Cannes. Cum mi-am petrecut sfârsitul lumii.

"Catalin Mitulescu's debut feature is the first of two Romanian movies screening here on successive days that dwell on the events surrounding, or leading up to, the overthrow of that country's Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu on Dec. 23, 1989," notes Bernard Besserglik in the Hollywood Reporter in a generally positive review. "But where the second of these, Corneliu Porumboiu's 12.08 East of Bucharest, is a shoestring affair, financed largely out of the director's pocket, The Way I Spent the End of the World (Comment j'ai fete la fin du monde) comes with major French backing and Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders credited as associate producers."

Updated through 5/28.

And "it largely lives up to its credentials, which include winning the 2005 Sundance/NHK award for best European project," finds Variety's Deborah Young, even if "this warm story does have a tendency to ramble."

Screening in the Un Certain Regard section.

Update, 5/28: "Sweet and likeable, the movie quietly captures the young innocent love inside a poor rural village during a time of upheaval," writes Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE.

Posted by dwhudson at May 26, 2006 3:32 PM