An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Constantin Popescu, Hanno Hofer, Ioana Uricaru, Cristian Mungiu, Razvan Marculescu.
Cast: Vlad Ivanov, Avram Birau, Alexandru Potocean, Diana Cavallioti, Radu Iacoban
Description: A black comedy about some of the most popular Romanian myths during the so-called "golden age" of Ceausescu's reign. The episodes celebrate the resilience of the people at a time when corruption ran rife and the fear of imprisonment was very real for every man, woman and child.
Country: ROM/FR. 2009. 131mins
Fun of the fair: the five stories that make up Tales From The Golden Age capture the absurdity of Ceausescu's reign in Romania
The Golden Age of the title is the horrific final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime in Romania.
Written by Cristian Mungiu, this portmanteau film has five stories, each helmed by a different but unnamed Romanian director, which comment on the surreal and comic urban myths of the time - most of which are substantially true.
It is not revealed who directed which episode, but it seems likely, judging by the more sombre style, that Mungiu himself made The Legend of the Chicken Driver.
This has Vlad Ivanov (the abortionist of the director's Palme d'Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) as a truck driver transporting a load of chickens across the country.
The vehicle is sealed and, because of food shortages and the likelihood of theft, he is forbidden to stop except briefly for a meal. A blonde hotel manager, however, persuades him to err.
Jiri Menzel, the Czech director, might have made The Legend of the Official Visit, in which a smalltown mayor prepares to receive an official motorcade by placing fake fruit on barren trees and ordering wild, flag-waving enthusiasm from the locals. But the motorcade, of course, never arrives and everyone gets drunk.
If this is both funny and charming, The Legend of the Party Photographer shows the Ceausescu regime at its most ludicrous.
The editors at Scinteia, the Communist Party organ, desperately try to doctor a photograph that has France's President Giscard d'Estaing looking taller than the dictator. Should they take off Giscard's hat or put one on Ceausescu?
All this will be familiar to those who remember the Eastern European ironic comedies of yore. But it is still great fun and, through comedy, spears an awful regime with undeniable accuracy while pointing up the indomitability of the ordinary people who suffered Ceausescu until his surprising end.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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