Tales from the Golden Age

Through six short stories about life under the Ceausescu
regime, Tales from the Golden Age returns
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu to the period of trauma. Less the source of
inspiration, the Ceausescu era has become a pathological obsession for Romanian
filmmakers (four more—Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu and
Constantin Popescu—were conscripted by Mungiu to direct the separate episodes
here, all written by him) and for Western film critics who enjoy stales of
political oppression to indulge their own paranoid fantasies.

Mungiu’s abortion thriller 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days offered a carnival of Liberal paranoia; now he’s the
barker of a jamboree—various sideshow attractions—meant to ironically portray
Romania suffering: “Legend of the Official Visit,” “Legend of the Party
Photographer,” “Legend of the Zealous Activist,” “Legend of the Greedy Policeman,”
“Legend of the Air Seller” and “Legend of the Chicken Driver.” Each segment
demonstrates how Romanians exploited themselves while attempting to subvert
their government. Calling them “golden” might work for natives but may seem cruel
and conceited to Americans—unless they long for sequels to Borat.

All these assorted swindles, subterfuges, examples of
skullduggery and frustrated love stories could also serve as Liberal
nightmares, mostly photographed in the scary light of day to enhance fear of
repression. What’s missing is an authentic folkloric sense of caution—a
Brothers Grimm moral. Something basic to American experience makes us impatient
with comedies or dramas about bureaucracy; we instinctively reject it. We even
reject Mungiu’s obviousness and implicit condescension, and look directly for
free individual behavior, not a blameworthy dictatorial system. Brilliant
filmmakers like Dusan Makavejev know this; Mungiu and comrades don’t.
Ideological critics prefer the fantasy of sinking into a Communist mindset.

Ending each episode with an epigram (“Legend has it that
many Romanians were forced to steal in order to survive”) is not satisfying.
It’s inane to devote an entire film to hindsight satire of benighted citizens; Marco
Bellocchio’s Vincere richly, sensually,
provocatively and tragically anatomized the phenomenon of nation mass hysteria.
Mungiu’s an urban snob who finds farm animals backward and funny. The Mungiu
wit: A classroom of adults learning to spell “s-h-e-e-p.” Revealing national
self-hatred, these tales backfire.

>>Tales from the Golden Age 

Directed by Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu and Constantin Popescu