Tag: Hungary

SUNSET (2018) – Review

Here’s something for those few who don’t want to see (or can’t get tickets to) the big superhero slugfest that’s on most of this country’s movie screens. It’s a drama set in a turbulent time in another country. It’s full of lush intricate costumes and lavish estates because it’s set near the end of a genteel, refined era, just before the dawning of the coarse, mechanized, violent modern age. Perhaps that’s the reason for the English title: SUNSET.

After a title card telling us about the 1913 rivalry between Budapest and Vienna, the camera is locked on the listless face of an aristocratic young woman, perhaps in her early twenties being served at a clothes store. After trying on several fancy decorative hats, she announces that she’s actually there in search of a job. The flustered floor manager Zelma (Evelin Dobos) takes her to the supervisor’s office. He, Mr. Brill (Vlad Ivanov) is shocked to see that the applicant (who has arrived with several hat designs) is Irisz Leiter (Juli Jakab) namesake of the store’s original owners (Leiter’s is quite the exclusive ladies’ shop, about to celebrate 30 years), the only survivor of the fire that claimed her parents, leading to the purchase of the place by Brill. Irisz wants no special treatment, only the chance to escape her foster home and work at her family’s business. Brill cannot offer a job but insists she stay overnight at a nearby boarding house for the shop’s staff. Late that night, she is awakened by an intruder, a crazed stableman named Gaspar (Levente Molnar) who mumbles that she barely resembles her brother, before the landlord chases him away. Irisz was not aware of any sibling. Brill dismisses the news, but Irisz makes this quest her number one priority. Eventually, she is hired by the shop, but her evenings are spent in pursuit of this “phantom brother”. As her search leads her into a dangerous part of town Irisz learns that he is a wanted man who may be organizing a revolt against the upper classes. Can she find him before those deadly plans are carried out?

In his follow-up to the Oscar-winning SON OF SAUL director and co-writer (along with Clara Royer and Matthieu Taponier) utilizes several themes and techniques from that earlier work but without the impact or an equally compelling story. For much of the film’s running time, the camera is either trained on Irisz or seems to be just over the shoulder almost giving us a point-of-view (POV) from the character’s perspective. While it worked for Saul in that film, here it just gives an extra bit of disorientation and proves frustrating and distracting during the story’s few action sequences. We wonder, “What’s that noise? Where is it coming from? Stay on that person. Why are we looking there?”. It doesn’t help that the main character is so passive. Jakab seems to have the same dead-eyed stare through the whole languid two-plus hours, not even crying out as she’s nearly ravaged twice. It’s a flawed directorial choice that distances us from her character and the drama. The filmmaker may be trying to make a statement about the class system, but its themes are diluted by a third act that invokes the twist of FIGHT CLUB (amongst other superior works). Those unfamiliar with Hungary in the early 20th century will have many questions. Are the angry lower-class mobs inspired by the Russian revolt? Are these events directly connected to the start of the first World War? Ultimately we’re tasked with the “heavy lifting” due to the muddled script and storytelling style. The production artists truly put us in that time period (horse carriages and early autos), but it’s not enough to make SUNSET enlightening to anyone other than Eastern European history buffs and millinery fans (the hats are pretty wild, though).


1 Out of 5


SUNSET opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR – Review

Last Sunday night during that big award show, between the lack of a host and THAT musical duet, you may have detected a slight tremor or rumbling emanating from “Tinseltown”. That’s because one of the winners may have begun a “sea change” (though an “A change” may be more accurate). we’re talking about the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film going to SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, the first full-length US produced entry in the two decades of the category that was really aimed at an older audience, teens and young adults rather than the toddlers and pre-teens. Aside from some brief flirtations in the ’70s and early ’80s (Ralph Bakshi’s FRITZ THE CAT to his take on THE LORD OF THE RINGS), Hollywood aimed animation at that “all ages” demographic. That’s not the rule overseas, really. Foreign filmmakers have utilized the animation medium to tell all manner of mature stories. Over the years the Orient has produced hours of such “mature-themed” films (and TV shows and home videos). This new release actually comes from a place many, many miles east: Hungary. With a storyline steeped in the art history of Europe, a new talented company of craftspeople looks to the past and future with RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR.

