Amintiri din epoca de aur (2009)

Directors:

Hanno Höfer
Razvan Marculescu

Writer:

Cristian Mungiu (written by)

Release Date:

18 September 2009 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | History

Plot:

An unconventional personal history of the late Communist period in Romania. |

Plot Keywords:

Romania | Communism

Cast

Diana Cavallioti	...	Crina (segment "The Legend of the Air Sellers")
Radu Iacoban	...	Bughi (segment "The Legend of the Air Sellers")
Vlad Ivanov	...	Grigore (segment "The Legend of the Chicken Driver")
Tania Popa	...	Camelia (segment "The Legend of the Chicken Driver")
Liliana Mocanu	...	Marusia (segment "The Legend of the Chicken Driver")
Alexandru Potocean	...	The Secretary (segment "The Legend of the Official Visit")
Teodor Corban	...	The Mayor (segment "The Legend of the Official Visit")
Emanuel Parvu	...	The Party Inspector (segment "The Legend of the Official Visit")
Calin Chirila	...	The Party Activist (segment "The Legend of the Party Activist")
Romeo Tudor	...	The Shepherd (segment "The Legend of the Party Activist")
Avram Birau	...	The Photographer (segment "The Legend of the Party Photographer")
Paul Dunca	...	The Photographer's Assistant (segment "The Legend of the Party Photographer")
Viorel Comanici	...	The Party Secretary (segment "The Legend of the Party Photographer")
Ion Sapdaru	...	Policeman Alexa (segment "The Legend of the Greedy Policeman")
Virginia Mirea	...	Policeman's Wife (segment "The Legend of the Greedy Policeman")

Also Known As:

Tales from the Golden Age (International: English title) (UK)
Contes de l'âge d'or (France)

Runtime:

155 min

Country:

Romania | France

Language:

Romanian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:12A | UK:12A

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company:

Mobra Films

Movie Connections:

Features Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Love it or hate it

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.