Tales from the Golden Age aka Amintiri din Epoca de Aur, written by Cristian Mungiu, one episode directed by him - Nine out of 10

Tales from the Golden Age aka Amintiri din Epoca de Aur, written by Cristian Mungiu, one episode directed by him

Nine out of 10

Although not as well received as 4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 zile – winner of the most important cinematic award, the Palme d’Or and included by TIME Magazine or some other prestigious newspaper on its list of best 100 films – Dupa Dealuri or Bacalaureat, Tales from the Golden Age demonstrates the creative genius of one of the best film makers in the world, Cristian Mungiu.

And to think that I used to have the honor of seeing at the Lycee Francais, where he has one or more children and my daughter used to be a student…

The drama of the Golden Age – communists love these tremendous lies, in the same manner as Trump boasts about being the most intelligent, a stable genius, working hardest and being the best president ever, the disastrous, murderous regime proclaimed that we live in Epoca de Aur.

The reality was the opposite – just as Trump is a calamity and a shameful leader – and it is exposed by this joke, which is not in the collection of episodes, but it is appropriate and explains the situation, through questions and answers from Radio Yerevan – for some reason, it was not the National Radio

-          Is it true that Mr. Ionescu has been given a white Dacia? – the local, defective model which had its own set of ironies – why do we have heating on a rear window of a Dacia? To keep our hands warm when we push

-          No, it is not a car, it is a bicycle, it is not white, it is black and it was not given to him, it was taken away from him…

In other words, whatever the officials said, it had to be read in reverse, just like in The Animal Farm, all animals were not equal and the pigs, supported by their vicious dogs – aka the Secret Police – took control and used the rotten system – it is not just human error, the concept is a calamity itself – to live in luxury and opulence while others starved and died.

One of the segments has The Official Visit name and the party official sent to organize it is one of those who kept the machinery going and alas, is very likely to be one of the beneficiaries of the change of regime, most likely a member or supporter of the Red Plague Party that rules today and wants to change the laws so that stealing by the leaders of this vicious, corrupt mafia group could rob the country blind with impunity – recently they have taken the absurdity of their misrule and debauchery to the level where they call on trial leaders of the European Union institutions just because they dare criticize the PSD crimes and they think they can do anything they bloody well want.

The party activist is in control in the countryside, where the Supreme Dear – read it most loathed – Leader is supposed to visit the next day and the party cadres are there to see that he has the best welcome, with children cheering, best possible imagery that must cover the grim reality – in some instances, in order to have the Trump-like-fool think that the harvesting was over, they just sent machinery in the fields to bury the crops, since there was no time to collect it, before the madman would fly over in a helicopter, thinking the job is well done.

After the usual paraphernalia, the “wooden tongue” as it was called of formal speeches and “precious indications” that cows must not be brought to the itinerary, this and that needs to be changed, there is an evening of heavy drinking and the whole gig is taken to a park at the exit of the village, where all the notabilities and the apparatchik visitors jump on the merry go round and spin around for hours on end, on to the next day, because they were so stupid – to compare with the present, in the same manner that Trump has selected the “best people”: Cohen, Flynn, Manafort, Stone and all the other vicious, stupid Goodfellas that have been or will be sent to jail.

The Legend of the Party Photographer refers to the manner in which the communist party manipulated, used the propaganda, brain washing machine in the way the Chinese, North Koreans and others do today, eliminating all possible negative connotations, hints and promoting a false – “fake news” in the parlance of the present – image of the Perfect Superman Wonder Leader, who cannot have any blemish, any spot to his figure, since he is Mult Iubitul, Stimatul aka the Very Loved, Esteemed Genius of the Carpathians.

During an official visit, as he was welcoming a foreign head of state, the villainous, murderous, tyrannical, diabolical Ceausescu was photographed by the Official press representative, only the censors were not happy with the result which did not show the needed resplendent, divine, god-like figure that the tyranny needed and hence they decided they need to work on the picture, without the digital advances of this age, the Photo Shop and other means we all have now.

Trying to make the Hero of World Peace, Ctitorul Romaniei Moderne, the Beloved, Brilliant Superman look the part of those many superheroes that have invaded cinematic screens in the past decades, they worked on the photograph, but looking too much at the face and not concerned with other details it seems, for when the picture was printed on the front page of the Scanteia aka the Spark – the equivalent of the Soviet Pravda and just as mean and false – the dictator had two hats in his hands and thus made plain the fakeness of this and by consequence other photos and “news” printed by the official paper.

A massive hunt for all the copies has been instated and police units everywhere waited for the trains to arrive at stations to confiscate all the papers before they could have arrived at “avid readers” – they obviously could not care less for what they knew to be total crap, except of course for the same scoundrels and monsters that are in charge today and continue their sacred mission of telling their deplorable voters – similar to the Trump fans – that stealing by them is just good and if the former cadres are enriching themselves while keeping the population in relative poverty that is just as things should be…

The segments are comical, especially for someone who watches without having experienced the reality behind the stories – for those of us who have had to live in The Golden Age, the Tales have a very depressing background, because albeit ridiculous and laughable, the figures of the Party Activist, the Greedy Policeman and all the other Inglorious Bastards have affected our lives – one such policeman has handcuffed me to a radiator and then we had to face their callousness in the days of the 1989 revolution – I am proud to say I am quoted in Newsweek over what happened in those days…

Tales from the Golden Age is an excellent film, as is to be expected from the glorious Cristian Mungiu.