, and "Marilena from P7" as well as Porumboiu's "Has it Been, Has it not Been" (another personal take on the shattering Revolution of 1989), Romanian cinema is finally entering the world circuit, and will hopefully stay there for a while.

Was the above comment useful to you?

39 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
very good!, 11 September 2006
10/10
Author: isabeautifullife from Canada

It's an excellent movie but unfortunately it's hard to understand this movie unless u are Romanian and u lived in Romania during the communist era. I realize there were some scenes that were quite tricky for non-Romanians and the movie was full of symbols that were quite difficult to follow but for Romanian people were full of significance. The music is as well full of significance for people who grew up in the communist time. Maybe non-Romanian people will only see how Romanian during that communist era lived without power, out of running water and out of food but the film is a little bit more than that....maybe after seeing this movie u can get a little understanding about what does it mean to live in a communist country. Maybe the director is young and quite unexperienced but I think it's a really interesting movie to be seen and I definitely recommend it.

Was the above comment useful to you?

31 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
About same Romania, 24 December 2006
10/10
Author: Vincentiu from Romania

A trip in memory. A story about an age and about an era. Only character of this movie is Ceausescu. And his presence in ours souls. At a first view is a combination Chagall-Blecher. A page of a old book. A yellow image. But the Romania of 1989 is the Romania of 2006, too. Same words, same dreams, same facts are the pieces of our life. To escape, to have, to be are the problems of everyday. So... . The extraordinary talent of Catalin Mitulescu is the result of a long clear deep observation of the pictures of present Romania. In this film is not the testimony of a communism's drop, a tale about love, absurd, lies and honor. It is a chronicle, a gorgeous chronicle about Revolution, Piata Universitatii, Iliescu regime, about Miron Cosma and the empty hope, about condition of Romanians, ever strange, ever cold. Lalalilu is our conscience. Ours jokes, patience, wait are the fruits of his desire to understand. "Our country is our country". It is possible a better definition of our condition?

Was the above comment useful to you?

21 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
the most poetic presentation of the communist regime, 5 January 2007
10/10
Author: kausalyia_inm from Romania

I've seen the film by mistake as there was nothing else on TV...i didn't what it was about but the title seemed exciting...What can I say?It was absolutely breath taking...Although most people would dismiss it as being yet another stupid film about communism,I would say that this one is by far the best Romanian film in quite a while...And the nomination for the Academy's Awards says it all...I loved because it was simple...It didn't make use of complex language or of extraordinary characters...It just showed the true face of Romania under the communist regime....It had beautiful characters...The images were perfect...The music was perfect...It's a small piece of jewelery...And what's more...Dorotheea is absolutely stunning...:D

Was the above comment useful to you?

24 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Happy Sad, 29 September 2006
Author: FcPoliFan from Timisoara, Romania

I've been trying to watch all Romanian films of late, although without much success. Some are just too ludicrous and others simply can't arouse any interest on my behalf.

I'd seen Trafic from Mitulescu, a slice of life piece from the busy happenings of Bucharest, which was a celebrated achievement of Romanian cinema at that time - with some merit. Now, "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii" is, firstly, a film with a striking title that can lead you on - erroneously. Going beyond the metaphor, I guess you can accept it as what the end of communism symbolized: the end of an era.

The film itself is about a young girl, Eva, (very well played by D. Petre) who is not only passing through the usual problems which come with adolescence, but who must also bear the weight of communism and its effects on her shoulders. I myself saw in her a prototype of the modern woman, the one who wants to think for herself and act as she deems is correct (but who also understands the importance of sacrificing herself at times), and all this burden of age and political restraints are fantastically mirrored on D. Petre's face. However, the film doesn't really go far beyond illustrating the last segment of the Ceausescu era - the fear, the hate, the desire to flee. While Eva's constant struggle, between responsibility (family) and rebellion, does deliver a certain dose of tension and dynamics, the film felt unsatisfying in the end.

What I'm referring to is that feeling you expect to encounter after a rather warm film about a different kind of childhood with a rather different sort of dreams: that overwhelming experience of fulfillment - both what the characters are concerned and the audience. So while "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii" has its good moments and conveys a very true perspective of those days, it simply did not satisfy me. Maybe it's the fact that I "missed out" on the era and, consequently, can't truly understand them. But what I felt was real enough for me, so the problem must lie within the story.

