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34 out of 43 people found the following review useful: This film is not a documentary, 9 June 2007 Author: kingakuzman from Hungary
come form Transilvania and I lived there as a Hungarian ethnic minority. I watched this film in Budapest, and I liked it very much. Still, some of my Transilvanian friends told me that they are embarrassed to tell other people about this movie, because it shows only the "bad" things about Transilvania, and foreigners will think that this country is full of gypsies and poor people. Well, I don't have this problem. Gypsies do exist in Romania. And anyway, this film is not a documentary. It is a subjective movie, using Transilvanian images, music, impressions. It shows mostly gypsies,yes, but hey, the story IS about gypsies. This film might contain mistakes (for example, they showed Romanians from the Maramures region dancing on a street festival together with Hungarian women wearing costumes from a completely different region). But this doesn't matter! Of course not everybody is gypsy and poor in Translivania. But who would pay to watch a documentary called: FACTS ABOUT TRANSILVANIA?? It gives a general impression, which is not that bad at all. Those who think this country is only miserable, will think this anyway. I was singing loudly the Hungarian, Romanian and gypsy tunes in the cinema, and I was proud to show that I know these songs. It also gave me this mystical feeling of my home country, which I will never lose. People are not better or worse there , but they are different, and I like it. If the film raises curiosities and debates, foreigners will visit the country, and they can make their own opinions. Maybe they won't find witches and magic, but they will definitely sense a special feeling. And for that this film was an excellent means.
38 out of 63 people found the following review useful: Gadjo Dilo 2-don't expect too much, 11 June 2006 Author: robert from Romania
I've seen this movie at Transylvania International Film Festival. Mixed reaction from people attending this movie selected as the closing movie of this festival. At the Q&A with the director after the screening there were people accusing this movie of presenting a deformed Transylvania's reality. I kinda agree with the fact that this is almost nothing to do with Transylvania The director made a very bad choice naming this movie :Transylvania. People from abroad watching this movie might think that this part of Romania is just very poor dirty and mainly gypsy. The director tries to explained at the Q&A that he want it to present all the 3 ethnic communities living in Transylvania: Romanians, Hungarians and Gypsies. Hmmm.... All the Hungarians presented in the movie were in fact Hungarian Gypsies. I'm not being racist here but we Romanians tend to be very sensitive when foreign producers try to present Romania with the following "assests": Gypsies, poor, orphans, handicaps, thieves. Don't get me wrong it's a good movie with very good Romanian folk and gypsy music. It's a love story between two foreigners in Transylvania. Sometimes the movie is quite funny with a few Kusturica elements in it. Somehow the director is repeating the same story from his precedent movie Gadjo Dillo and I find that useless.
19 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Heart moving movie, 16 February 2007 Author: Zdenek Omorika from Czech Republic
Well, actually I was told about the movie by a lady-colleague of mine. Interestingly, she is a Hungarian born in Southern Slovakia, and she has been living for many years in Prague. The movie made her excited. But I told myself: Oh, wasn't her excitement only because she had some roots and historical sentiments there in Transylvania? So I forgot the movie. Some time thereafter, again, my friends told me about the movie. But meanwhile it nearly completely disappeared from Prague cinemas! Clearly as the attendance was not "money-making". Finally, by chance, I discovered the movie's projection in a small, something like "suburb" or forgotten vintage cinema not far away from my house. So me and my friends went there. Not more then 20 people altogether were watching the movie that night... But I have to say that the over-mentioned Hungarian lady-colleague of mine was absolutely right in her feelings. Transylvania is really heart moving movie. Very different from Kusturica's plain mixture of comedy and tragic. Transylvania has been telling us an archetypal story about loosing and finding human bonds, human bodies and human souls. That's why I consider Transylvania as a heart moving movie. It talks about the quality of our hearts. About their weighing by gold and by love. About countries in our hearts and minds. About subconscious and non-conscious powers that direct our values and lives. Transylvania as a country - and as a movie - is the place where people have been still living their very real life; while there in the West humans' life is hardly something more then a process of consuming - the products, goods, sex, thoughts and ideas. So, maybe the main message of the movie Transylvania is in the unspoken words of Zingarina: "It is of no key importance that Transylvania has been coming back to Europe - but just the opposite: that our hearts have free choice of leaving the prison of consumed life and return back to place where we can give our lives their true meanings."
