User reviews

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.

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.

I saw Tony Gatliff's film Transylvania in Melbourne, and, despite the presence of horror princess Asia Argento, the film has absolutely nothing to do with vampires. Part travelogue and part exploration of two masochistic lost souls, this incredibly strange, surreal, lonely, music-filled journey is unlike anything I can recall seeing before. If nothing else, it proves that cinema is not dead: not every film is manufactured in pitch meetings and script workshops. This is clearly a film not overly designed to appeal to any audience at all-perhaps explaining its practically nonexistent release outside of film festivals and special retrospectives since its Cannes debut in 2006-and, for better or worse, this is no doubt the film Tony Gatliff wanted to make, directorial flourishes and all.

Asia Argento . . . she's getting there. Though not a great actress, she's earned her place in history already, I think, by sheer measure of her persona and willingness to go places few would have the balls to explore, say french kissing a dog. In terms of physicality, she's incredibly skilled in the ways she's able to use her body. She can brandish it violently, smashing herself up against a wall in a moment of ecstasy and deep sorrow, or twist it painfully and quietly into a crumpled ball of limbs and self-induced isolation. Hurling herself full force into a musical cyclone and smashing dishes with the flick of a hand, Argento is able to bring the character to life.

It is in her line readings, during scenes that call her to sell the character in words rather than physical manifestations, that Argento never quite manages to reach the point of believability required of her. Her voice often settles into an off-putting monotone that, in quieter moments, can undermine the inner complications and emotions meant to come through in what she is saying.

Aided by often remarkable shots of a countryside not normally used in film and a truly impressive collection of folk music, Transylvania is not easy an easy film to recommend nor is it easy to dismiss as yet another self-indulgent festival film created by a director trying to force more of his vision into 100 minutes than it can support. I am unsure if the film works on every level, I suspect that it does not, but the ways in which the film both indulges in its own artistry and refuses to go out of it way to cater to the personal tastes of anyone other than its own makers are strangely admirable. Even if you don't like Transylvania, it's nice to know a film like it can be made at all.

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."

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.

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 :)

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.

This beautifully shot film tells the story of a young woman's transformation from a state of despair to new life. She begins in a state of exile; her lover has disappeared and she is left feeling rootless and homeless. From France, she follows her ex-lover to Transylvania, and there she discovers an inner strength and wildness that allow her to make a home anywhere she is. Several key episodes are told with an ambivalence that leaves them lingering in the memory; this is a film that makes you participate in the telling. I've never seen or heard a film that spoke to me so intensely and directly. Much of its emotional power comes from the superb sound-track, especially the use of gypsy music, although the two main characters are also mesmerisingly good. Don't miss it.

Zingarina (Asia Argento), who is two-month pregnant, travels from France to Transylvania with her friend Marie (Amira Casar) to seek out her lover Milan Agustin (Marco Castoldi) that was deported from France. They hire the guide and interpreter Luminitsa (Alexandra Beaujard) to help them to find the musician Milan. When she finds him, she is rejected and Milan tells that he was not deported, but left her.

Zingarina has a breakdown and leaves Marie on the road, wandering with a street boy. Soon she meets the traveling trader Tchangalo (Birol Ünel) and she joins him in a road travel without destiny.

"Transylvania" is a pretentious, boring, senseless and pointless love story. Pretentious since it is spoken in several languages without coherency with the character's nationality and has a cheap surrealism. Boring since there is no story or character development, only a storyline filled with music, giving the sensation that in Transylvania there are only vampires and music (sorry for the joke). Senseless since nothing makes sense in this movie. Pointless since there is no message and no nothing but a senseless love story. The good thing is the cast that is excellent, especially for me since I am fan of Asia Argento. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Transilvânia" ("Transylvania")

This film consists of a number of impressionistic paintings. The different emotions are put together on a string of beads. It is true, there is no moralistic message. It will not give exalted thoughts. It is pure gratification. The music is compelling. Do not expect a clear-cut storyline. Do not expect a logical sequence of happenings. Don't expect people to be predictable. If you like surprises:this film has the unexpected behind any bend in the road. It is not a film about a relationship between two human beings. It is ten separate moving images that each have their own character and meaning. By gluing these together the viewer is confronted with the mysteries of life through Toni Gatlif's eyes. You cannot compare this film with any other Gatlif production. Thoroughly recommended.

