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This program has received generous support from the Trust for Mutual
Understanding, the Open Society Institute and the National Endowment for
the Arts.
Somewhere in Europe was organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center
in collaboration with Magyar Filmunio, the Magyar Filmintezet, and the
Hungarian Film Laboratories. Special thanks to Yvette Biro, Jim
Hoberman, Katalin Vajda, Zsolt Kezdi-Kovacs, Vera Gyurey and Gyurgy
Balogh for their support, help and advice.
When the Berlin Wall came down--almost 10 years ago--it triggered the
transformation of Central and Eastern Europe. The Film Society continues
its exploration of the film histories of that region (begun with our
comprehensive 1996 Polish series) with a program of more than 40 films
representing the rich traditions of Hungarian cinema--from the silent era
to the present.
Though its silent film production produced few films of note, Hungary
developed a widespread and intense film culture (see the work of film
theorist and screenwriter Bela Balasz, author of Somewhere in Europe).
The sound era brought new professionalization; Hungarian films, often
based on operettas and other popular fare, began to draw homeland
audiences and those of neighboring countries, too. Yet Hungary's most
famous cinematic export during this period was talent: Michael Curtiz,
Alexander Korda, Andre de Toth, Paul Lukacs, Miklos Rosza, Bela Lugosi,
and Steve Sekely are just a few of the Magyars to make their mark
abroad. "Just because you're Hungarian," warned a sign above the MGM
commissary, "doesn't mean you're a genius!"
After WWII and the communist takeover, Hungary's film industry was
nationalized. Ideological restrictions aside, the industry benefited
from an influx of capital into the cinema (better equipment, more
cinemas built, etc.) and the limiting of those foreign films that had
till then dominated Hungarian screens. As in all other aspects of
Hungarian life and culture, 1956 was a watershed, and indeed the events
of that year would continue to reverberate in Hungarian films over the
next few decades. After the Uprising, Janos Kádár's new government
gradually eased control of the film industry, and feature filmmaking
began to flow from one of four studios: Budapest, Dialog, Hunnia, and
Objektiv, each of which were largely run by filmmakers themselves. Freed
from the outright constraints of the box-office, permitted a degree of
freedom certainly unique within the Soviet bloc, and aided by a pool of
talented actors, screenwriters, and especially cinematographers,
Hungarian cinema soon became one of the most remarkable in the world.
Practically every year brought with it the revelation of bold new
talents--Jancsó, Szabó, Gaál, Meszaros, Kezdi-Kovács, Bódy, Gothár,
Tarr--while Magyar movies were international hits, routinely carrying off
major international film prizes. Since 1989, Hungary has experienced
some of the same problems as the rest of the former Soviet
bloc--increased competition from foreign, principally U.S., films, loss
of state support, complex international co-production arrangements--yet
the artistic level of Hungarian cinema remains high, with the emergence
of talented filmmakers such as Attila Janisch, Janos Szasz and Ibolye
Fekete offering very hopeful signs for the future. Join us as we serve
up a five-week feast of Hungarian filmmaking--from January 23 through
February 26.
Note: all films are subtitled in English
except as noted below.
MARIE, A HUNGARIAN LEGEND aka
SPRING SHOWER / TAVASZI ZAPOR
Pal Fejos, 1932; 70 minutes
In Hungarian without subtitles;
simultaneous translation will be provided.
After a successful career in Hollywood (Lonesome, The Last Moment),
Budapest-born Fejos returned home to direct this haunting tale of Marie,
a young maidservant--beautifully played by French actress Annabella--who
is seduced and abandoned, with an infant daughter to care for.
Friday, January 23: 2 pm
Sunday, January 25: 9 pm
A HUNGARIAN FAIRY TALE /
HOL VOLT, HOL NEM VOLT
Gyula Gazdag, 1987; 95 minutes
"This elegantly realized black-and-white daydream begins on a
near-magical note, with the romantic, wordless meeting of a beautiful
young woman and a handsome stranger at a performance of 'The Magic
Flute,' an encounter that results in the birth of a child who, in his
teens, sets out on a quest to find his mythic, vanished dad." -- Janet
Maslin, The New York Times
Friday, January 23: 3:30 pm
Saturday, January 24: 8:30 pm
THE ROUND-UP / SZEGENYLEGENYEK
Miklos Jancso, 1965; 96 minutes
A group of peasants are herded together by soldiers who kill, torture
and interrogate their captives. Under pressure, the victims divide and
recombine in ever-changing alliances. With his exhilaratingly relentless
tracking shots, Jancso is choreographing history into an individual and
communal dance combining beauty and terror, transcendence and futility.