Was the above comment useful to you?

22 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
The main character is too enigmatic, 26 December 2006
7/10
Author: James McNally from Toronto, Canada

I saw this film at the Toronto International Film Festival. This was an earnest but uneven film about life in Romania during the final months of Ceausescu's rule in 1989. Teenaged Eva and her young brother Lalalilu live with their parents and suffer the hardships of living under a hated dictator. Since their neighbour is a cop, they have to be careful what they say, and Eva's parents encourage her budding romance with the policeman's son Alex because of what the family connection could do for them. Instead, her rebellious attitude gets her expelled from her school and sent to a technical school for troubled students. There she connects with another neighbour, Andrei, whose family have already been punished for protesting against the regime. Together they make plans to escape Romania by swimming across the Danube, but when the crucial moment comes, Eva turns back.

Meanwhile, Lilu is plotting with his friends how to kill the dictator. Young Timotei Duma is very reminiscent of Salvatore Cascio, who played young Salvatore (Toto) in Cinema Paradiso. Which means he was extremely cute, and some of his scenes were the best in the film. There are two whimsical scenes where we seem to enter his childlike world: one is set in a submarine taxi where all the villagers can be taken to whatever city in Europe they wish to visit, and the other visualizes the boy blowing a huge chewing gum bubble that becomes so large that it floats away. Clearly, the theme of escape is on everyone's mind.

I wish there had been more scenes like that. Instead, most of the film consists of Eva's various meetings with Alex or Andrei and very little dialogue. For a main character, she was just a little too enigmatic. I definitely felt the film could have used a bit more dialogue and a bit more editing to speed the pace a bit. As well, the ending could have used a bit more explication. There are some pictures of Ceaucescu on live television and what appears to be live coverage of him fleeing but there is no explanation. For Romanians this might be self- evident but for the rest of the world, we could use a little bit of help.

The ending itself is quite lovely, with the increasing tension suddenly released with Ceaucescu's fall. And there were some moments of dark humour, as when the students are required to sing patriotic songs about how wonderful their lives are in Romania when it's plain that everyone is living in misery. But there is a bit of unexplained business at the end surrounding the policeman and his son Alex that bothered me. As well, there were a few strange cinematographic choices throughout the film that proved distracting. Scenes would be clumsily blocked by objects as if the director didn't quite know where to place his camera. It's not a huge surprise to discover that this is Catalin Mitulescu's first feature film.

Was the above comment useful to you?

18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
A great capture of the communist era, 4 October 2006
10/10
Author: anamarie_dot_com from Romania

I have just seen this movie and I loved it. Maybe for the little boy who plays his role very well, maybe for the strange relationship that Eva has with either guys, but especially for how the director managed to capture the communist era in every aspect of the movie. Romanians may understand this better. The revolution took place almost 17 years ago, a new regime was installed since then and almost everything has changed. But this movie brings back even the smallest detail, from the clothes that students wore, music they listened to, even haircuts they had, to the state of the streets, houses, cars. It's amazing, but I had the strong impression that the movie was made many years ago. I would recommend this movie to all Romanians because, in a small detail, it gives a different perspective about the revolution. But also, non-Romanians should watch it just to see how difficult times we have been through.

Was the above comment useful to you?

16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
There's still poetry in life and...films, 28 January 2007
Author: dmihaila from Romania

Indeed...the best Romanian film in a while. It took me back to those years when I was probably about Lalalilu's age and gave me a small piece of my childhood back, when on the one hand everything was a game, on the other it seemed 'normal' (to me) that a child has to suffer from cold and be ill every winter. I realized the tragedy of that only after the communist regime was gone. But what's more important, you don't have to know anything about those years in order to relate to this films, because IT relates to YOU. An honest film, lovely characters, great story and storytelling, totally unpretentious and charming. Great acting and cinematography, lovely directed. Definitely an A+ film from Romania so...expect more...;)

Was the above comment useful to you?