It begins with an idyllic train journey for Brandt (voice of Ivan Kamaras) through the rolling hills of Central Europe. His club car companions are more than a little odd. Then a screeching figure appears at the car’s window. The shift to horror gives way to darkness before Brandt bolts upright, having endured another in a string of “night terrors”. Several countries away, a sultry ‘cat burglar’ named only Mimi (Gabriella Hamori) is escaping the Louvre after “smashing and grabbing” Cleopatra’s hand-fan. Her escape is nearly thwarted by a handsome young freelance insurance investigator (really a fancy P.I. from D.C.) Mike Kowalsky (Zalan Makranczi). Their flirtatious game of “cat and mouse” wrecks havoc on the streets and citizens of Paris, until she tosses the fan and eludes her pursuer (and most of the Surete). Cut to a lush country estate where we meet Brandt in his professional capacity, a celebrated psychotherapist catering to a unique clientele: master criminals. His therapy group is soon joined by Mimi who has compulsion issues (seems she was “hired” to snag a massive diamond, but spotted the fan and couldn’t resist, much to her employers’ anger). When Brandt awakes from another nightmare his patients want to help. He believes that a glance at a famous work of art is a “trigger”. The solution? The group decides that they must steal, er, “collect” these pieces in order to stop these sleepless nights. Thus begins a global “museum caper”. Soon Mike K is on their trails, but so are countless criminals trying to collect a multi-million dollar bounty on the crew. Can Brandt’s burglary brigade triumph? And what is his connection to the mysterious Mike?

As with the aforementioned SPIDER-VERSE, this work truly looks like no other previous animated feature thanks to the superb work from its creator Milorad Krstic. Aside from the confident direction, he co-wrote the screenplay with Radmila Roczkov, co-produced, and was one of the editing and camera teams (talk about having your fingerprints all over “it”). The first thing to notice, as with most animated films, is the visual look. the backgrounds convey endless horizons in the rural locale, while the cities have that hard-edged angular look of man-made concrete caverns. Then there’s the character design that comes from the abstract art movements of the last century. Some supporting players sport three, often four eyes. Others have all their features “bunched up” on the right sight of the face ala’ Picasso. Brandt’s nose takes up most of his face, like a massive palm leaf ending at a point with two bubble nostrils. Mimi is a tribute to early cinema heroines with a Louise Brooks jet-black bob and two feline curled eyes resting just off her seed-shaped face. During her chase with Mike, they dash through several cafes and apartments, zipping past countless figures of intriguing shapes and costumes. Everyone moves with a flowing grace, closer to pencil than the computer (which was probably used for the streamlined vehicles: cars, boats, and that titanic train). Of the main criminal gang, the most whimsical may be the man who is proud to be a “two dimensional” who seeks RB’s help with an editing disorder (he’s not getting thick, but rather he’s too wide to slip under the doors).

As also mentioned earlier, the witty script offers us a wild overview of art history, with many famous pieces reinterpreted through Krstic’s warped lens. The nightmares spring from many different sources from Manet’s “The Olympia” to Andy Warhol’s “Elvis I and II”, with enough looks at other works to fill several galleries. Or frames of film, which figure into a subplot involving subliminal imagery. Speaking of cinema, the story also includes several clever nods to movie genres, other than Mimi’s “look”. The walls of Mike K’s apartment are adorned with weapons, all labeled with their respective film appearances. There’s the knife from FIRST BLOOD, right above a straight razor from THE UNTOUCHABLES. And as he relaxes Mike enjoys a beverage cooled by ice in the shape of Hitchcock’s famous silhouette. The heist sequences are suspenseful and funny (one guy poses as a famous statue), as are the chases with luxury cars defying gravity as others cling to curved mountain roads. An animated film for adults (mostly a touch of nudity and a dash of blood) that’s a fun romp through the story of art and cinema? Yes, RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR is a dazzling dream-like delight for all adventurous film fans.