37 out of 69 people found the following review useful: Comment on the Romanian lifestyle presented in the movie, 11 September 2007 Author: ciure_angel from Romania
We are a group of STUDENTS in Transylvania, this is our homeland and we consider this movie an insult and a mockery of our country, people, culture and language. We know the city posted in the movie, and we invite viewers to visit it, before jumping to any conclusions of our lifestyle. I couldn't have helped but to notice the fact that the so-called "transylvanians" lack any technology and civilized means of transportation. This is not so in real life, actually one might find the traffic disturbingly crowded. The traditions pictured, such as the folk march through the center of the town have nothing to do with reality. They are simply a cheap mixture of gypsy, Romanian and Hungarian customs, with no regard to their real meaning or place. The way of dressing in our towns has never been so primitive, it actually rises to European standards and fashion. The restaurants and bars... well... let me put it this way, " Never in my 20 years of life have I seen such miserable places...". The idea of exorcism is ...far-fetched...to put it mildly. I think the director has chosen a very bad name for this movie, and that it is wrong to throw mud at our image, just to suit the scenery of his plot. Even though I doubt that was his intention, we felt deeply offended by the movie. We don't mean to offend, we only want our opinion of the movie, as Romanians to be heard.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Outdated, tendentious and senseless, 14 July 2008 Author: Dan Lungescu from Cluj, Romania
I live in Transylvania, so I was very interested in watching this movie. Now I'm sorry for wasting my time.Very poor plot. A woman (Zingarina) comes to Romania looking for his former lover (Milan) but she finds another one (Tchangalo) to spend her life with. That's all. 5 minutes are more than sufficient for this story. Anyway, there's no reason for Zingarina to join Tchangalo. She just does it. But actually nothing makes any sense in this movie.No reason for anyone's behavior - unless Tony Gatlif (writer & director) wanted to offend the spectators' intellect.No reason for so much music - unless T.G. wanted to accomplish a folk music compilation and inserted some playing between videos.No reason for using so many languages (Romanian, Hungarian, Romales, Ukrainean, German, French, English and Italian), most of them spoken by the same people.No reason for using a language or another in a particular situation: sometimes 2 persons talk to each other using everyone another language; Milan uses Romanian when talking to Zingarina, yet she doesn't understand Romanian; Zingarina is the only one using Italian; people use Romanian to Tchangalo, but this one uses only other languages; Tchangalo speaks French but he uses English when talking to Zingarina and so on.Most of all, I see absolutely no reason for naming this movie "Transylvania". Only the music and the speech are specific to this land, but I don't think the title may be chosen according to them. It's like using the title "USA" for any movie with its story placed in USA.Moreover, this movie is filled with a lot of unreal situations. For example, don't trust anything that happens in a restaurant or bar, you will never see that in real Transylvania. Don't trust anything about the church and the priest, especially the scene with the priest imprecating Tchangalo. Don't believe many other things.The entire movie is nothing but a collection of stereotypes about Transylvania/Romania. This kind of movies used to be the focus of Romanian cinema about 15 years ago. I cannot understand how a French director could make such a movie in 2006.And the playing is so unnatural that I suspect there was no casting.
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: an imaginary Transylvania, 15 October 2007 Author: dromasca from Herzlya, Israel
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Tony Gatlif is known for his films describing life of Gypsies, out or which Vengo is probably the most successful. Riding on the remains of the wave started by Kusturica his is now taking upon the area at the North of the Balkans, the Western province of Romania known as Transylvania. His story is a romance with the main character - Zingarina, an Italian girl traveling in search of the musician lover who seduced and made her pregnant. When the lover proves to be a jerk she is in shock, and then finds true love in the arms of a Turkish speculator trafficking things across Europe in an old car.Gatlif filmed his movie on location in Romania, with the help of a Romanian crew, used the services of Romanian or Roma musicians in the area, but made a strange artistic choice. He broke his filmed material into small pieces and then re-built a mosaic of his own. This would be a valid choice if the filmed was named something else, but being named 'Transylvania' it does shock anybody who is familiar with the area, the folklore, the national componence by its lack of authenticity. This is not real Transylvania, this is an imaginary country.Romanian critics or viewers on IMDb have criticized the movie for this lack of authenticity, and for presenting a false image of the area. In reality Transylvania is a vibrant area, the most developed in Romania, home of Romanian, Hungarian, German and Gypsies, with cities that could well fit in Austria or Germany while the movie presents it as an almost deserted land drowning in cold and haunted by nomads. The critics are probably right, but for me the major problem is that if they had stuck to the authentic culture of the area the authors could have made a much better film. The area does have a fascinating mix of folklore and original habits, and there was no need to invent things.What is left is not really a bad movie though. Putting aside the illogical mix of languages the two main actors are well cast and the cinematography is good. The slow sliding of Zingarina into gypsiness hints to the idea that if Romania joined the European Union, it is the Western girl who joins the Eastern Europe, the process of Europenization not being necessarily one way. Gatlif's Transylvania lacks connection to the true one, but it's not an uninteresting place.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: It's not a travelogue. It's a movie., 23 November 2007 Author: lastliberal from Florida
