How I Celebrated the End of the World

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.

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.

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.

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.

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