4.5 Out of 5

RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre

1945 – Review

The Stationmaster (István Znamenák) and Suba Mihály (Miklós B. Székely) prepare to take their mysterious Jewish visitors into town. Photo credit: Lenke Szilagyi / Menemsha Films

Hungarian director Ferenc Torok’s haunting, visually striking black-and-white drama 1945 takes place in a small Hungarian village shortly after the end of World War II. The well-acted drama unfolds a tale of guilt and greed among the villagers following the arrival of two strangers, a drama that reveals what was done to the Jewish population by ordinary citizens across Europe during the war.

The film played the 2017 St. Louis International Film Festival but returns for a longer theatrical run at Landmarks’ Plaza Frontenac Cinema starting Friday, April 6, 2018

The arrival of two men dressed in black at a rural Hungarian train station grips the residents of the neighboring town with fear and guilt. The two men appear to be Orthodox Jews but no one recognizes them yet their arrival spurs the station master (Istvan Znamenak) to send word to the town clerk, Istvan Szentes (Peter Rudolf). As it turns out, Szentes, a prosperous politician who seems more like the town’s mayor, is preparing for his son Arpad’s (Bence Tasnadi) wedding that afternoon. But preparing for this festive occasion nearly come to a halt when he gets word about the arrival of the two men. The older man (Ivan Angelus) and the younger one (Marcell Nagy), who seems to be his son, have arrived with two large boxes labeled “perfumes and cosmetics.” The older man gives his name as Herman Samuel, which does not match any of the town’s Jewish former residents. Nonetheless, the news shocks the politician and then other villagers into a panicked frenzy of guilty activity. They respond variously, with either fear, guilt or overwhelming remorse. Everyone is asking, will more Jews arrive?

Director Torok’s film is based on the lauded short story “Homecoming” by Gabor T. Szanto. While fictional, the story reflects what happened in many places throughout Europe during the war, spotlighting the role human greed played in what happened to Jewish families throughout areas occupied by the Nazis.

Torok treats this story like a mystery, slowly uncovering the rottenness beneath the village’s quaint veneer. The plot reveals the treachery and collusion among these villagers, particularly the town clerk, who exploited the plight of the Jews for their own material gain during the war, an ugly tale that was repeated not just in Hungary but throughout Europe. As the plot slowly reveals, these townspeople did more than simply stand by as their Jewish neighbors were deported to concentration camps.

Tension is high in this suspenseful and beautifully photographed black-and-white drama. Director Torok handles the story brilliantly, teasing us as he reveals horrifying tidbits of information. The gorgeous black-and-white imagery captures just the right for the tone of this period tale, and helps boost its feeling of foreboding.

The two men at the center of this frenzy are mostly silent, saying nothing except to arrange transport of the two boxes to town. Wary of what may happen, the hauler Suba (Miklós B. Székely) hauling the boxes by his horse-drawn cart asks for payment in advance. The old man gives him a sad look but says nothing as he pays.

As the two strangers walk behind the cart as its slow progresses towards the town, word of their arrival spreads through the village, even upending preparations under way for the big wedding and feast to follow. Everyone seems worried, and questions abound. Who are these men?Are they the heirs? Did they purchase the property from the Jews who were deported? Most importantly, will the Jews want to take their property back?

While the town clerk obsesses about the past, an uncertain future looms unnoticed. The town is occupied by the Russian army but the town’s leader seems only mildly interested in the upcoming election, one which will sweep the communists into power and do more to transform the village’s comfortable traditional life.

Although the town clerk seems to have profited the most, everyone in town seems to bear some guilt in these evil deeds. Some are defiant in their claims to stolen property but other are wracked with remorse over the evil done. None do anything to right the wrongs done. Even the priest (Bela Gados) seems willing to ignore the past.