There has been a lot of criticism of this film based upon it's name. I do not believe that writer/director Tony Gatlif was trying to make a documentary, but just using the locale to tell a strange story of an Italian girl (Asis Argento) who is consumed by the gypsy culture when she loses her lover.It is a strange mix of music, much of it composed and arranged by Gatlif, some religious customs (exorcism) and a lot of gypsy culture that was fascinating for the costumes and the joy of living that was expressed.I would not even attempt to try and express a message from this film. Everyone who watches it would come out with something different. It is a different type of movie; somewhat akin to observing a painting and trying to guess the artists intent.Check it out for Argento's fantastic performance, as well as that of Birol Ünel.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Celebration of life!, 24 April 2008 Author: Paul Martin from Melbourne, Australia
As far as I am concerned, cinema exists primarily to watch films like Tony Gatlif's Transylvania. It is full of life, love and loss, pain and sorrow, music and dance, culture and superstition. No-one with a heart can help but be moved by this ode to life and the Romany way.Gatlif has made a career of showcasing the Romany, the culture of the gypsies. Credited with writing, co-writing and arranging virtually all the music in Transylvania, he clearly has a love of music that is infused within his films. This latest effort depicts a woman (Asia Argento) who leaves France and travels to Romania in search of her boyfriend, a gypsy musician.The infusion of music and dance into the story is pure cinema magic. The cinematography, use of light and use of imagery are all magnificent. The choice of actors, both professional and non-professional, is excellent. Their comings and goings within the film are unpredictable, adding to the believability of the story, as crazy as it gets at times.Asia Argento really is the star of the film. Her passion, strength and intensity are at the core of the story. Her rendition of gypsy womanhood as Zingarina is for me a landmark performance.Gatlif showcases the bleak yet beautiful countryside and rural decay of forgotten lands, depicting a way of life that is slowly dying. His love for this culture and respect for those who are part of it is evident, and his depictions of it are electric, exhilarating and moving. The film's ending is amazing.For me, this is close to as good as a film gets and is my equal favourite for the year so far. There is so much to like about it and I can't use enough superlatives. This is must-see cinema.
18 out of 35 people found the following review useful: good movie with bad stereotypes, 11 December 2006 Author: jean-baklajean from Czech Republic
I liked this movie, but problem is, that I really did not know anything about Transylvania, so as some Romanians are worried, it is true, that from my point of view I thought that Transylvania is full of gypsies, poverty, orphans etc.I know how people who live in Romania can feel when they are wrongfully depicted in a movie. Every Hollywood film which is filmed in Prague, Czech Republic (where I live) is full of Czech people with Russian accent (Czech and Russian language (and pronunciation) are VERY different). Czechs in these films have polar Russian hats (only drunken tourists from U.K. wear them) and are depicted in movies like complete idiots who drink vodka. I guess that it is easier to depict nations with stereotypes, but violent russification of Czechoslovakia started with "iron curtain" after WW2 and second phase was in year 1968 when Russian tanks entered Prague. Let me assure you, that we did not want any Asiats with tanks in here. After WW1, when Europe became continent full of dictatorships regimes (Italy,Spain,German), we were one of a few countries with democratic regime.Sorry for lecturing about Czech republic, but I only mentioned it to show, how Romanians can be pi**ed off by Romanian stereotypes.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful: I haven't seen Gadjo Dilo yet, I was born and raised in Trasylvania and I loved this movie, 7 April 2008 Author: raluca999 from United States
So I guess it has to do with the fact that I left Romania 8 years ago that I find this movie so .. Romanian. Truly enchanting. Human. Real. Refreshingly spontaneous. :) - it is easier to perceive something objectively once you've stepped out of it. There are SO many moments where I was simply entranced with the reality of it all, the "wow, I know exactly that spot" Granted, there are things missing from the landscape and some things are exaggerated but it's a MOVIE and overall I found the story, the message , the setting, the characters, the music - fantastic! I am crying because I know this reality that we hate so much in Romania now will be soon obsolete (yee) by the fake lawns and malls and permits to go into the forest. Mark my words, people will watch this movie in 20 years and get very very nostalgic over it. I have my own copy and intend to keep it safe :)
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