Friday, January 23: 6 pm
Friday, January 30: 2 and 6:15 pm
THE LONG TWILIGHT / HOSSZU ALKONY
Attila Janisch, 1997; 70 minutes
Based on a short story by Shirley Jackson, TWILIGHT stars the great
veteran actress Mari Torocsik as an aging professor who impulsively
abandons her driver to hike across a beautiful, but strangely
uninhabited Hungarian landscape. She's soon on a strange bus full of
hostile, staring folk, riding into increasingly dreamlike locales and
experiences. Visions from her childhood are interwoven with images of
death, as she travels the same roads again and again--with chilling
variations.
Friday, January 23: 8 pm
SEMINAR: DISCOVERING HUNGARIAN
FILM HISTORY
Walter Reade Theater, admission free; featured speakers scheduled to include: Andre de Toth,
Andras Balint Kovacs, Yvette Biro, et al.
Saturday, January 24: 11 am
GYURI / CSEPLO GYURI
Pal Schiffer, 1977; 97 minutes
One of Hungary's foremost documentary filmmakers, Schiffer creates a
fictional tale about a young Romany, Gyuri, who leaves his family and
community to try his luck in Budapest. The texture of his life in the
city is beautifully conveyed; the story never feels forced, but seems to
emerge from the peculiar rhythms of these characters' lives.
Saturday, January 24: 2 pm
Tuesday, February 17: 2 and 6:15 pm
SEMMELWEIS
Endre (Andre) de Toth, 1939; 90 minutes
In Hungarian without subtitles;
simultaneous translation will be provided.
We hope to welcome the legendary Andre (Endre) de Toth to the Walter
Reade for this rare screening of one of the films he made in Hungary
prior to his emigration to America and Hollywood in the 1940s. Already
considered a leading director in his homeland, de Toth was given the
direction of a prestige assignment, the biography of an Austrian doctor
much admired by Pasteur for his early insights into a range of health
issues.
Saturday, January 24: 4:15 pm
WHEN JOSEPH RETURNS /
HAG MEGJON JOSEF
Zsolt Kezdi-Kovacs, 1975; 90 minutes
After her merchant seaman husband has sailed off, a young wife confronts
her fears and awkwardness at living alone in Budapest, all the while
under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law. Kezdi-Kovacs is unsparing
in this delicate, beautifully observed film that introduced wonderful
Lili Monori, soon to be recognized as perhaps the finest actress of her
generation.
Saturday, January 24: 6:30 pm
Monday, February 16: 4 and 8 pm
SEMINAR: HUNGARIAN CINEMA TODAY
Walter Reade Theater, admission free; featured speakers: Istvan Szabo, J. Hoberman, Pal Schiffer, Atilla Janisch
Sunday, January 25: 2 pm
Silents with piano accompaniment
GOLDEN MAN / ARANYEMBER
Sador (Alexander) Korda, 1918; 61 minutes
German intertitles; simultaneous translation.
with
MY BROTHER IS COMING / JÖN AZ Ö
Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz), 1919; 8 minutes
Hungarian intertitles; simultaneous translation.
Two silent works by directors who later worked abroad: Alexander
(Private Life of Henry VIII) Korda and Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz. In GOLDEN MAN, a young sailor is rewarded for his bravery with the hand of the Pasha's daughter, but he continues to visit his one true love. The
toll of this double life finally catches up with him, forcing him to
choose between his women. A propaganda piece made during the
revolutionary "Republic of Councils," MY BROTHER reveals a proletarian
family's anxieties as they await the arrival of their son from prison.
Sunday, January 25: 5 pm
Silent Film Program made possible by the support of the Ira M. Resnick Foundation.