What did Lalailu know?, 30 March 2009
9/10
Author: Chad Shiira from Mililani, Hawaii

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Childhood comes around only once, needless to say, and where you spend your formative years is a matter of happenstance. For Lalailu Matei(Timotei Duma), his childhood happens to be in Romainia, during the latter stage of President Nicolas Ceausescu's fifteen-year reign. From our perspective, and the family's perspective, communist-era Romainia offers itself as a pretty bleak primer on life for a young boy like Lalailu. Under Ceausescu's rule, food was short, gas was short, medical supplies, you name it, short, and a man could be thrown into prison on a moment's notice. But while the tall people remember their country during its better days, Lalailu benefits from having a short memory. While he and his little friends may curse the effect that this Romainian dictator has on their lives, the anger is largely theoretical, a reciprocation of their parents' frustration with the gap between their present and former lives. Late in "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii", Lalailu is judiciously used as a discordant instrument against the state apparatus, in a scene where the boy passes off a poem written by his friend's grandfather as his own words(for festivities in honor of Ceausescu), thanking the president "for this wonderful childhood of mine". Does Lalailu fully grasp the sarcasm and contempt of what he's reading? Although the poem is part of his assassination plot against Ceausescu, does the boy truly understand its propagandistic undertones of the author, as a subversive attack of the official propaganda of the state? After all, this is the only childhood he knows, and by all appearances, in spite of the less-than-ideal circumstances of a police state, the boy seems reasonably happy. That's because he and his friends, the resilient creatures which children are, transform the intrigue of their small village into a game. The reality of communist-era Romainia is better reflected through Eva, Lalailu's older sister, who learns: If you break the bust of Nicolas Ceausescu's head, you more than pay for it.

"Light a candle while you listen to this and you'll see the future," read the note that Anita Miller(Zooey Deschanel) left behind in the gatefold cover of The Who's "Tommy" in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous". Her younger brother William(Patrick Fugit) finds the note, lights the candle, plays the record, and is shocked into his sister's existence via Pete Townshend's axe. "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii" riffs on this scene, as Lalailu, likewise, undergoes a horizon realignment after he plays a vinyl record, belonging to their new neighbor Andrei(Cristian Vavaru), the son of Ceausescu protesters, who goes to the same reform school as Eva. Unlike William, the Romainian boy has some serious reservations about the heavy riffage that greets him at the record player; he asks his big sis, "You like this, don't you?" She does, and consequently, so does Lalailu. The rock music serves as a counterpoint to the official music of the state: inspirational anthems about the motherland, which Eva and the other reform students are forced to sing. The music offers Eva a safe rebellion against her codified life; a life in which her parents use her as an enticement to the cop's son, Alex(Ionut Becheru), Eva's former beau who busted the bust, as a way of augmenting their already compromised lives with unforgivable compromises, by asking their daughter to be, in essence, a whore, for medicine and other gratuities. When Lalailu delivers Eva the album of Romainian metal, Andrei not only offers the girl an escape through anarchic and illicit music, but also the promise of a literal escape from their restricted lives; the promise of change. They hatch a plan to cross the Danube River. They train. Unable to cross the Danube herself, however, Eva returns home, and gets an earful from her mother. "You're always stuck with that idiot," she tells Eva. And in a move that's pure rock and roll, Lalailu decides to kill Ceausescu while he silently watches both women argue. The night before his speaking engagement, Eva teaches her brother a folk song on her guitar, the instrument Woody Guthrie described as a "machine" that "kills fascists". With this gesture, Eva passes on the gift of music, as Anita did in "Almost Famous", but with something riding on the line more than being cool(Anita to William, "One day, you'll be cool."). Whereas William lived out his rock and roll fantasy, Lalailu remains there, carrying out his pretend assassination on live television, closer to a full consciousness-raising, closer to understanding the method to his madness. Meanwhile, Eva leaves home and becomes an attendant on a luxury liner, a stewardess of sorts(the song Eva teaches Lalailu is like the equivalent of Anita playing Simon & Garfunkel's "America" for her mother, in which Deschanel delivers the immortal line: "This song explains why I'm leaving home to become a stewardess.")

Was the above comment useful to you?
Page 1 of 3:[1] [2] [3] [Next]

Add another comment

Related Links

Plot summary Ratings Awards
External reviews Official site Plot keywords
Main details Your user comments Your vote history