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.

TranSylvania is a patch work film. It is built up of strong unforgettable separate scenes. The story isn't that spectacular. What makes the film special? Very strong and convincing acting. Beautiful memorizing music. Emotional outbursts. Excellent photography. The somberness of the time of the year perfectly supports the mood. Beate Palya has an unbelievable voice and the combination with the haunting tarogato is brilliant. The happy end is exactly the same as the one of Gadjo Dilo. The film looks like a fantasy, a dream. Absurd surrealism. But all this really might occur in Transylvania. Comparing TranSylvania with Tony Gatlif's earlier films, I tend to say that this is the crown on his work. All the patches fit so well together that is is even stronger that Exils (which is more of a real story).

Gatlif has created a montage of peoples, places, music, life, death and religion which grows thrustingly into this tale of the darkly beautiful Zingara (Argento), determined to find the musician who made her pregnant. This takes her into mysterious depths of Romania where she abandons her sister to hit the road with a street kid in tow, before falling for itinerant junk trader Tchangalo (Unel). Whether it's an explosion of dancers at a street festival or an explosion of feathers in a pillow fight, the screen is constantly buzzing with swarms of images - say, if Marc Chagall, instead of painting flying fiddlers, designed Bollywood movies. But the camera-work, by Celine Bozon, also uses the deep-focus option of Noir as much as the wide-screen close-up, and makes the best of the cities, markets and broad, bleak landscapes. So it's comparable to Gatlif's previous work, as well as having echoes of Serbian director Emir (Black Cat, White Cat) Kusturica. In addition to the wild traditional music there is a lot of additional music, some quite haunting, written for the film by the director with Delphine Mantoulet. There have been complaints from some viewers that costumes are being worn by the wrong people, or one country's music is being played by foreigners; but this is an impressionistic film, and should not be judged as a documentary. In the end it's the story that matters. Until you get to the end, it's the barrage of imagery and the music of life that matter. I'm talking about the film, of course.

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.

This is an 'idealistic' film which does not have much in common with reality. Much in the tradition of Bram Stoker's Dracula Transilvania is presented as a rather mystical place which has nothing in common with reality. The approach is clearly made by and for the western market where there is an audience who believes and enjoys stories such as the 'Arabian Nights'. It might have been OK to make such a film some 10 years ago (and it was done - see Gadjo Dillo - astonishing resemblance), but today a more realistic and social-oriented approach would have been more useful. But if you have trouble locating Transilvania on the map and don't know yet that Transilvania is part of Romania you might enjoy this film and maybe find it moving. If you prefer a more down-to-earth and much funnier approach you should probably switch to some Kusturica classic.

Transylvania (2006)

** (out of 4)

Strange French film has Asia Argento playing a pregnant woman who travels to Romania to locate her lover. When she finds him he turns his back on her so she sets off to discover herself and eventually gets caught up in the country's Gypsy culture. There's been a large storm of controversy over how the country is made to look in this film but I have no opinions on that since I know very little about the country. As for the film, it's a pretty boring affair due in large part to the character Argento plays. Argento delivers a good performance here and really hits some raw energy but her character is so ugly that I had a hard time caring what happened to her. Seeing a pregnant woman constantly throwing down vodka took away some of my feelings for her and although her character is suppose to be going through a hard time it hit me as a crazy woman. Another problem with the film is that it seems to have been written as it went along as there's never a clear path as to what type of film its trying to be. To say the film is uneven might be an understatement. The strangest scene in the movie has to be where Argento's character is in a white robe and gets a milk bath as some sort of ritual. This offers a tad bit of nudity from the actress and this here is certainly the only energy the film has going for it. The actress also offers a look at her rather amazing tattoo on her stomach.