The acting is excellent, with actors peeling back the layers of complex relationships built on evil deeds, which begin to crumble as facts and truth are forced to the surface. Peter Rudolf particularly good as the oily, bullying town clerk, as is Jozsef Szarvas as his hard-drinking lackey, who is crushed by his regrets. Agi Szirtes also is good as his wife, seized with fear she will lost the house she lives in, still surrounded by the possessions of its Jewish former owner. But perhaps the most striking, moving performance is Ivan Angelus as the older Jewish man, in which he conveys volumes of meaning and feeling without a single word.

Director Tobok plays a cat-and-mouse game with the audience, keeping us off balance until the end. 1945 is a brilliantly made film, and powerful, moving reminder of the evil that can take place under cover of wartime and the power of greed.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

SLIFF 2017 Review – 1945

1945 will screen at Plaza Frontenac Cinema (Lindbergh Blvd. and Clayton Rd, Frontenac, MO 63131) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Showings are Sunday, Nov. 5 at 5pm (purchase tickets HERE) and Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 4:30pm (purchase tickets HERE).

 

1945 is a haunting Hungarian drama from director Ferenc Torok that takes place in a small Hungarian village shortly after the end of World War II. It is a tale of guilt and greed, revealing what was done to the Jewish population by ordinary citizens during the war.

The arrival of two men dressed in black, who appear to be Jewish, grips this small rural town with fear and guilt. The Town Clerk, Istvan Szentes (Peter Rudolf), a prosperous politician who seems more like the town’s mayor, is preparing for his son Arpad’s (Bence Tasnadi) wedding that afternoon. But this festive occasion is disrupted when he gets word from the train station master (Istvan Znamenak) about the arrival of the two men, one old (Ivan Angelus) and one young (Marcell Nagy), who have arrived with two large boxes labeled perfumes and cosmetics. The name of the older man, Herman Samuel, does not match any of the town’s Jewish former residents and no one recognizes the newcomers. Nonetheless, the news shocks the politician into a panicked frenzy of guilty activity. Other villagers are alarmed too, gripped with either fear, guilt or overwhelming remorse. Everyone is asking, will more Jews arrive?

Director Torok’s film is based on the lauded short story “Homecoming” by Gabor T. Szanto. But the story reflects what happened in many places during the war, spotlighting the role human greed played in what happened to Jewish families throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. Torok treats this story like a mystery, slowly uncovering the rottenness beneath the village’s quaint rustic veneer. The plot reveals the treachery and collusion among these villagers, particularly the Town Clerk, that exploited the plight of the Jews for their own material gain during the war, an ugly tale that was repeated throughout Hungary, and even Europe. As the plot slowly reveals, these townspeople did more than simply stand by as their Jewish neighbors were deported to concentration camps.

Tension is high in this suspenseful and beautifully photographed black-and-white drama. Director Torok handles the story brilliantly, teasing us as he reveals horrifying tidbits of information. The gorgeous black-and-white imagery captures just the right for the tone of this period tale, and helps boost its feeling of foreboding.

The two men at the center of this frenzy, say nothing, except to arrange transport of the two boxes to town. Wary of what may happen, the draftsman hauling the boxes by his horse-drawn cart asks for payment in advance. The old man shoots him a sad look but says nothing as he pays.

As the two strangers walk behind the cart on its slow progress towards the town, word of their arrival spreads through the village, even upending preparations under way for the big wedding and feast to follow. Everyone seems worried, and questions abound. Who are these men?Are they the heirs? Did they purchase the property from the Jews who were deported? Most importantly, will the Jews want to take their property back?

While the Town Clerk obsesses about the past, an uncertain future looms unnoticed. The town is occupied by the Russian army but the Town Clerk seems only mildly interested in the upcoming election, one which will sweep the communists into power and do more to transform the village’s comfortable traditional life.

Although the clerk seems to have profited the most, everyone in town seems to bear some guilt in these evil deeds. Some are defiant in their claims to stolen property but other are wracked with remorse over the evil done. None does anything to right the wrongs done. Even the priest (Bela Gados) seems willing to ignore the past.