FATHER / APA
Istvan Szabo, 1966; 95 minutes
Tako hardly knew his father, killed at the war's end. Yet he dreams of
his dad's battles against the fascists, the parades dedicated to his
honor, and his life-saving work as a doctor. Cunningly mixing a broad
array of cinematic styles, FATHER brilliantly and often humorously
captures a moment in which the various myths of the past are giving way
to a more soberly observed present.
Sunday, January 25: 7 pm
Friday, February 6: 2 and 6:15 pm
PEOPLE OF THE MOUNTAIN /
EMBEREK A HAVASON
Istvan Szots, 1942; 98 minutes
In Hungarian without subtitles;
simultaneous translation will be provided.
"The most outstanding Hungarian film made before the Liberation." --
Istvan Nemeskurty
Set deep in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, PEOPLE tells the
story of a family of woodcutters dispossessed from their land by the
arrival of a powerful timber company.
Monday, January 26: 2 and 6:15 pm
TWO GIRLS IN THE STREET
Andre de Toth, 1939; 88 minutes
In Hungarian without subtitles;
simultaneous translation will be provided.
Two young women try to strike out on their own in late 30's Budapest, while the men around them keep trying to figure out ways of taking advantage of them. As in all of his work, de Toth has little time for pity: his two female leads--played by two of Hungary's top stars, Maria Tasnady-Fekete and Bella Bordy--bounce back from each misadventure with more strength, more resilience. The film also features a wide variety of styles, from Soviet-style montages to some crisp location shooting.
with
STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
Alfred Deesey, 1918
In Hungarian without subtitles;
simultaneous translation will be provided.
A
short fragment from a film until recently thought lost, in which you can
see a very young Bela Lugosi robbing a post office.
Monday, January 26: 4 and 8:15 pm
SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE /
VALAHOL EUROPABAN
Geza Radvanyi, 1947; 105 minutes
A group of boys, orphaned by the war, wander along backroads, stealing
food and surviving any way they can. They chance upon an abandoned
castle and, while looting, discover the castle's lone inhabitant: Peter
Simon, a famous orchestra conductor destroyed spiritually and
emotionally by wartime experiences.
Wednesday, January 28: 2 and 6:15 pm
Thursday, January 29:
4 pm
MERRY-GO-ROUND /
KÖRHINTA
Zoltan Fabri, 1953;
103 minutes
"Fabri's celebrated 'breakthrough' from the 50s concerns two lovers,
separated by social and political conventions, who finally assert
themselves and their love. Finely atmospheric and defiantly romantic,
MERRY-GO-ROUND's country settings and virtuoso camera treatment of the
fairground swing sequence and the long dance when the young lover
reveals his desire gives the film a thrilling, occasionally excessive,
surface vitality."-- John Gillett, British Film Institute
Wednesday, January 28: 4:10 and 8:20 pm
Thursday, January 29: 8:15 pm
STATE DEPARTMENT STORE /
ALLAMI ARUHAZ
Viktor Gertler, 1952;
100 minutes
In Hungarian without subtitles;
simultaneous translation will be provided.
According to film scholar Yvette Biro, two powerful ideologies--Stalinism
and the operetta--vie for supremacy in STATE DEPARTMENT STORE. Operetta wins. While the lives and loves of workers in the Budapest version of
Bloomingdale's might seem a surprising area for socialist realism to
explore, the film is loaded with charming performances, fine songs and
wonderful comic sketches.
Thursday, January 29:
2 and 6:15 pm
THE AGE OF DAYDREAMING /
ALMODOZASOK KORA
Istvan Szabo, 1964;
104 minutes
"Szabo's first feature concerns a group of young people who were born
just after the war and grew up against a background of Communist
orthodoxy until the explosion of 1956. It was a difficult and terrifying
time in which to be seeking political and emotional maturity and Szabo
manages to show the gradual dampening down of youthful enthusiasm and
its slow transformation into a cynical acceptance of the inevitable
ambiguities of life." -- Brenda Davies, National Film Theater (London)
Friday, January 30:
4 and 8:15 pm
Saturday, January 31:
6 pm
PROFESSOR HANNIBAL /
HANNIBAL TANAR UR
Zoltan Fabri, 1956;
94 minutes
When an essay in a school bulletin about Hannibal and the Punic Wars is
judged "unflattering" to the Mussolini regime, its mild-mannered author
is plunged into a Kafkaesque nightmare of threats, suspicion, and
self-criticism.
