Tales from the Golden Age

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.

a bizarre film. first because its target seems be the generations under Ceaușescu regime. then, because it gives the illusion to recreate the essence of a period. not the last, because it is only one of films after 1990 from the Romanian cinematography who represents a fight against a corpse, a form of exorcism against the past. for me it is not easy to say if I hate it or I am amused about it. because it has the desire to be a honest exam about the hypocrisy of Communism. but itself is far to be honest. because, in a new political system, after twenty years after the fall of Ceaușescu dictatorship, the scenes are like joke contest around the fire , in a trip. ferocious, clever, amusing, ironical. but the presented events are pieces of a lost past. so, the reality who is blamed is itself a form of fiction.

i was born in 1991, 2 years after the fall of communism. my parents and older brothers used to tell me stories from the commie age and some, you'd think, were outrageous but believe me, nothing you see here is fiction.

it was a pretty hard time and that we still manage to find funny aspects in it is amazing. so, long story short, if you have no idea what communism was like this is the movie for you and it shows everything: fear of the party superiors, stupidity, bad taste, power abuse, lack of simple everyday supplies and most importantly, the will of the communist party

This is how we lived. We were forced. We were not naive. Looking back 50 years I feel my life was unreal, but not. It is true to the letter. Only, what? Looking back the stupidity of the system (it did not build in 50 years a war destroyed country, but destroyed what was left from the war) appears funny. We had to cheat in order to survive. To cheat ourselves and others, on many levels. But mostly we cheated the system. This is so funny and sad about the movie. And yes, there are inconsistencies in many details, but is is so important the color of the license plate, or some uniform detail? No, IMHO. It is the impossible situations people were forced to live every day and survive. And among it all there was love, honesty, theft... A life. It is a wonder how people can smile and laugh at those hard to believe "legends", but that's life. The movie is funny, cause stupidity is funny. The movie is human because it is about simple human being in stupid situations. If you will not laugh, at least will enjoy realistic acting and directing.

A time. And its crumbs. Nothing more. Game of testify and irony, pieces of lost memories and joy to describe, not very bad, Romanian Communism. The details are not important. The exaggeration is only for taste. It is not a documentary. But an exercise to say truth in soft way. So, it is nice and amusing. A form to imagine a death world who lives in every slide of Romanian reality. A story about people in the skin of totalitarian regime. A masterpiece if compare it with Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceaușescu. With small ambitions and great sense of ridiculous. With desire to amusing and rediscover years when to survive was the first preoccupation. And title of two talented young directors. That is all.!