The acting is excellent, with actors peeling back the layers of complex relationships built on evil deeds, which begin to crumble as facts and truth are forced to the surface. Peter Rudolf particularly good as the oily, bullying Town Clerk, as is Jozsef Szarvas as his hard-drinking lackey, who is crushed by his regrets. Agi Szirtes also is good as his wife, seized with fear she will lost the house she lives in, still surrounded by the possessions of its Jewish former owner. But perhaps the most striking, moving performance is Ivan Angelus as the older Jewish man, in which he conveys volumes of meaning and feeling without a single word.

Director Tobok plays a cat-and-mouse game with the audience, keeping us off-balance until the end. 1945 is a brilliantly made film, and powerful, moving reminder of the evil that can take place under cover of wartime and the power of greed.

 

KEEP QUIET – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival Review

Thursday, June 8, at 1 PM, Plaza Frontenac Cinema

England/Hungary; in English and Hungarian with English subtitles; 92 minutes

The mind-boggling documentary KEEP QUIET is about a far-right, anti-Semitic Hungarian politician who discovers his own hidden Jewish heritage when it is revealed that his beloved grandmother is an Auschwitz survivor. Faced with this new reality, he decides to embrace his heritage and become an Orthodox Jew. You can’t make this stuff up, is the phrase that springs to mind in this head-twisting true story.

KEEP QUIET not only follows the course of events around far-right politician Csanad Szegedi but illuminates the pervasive and persistent antisemitism still found in Hungary. A British and Hungarian co-production, it is an eye-opening documentary.

Csanad Szegedi had been drawn to anti-Semitic beliefs since high school, views drew some uncomfortable looks from his mother but no comments. He became a founding member of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, which supported a range of anti-Semitic views along with Holocaust denial. Riding a wave of popular political backlash after the fall of communism, the Jobbik Party did well in elections and Szegedi was elected to a member of the European Parliament. When extremists seeking to uncover Jewish “infiltrators” in the Jobbik Party uncovered the Jewish heritage of which Szegedi himself was unaware, a cascade of events drove him from the political party he helped found and into a synagogue.

The documentary proceeds in a linear fashion, so we follow along as Szegedi’s experience unfolds. A number of people are interviewed for the film, including Szegedi and the rabbi that spoke to him at the synagogue. The film also includes archival footage and stills from the Jobbik rallies and political campaigns.

It seems astounding that Szegedi could not have known the truth about his maternal grandmother, with whom he was close. But as this fascinating documentary reveals, Jewish survivors in Hungary found it safer to simply “keep quiet” about their Jewish identity after the war. People chose not to look too close at neighbors families or even their own, afraid to find forgotten Jewish connections. Szegedi’s grandmother always wore long sleeves, to cover the number tattooed on her arm, and never spoke about her Jewish identity. Her daughter, Szegedi’s mother, married a non-Jewish man, and never asked about her parents’ religion, although she suspected. Szegedi never noticed the what Grandma’s long sleeves hid.

Forced out of the political party he helped found and forced to resign his elected office, Szegedi finds his world in tatters. In an on-camera interview with his grandmother, he asks the questions he never had before, and she freely tells him about the family history he never knew.

The footage of Szegedi grandmother is among the most startling and moving in the film, as we hear Szegedi question her off camera, and watch her calm reactions. When he asks about how she felt about his antisemitic activities, she admits it made her “a little sad.” Smiling at her beloved grandson she readily answers his questions, answers she could have given long ago if only he had asked. He asks about her last name, which he assumed was German, she says, “no, Jewish.” When he asks if she was in Auschwitz, she shows him the tattoo he never noticed. The grandmother calmly expresses the view that antisemitism will always be part of Hungarian life, and even that she expects the persecution she saw under the Nazis to return at any time. All a Jewish person can do is “keep quiet,” she says.

