Tales from the Golden Age is a collection of six comedic film shorts all about life in Romania around the end of the Communist era of the mid- to late-80s, what Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu called "The Golden Age". All the films are written by Christian Mungiu, whose brilliant 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days set a benchmark a few years ago for what Romanian New Wave cynicism and aesthetics could look like.
Here, Mungiu works with five young directors to make the films, each one with a style that doesn't not seem to show the wonderful formalism of the movement: no long takes and no static shots. (Strangely the neither the credits nor imdb seem to say exactly who made which movies; the official website only mentions a few specific directors and films... oh, to be a real movie reviewer who gets press kits.)
The six shorts are mostly unconnected, but generally deal with the poverty of the era and how Romanians got along with subverting the official orders of the Communist party and bureaucratic suits, how the system was clearly too complex and top-heavy to survive. They each tell the story of so-called "legends" (urban legends) that persisted in the era, mostly about people who got away with naughtiness or ridiculous stories that could only come from a repressive, ridiculous system. They move on a string from short and silly to longer with a darker, more cynical humor. They are as follows:
1) The Legend of the Official Visit: A small village has to prepare for the official visit of a group of Party elites; just as they get everything set, the plans change, leaving the villagers bitter. (There's some hilarious puking in this one.)
2) The Legend of the Party Photographer (directed by Hanno Höfer): A group of Party officials have to correct a photograph of Ceausescu to make him look taller and not subservient to his Western guest.
3) The Legend of the Zealous Party Activist (directed by Ioana Uricaru): An urban Party activist tries to teach rural farmers to read and take better care of themselves.
4) The Legend of the Greedy Policeman: A family tries to hide a pig in their public housing apartment and kill and butcher it before a holiday.
5) The Legend of the Air Sellers: A high school girl tries to get enough money to go on a school trip by collecting bottles from her neighbors, saying she's a government official needing to do a scientific experiment.
6) The Legend of the Chicken Driver: A driver of live chickens figures out a way to make a bit of cash by selling left-over eggs laid by the chickens in his delivery truck.
Some of these are better than others (I particularly like the first two and the fifth), some of them are a bit more serious and drawn out (the second three).
At times this film feels a bit like Kieslowski's The Decalogue, a result of setting some of the stories in public housing blocks (all Communist-era public housing blocks in Eastern Europe looked alike, apparently) and the balance of absurd officiousness and absurd comedy; at times this feels like a Kusturica send-up of Yugoslavia and people doing silly things that they think are serious (there are no Romany here, but some of the rural people seem as capricious as Kusturica's gypsies). (I'm not saying all Eastern European movies are the same, I guess it's the Communist aesthetic that I'm responding to.)
This is a fun film, but not really an important one for the Romanian New Wave. It's an interesting analysis of politics on the ground during this era, but it's lessons are rather simple.
I'm a bit upset that it so greatly veers away from the slow and direct style of other films from the Romanian New Wave, but I guess that's the nature of movements - they move on and change over time.
Here, Mungiu works with five young directors to make the films, each one with a style that doesn't not seem to show the wonderful formalism of the movement: no long takes and no static shots. (Strangely the neither the credits nor imdb seem to say exactly who made which movies; the official website only mentions a few specific directors and films... oh, to be a real movie reviewer who gets press kits.)
The six shorts are mostly unconnected, but generally deal with the poverty of the era and how Romanians got along with subverting the official orders of the Communist party and bureaucratic suits, how the system was clearly too complex and top-heavy to survive. They each tell the story of so-called "legends" (urban legends) that persisted in the era, mostly about people who got away with naughtiness or ridiculous stories that could only come from a repressive, ridiculous system. They move on a string from short and silly to longer with a darker, more cynical humor. They are as follows:
1) The Legend of the Official Visit: A small village has to prepare for the official visit of a group of Party elites; just as they get everything set, the plans change, leaving the villagers bitter. (There's some hilarious puking in this one.)
2) The Legend of the Party Photographer (directed by Hanno Höfer): A group of Party officials have to correct a photograph of Ceausescu to make him look taller and not subservient to his Western guest.
3) The Legend of the Zealous Party Activist (directed by Ioana Uricaru): An urban Party activist tries to teach rural farmers to read and take better care of themselves.
4) The Legend of the Greedy Policeman: A family tries to hide a pig in their public housing apartment and kill and butcher it before a holiday.
5) The Legend of the Air Sellers: A high school girl tries to get enough money to go on a school trip by collecting bottles from her neighbors, saying she's a government official needing to do a scientific experiment.
6) The Legend of the Chicken Driver: A driver of live chickens figures out a way to make a bit of cash by selling left-over eggs laid by the chickens in his delivery truck.
Some of these are better than others (I particularly like the first two and the fifth), some of them are a bit more serious and drawn out (the second three).
At times this film feels a bit like Kieslowski's The Decalogue, a result of setting some of the stories in public housing blocks (all Communist-era public housing blocks in Eastern Europe looked alike, apparently) and the balance of absurd officiousness and absurd comedy; at times this feels like a Kusturica send-up of Yugoslavia and people doing silly things that they think are serious (there are no Romany here, but some of the rural people seem as capricious as Kusturica's gypsies). (I'm not saying all Eastern European movies are the same, I guess it's the Communist aesthetic that I'm responding to.)
This is a fun film, but not really an important one for the Romanian New Wave. It's an interesting analysis of politics on the ground during this era, but it's lessons are rather simple.
I'm a bit upset that it so greatly veers away from the slow and direct style of other films from the Romanian New Wave, but I guess that's the nature of movements - they move on and change over time.
Stars: 3 of 4
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