The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents the 10th edition of Film Comment Selects, including this year the U.S. premiere of the most expected TALES FROM THE GOLEN AGE, the omnibus project written and co-directed by Cristian Mungiu.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this annual showcase of discoveries, special previews, rediscoveries, and films without distribution is handpicked by the editors of Film Comment, America’s leading magazine of film criticism. Drawn from their travels on the international film festival circuit, this year’s eclectic and cutting-edge mix has something for everyone: art-film rarities, down-and-dirty genre movies, choice revivals from Europe, Asia, and the U.S., not to mention new and classic works from Edward Yang, Raúl Ruiz, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Patrice Chéreau, and Jean-Luc Godard, plus the mind-blowing cinema of Philippe Grandrieux.


Tales from the Golden Age 
Original title: Amintiri din epoca de aur
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu & Constantin Popescu
Romania, 2009; 155m

The final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime were the worst in Romania 's recent history. Nonetheless, the propaganda machine of that time referred without fail to that period as “the golden age”. Humor is what kept Romanians alive, and TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE aims to re-capture that mood, portraying the survival of a nation having to face every day the twisted logic of a dictatorship. Comic, bizarre, surprising myths abounded, myths that drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime. The film adapts for the screen the most popular urban myths of the period, portraying an era during which food was more important than money, freedom more important than love, and survival more important than principles.