As unlikely as it seems, Szegedi embarks on an exploration of his Jewish heritage with an accepting rabbi, Rabbi Koves, and decides to convert to Judaism from his father’s Hungarian Reformed Christian faith.

Whether the politician’s conversion is real or a step by a man long known for his loose grip on truthfulness is part of the puzzle. Along the way, we get chilling insights into the pervasiveness of antisemitism in Hungary.

Certainly the members of the Jewish congregation at the synagogue Szegedi visits are more than skeptical about the veracity of his embrace of his maternal grandparents’ faith. The rabbi, however much he might wonder, feels compelled to welcome him into the synagogue, given his matrilineal descent from a Jewish woman, which qualifies him as Jewish in the eyes of the rabbi. Rabbi Koves answers his questions, and provide guidance as Szegedi explores Jewish belief.

Is Szegedi’s religious conversion real? After a lifetime of hatred towards Jews it seems hard to swallow. At one point in the film, one of those being interviewed talks about Szegedi’s ease with lying. Kicked out of the anti-Semitic party he helped found and his career as a politician over, could his embrace of Judaism merely be a way to find a substitute for something to belong to? That is among the speculations posed in this engrossing documentary.

KEEP QUIET is truly a must-see film, a sad and horrifying look inside distasteful attitudes that persist in Hungary today. The screening includes an introduction by Jewish Federation of St. Louis CEO and President Andrew Rehfeld.

 

THE NOTEBOOK (Le Grand Cahier) – The Review

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This week’s big studio release, THE GOOD LIE, gives us a look at a current conflict or war starting from the viewpoint of children (and following them as adults in the US). For this new foreign film we journey back several decades to see a war, World War II to be precise, through the eyes of children over in Europe, much as in 2008’s WINTER IN WARTIME. While that was through the viewpoint of one pre-teen boy, this new film concerns two pre-teen boys, twins who share an intense unspoken bond. Hopefully movie goers will not be confused by the English translation of the title, for this has very little in common with the tear-jerker from ten years ago, although this one is pretty darn sad. Its original title is LE GRAND CAHIER, Hungarian for THE NOTEBOOK.

As the film begins we meet the twins (Lazlo and Andras Gyemant) on a very happy day. It is 1944 and their soldier Father is back on leave at the lush apartment home they share in a bustling Hungarian city. But the joy is short-lived. When Father returns to battle, Mother realizes that she cannot keep them at home. They board a train to a distant rural village where she takes the boys to the farm run by her bitter, estranged mother whom the townspeople call “The Witch” (Piroska Molnar). After a terse reunion, Mother leaves her heartbroken sons in care of their cruel, sadistic Grandmother who refers to them as “Bastards”. Over the next few months the twins decide to toughen themselves by fasting and beating each other (this perplexes the German officer that takes lives in the garden shed). Besides the officer, the twins befriend a thieving, disfigured neighbor, a lustful deacon, his spiteful maid, and a sympathetic Jewish shoemaker. As the seasons change, the boys harden as they come to the realization that they can only survive this life on their own resolve.

The film conveys the misery of occupied existence so well it almost reminded me of the old “gentleman’s club” sketch from Monty Python in which rich old stiffs, while smoking cigars and swilling brandy, tried to one up each other with tales of their terrible childhood (“Each day we’d wake up before we went to bed, trudge two hours to…”). Not to trivialize the drama, but things never seem to get better. As the story progresses we see the light seep out of the boys’ eyes until they’ve retained a permanent dead-eyed stare. This scares those who believe that twins are cursed, while others seem to be drawn toward them, as if mesmerized. The suffering is almost too much to witness, but we also see that incredible love they share. No one, nothing will separate them. We also see how war drains the life force from a town. This is perfectly presented by the cinematography of Christian Berger who paints the harsh, cold land as a purgatory on Earth. Director Janos Szasz never gives in to sentiment, instead showing us how no adversity can extinguish that spark of determination that propels them to survive, to rise up once more. The will to live fills each page and frame of THE NOTEBOOK.

3.5 Out of 5

THE NOTEBOOK opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

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