Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This film is set during the 1930s, when the pro-Nazi policy of King Carol II of Romania gave support to the rising Iron Guard movement of Romania. A theatre manager, Caratase (inspired by the real-life actor Constantin Tanase), is threatened by the Iron Guard in order to cancel his upcoming show which presents a negative portrayal of Nazi Germany.The film is rather slow and confusing, but it picks up speed during the final hour - Caratase and the Iron Guard members have a verbal duel, while the show begins to play.The acting, especially if a current-day perspective is considered, can be perceived as poor and unconvincing (with the exception of some outstanding moments by Toma Caragiu). This, taken with the soundtrack, which doesn't always fit to the tone of the scenes, can sometimes break the suspension of disbelief. Note that this is a general problem of Romanian films, and it has started to be corrected only recently (in films such as "California Dreamin'" or "Restul e tacere").All in all, the ending scenes are worth sitting through the whole 150 minutes of the film. However, patience is advised to an uninitiated viewer.

A imperfect beautiful film.Toma Caragiu is magnificent in a gorgeous role. The interbelic atmosphere is recreated with talent and the acting of Marin Moraru, Mircea Albulescu or Mircea Diaconu is precise and subtle.But, it is an important problem: the transformation of film in a political instrument. A very uncomfortable manicheism transforms a decent movie in a caricature and only the art of Caragiu may evit the metamorphosis in a Communist moral lesson.The movement of right-extreme is a fundamental character in modern Romanian history and its gestures (murder of five Prime-Ministers), ideas ( a irrational ideology in which the influences of "Mein Kapf" was mixed with East Christianism dogmas), relations with Nazi Germany are parts of reality.But the message of film is more profound. And his consignee is every anti-democratic regime.

This film is an opportunity to watch great Romanian actors at work, under the direction of Manole Marcus, one of the first Romanian film makers that attended Film School (the first generation at the Academy of Theatre and Film in Bucharest). Toma Caragiu is portraying Constantin Tanase, a great Romanian comedian from the '30s. The film looks like a musical-comedy, but in fact is tragic. The historical background is carefully designed and crafted, starting with the costumes and ending with the grim atmosphere, suggested mainly through an attentive manipulation of light and shadows. Marcus took a pretty long shot with the subject, because Tanase was an "old-time" entertainer, from the the so-called "exploitation" period (that's how the communists called the years of monarchy in Romania). A careful watcher can observe the sympathy for the culture and civilization of that troubled time. Watch for Mircea Diaconu and Mircea Albulescu in two special appearances.

Almost 10 years Romania have been under the dark and dreadful political influence of the Hitler's policy The movie show in the genial interpretation of the great Toma Caragiu how difficult was for the theater world to try to defend the freedom in their scenic life... In the final part of the movie, Toma Caragiu make an outstanding imitation of the Hitler's paranoid behavior, Marin Moraru is perfect playing the dumb steward and all the actors play with a strange enthusiasm that because in the real life the mind and soul of the regular citizen in Romania was poisoned by the dreadfully tyranny of the Ceasusescu's system.The difference was not to much between the two historical periods... only a couple of decades...