Saturday, January 31:
4 pm
Sunday, February 1: 9 pm
HOUSE UNDER
THE ROCKS /
HAZ A SZIKLAK ALATT
Karoly Makk, 1958;
101 minutes
Kos Ferenc returns from the Soviet Union where he's been a WWI POW to
start a new life. His home--overcrowded with a little son, his jealous
sister-in-law, and a new wife--is wracked with emotional stress that
peaks in a terrible act. An intense, hothouse melodrama that shows Makk
at his best in orchestrating a range of raging passions.
Saturday, January 31: 8:15 pm
Sunday, February 1: 7 pm
TEN THOUSAND DAYS /
TIZEZER NAP
Ferenc Kosa, 1965-67; 111 minutes
One of the landmarks of that "golden decade" of the Sixties, TEN
THOUSAND DAYS charts the story of a peasant family over three decades.
Kosa has stated he was "not interested in assigning blame," but rather
in tracing the process by which neighbor could turn against neighbor,
son against father. This richly detailed historical fresco also features
magnificent cinematography (in black-and-white Scope) by Sandor Sara,
himself an important director.
Sunday, February 1: 2 pm
Monday, February 2: 9:10 pm
APHRODITE
Alfred Deesy, 1918;
65 minutes
With live piano accompaniment by Curtis Salke
Print courtesy of Magyar Filmintezetsilent
The Prince of Medina falls in love with and marries Juliette, a
beautiful model. Juliette catches the eye of Giovanni, a painter, and
begins an affair with him. When the Prince discovers his wife's
infidelity, he has a heart attack and dies. The way is thus clear for
the lovers to be together, except for one detail: the Prince's will. It
stipulates that Juliette is eligible for his fortune only if she agrees
to never marry again.
(A tinted print will be screened.)
Silent Film Program made possible by the support of the Ira M. Resnick Foundation.
Sunday, February 1:
5 pm
LAND OF ANGELS /ANGYALOK FOLDJE
György Revesz, 1962; 98 minutes
Adapted from a famous novel by Lajos Kassak, LAND OF ANGELS recounts the
life of a hardscrabble working-class community in the years before WWI
in the then outskirts of Budapest. Winner of several international film
prizes, LAND OF ANGELS features an extraordinary ensemble cast, who make
the drab, cramped housing block brim with life.
Monday, February 2: 2 and 7:15 pm
SKYLARK / PACSIRTA
László Ranody, 1963; 106 minutes
For years, Mr. and Mrs. Vajkay have been somewhat obsessed with,
somewhat ashamed of their aging, homely, still-unmarried daughter. When
she leaves for a visit with cousins--in hopes of meeting a marriage
prospect--the Vajkays are transformed, going out to the theater and
restaurants and renewing old acquaintances. Ranody expertly evokes small
town stuffiness and hypocrisy, capturing the price to be paid for
confronting one's own unhappiness.
Tuesday, February 3: 2 pm
Wednesday, February 4: 4:10 and 8:15 pm
CURRENT / SODRASBAN
István Gaál, 1963; 86 minutes
A group of young people vacation together in a small village on the
banks of the river Tisza; the atmosphere is light and carefree, until
one of them has an accident and drowns. Slowly, inevitably, the tragedy
tears the group apart, forcing each to reconsider not only his or her
relationship to the others but also their plans for their own lives.
Using sparse dialogue, Gaál emphasizes the rhythm and atmosphere of his
story, achieving at times an almost painterly quality with his images.
Tuesday, February 3: 4 pm
Wednesday, February 4: 2 and 6:15 pm
LOVE / SZERELEM
Károly Makk, 1970; 92 minutes
One of the unquestionable Hungarian masterworks , LOVE stars the great
Lili Darvas as an old, bed-ridden lady living on memories of
Austro-Hungarian glory and tales of her son's success in America, the
latter supplied by her daughter-in-law Luca (Mari Töröcsik). In
actuality her son is in prison in Hungary, victim of a Stalinist purge;
each day Luca anxiously awaits news of his release, while keeping alive
the spirits of her mother-in-law, whose condition progressively worsens.
Thursday, February 5: 2 pm
Saturday, February 7: 5:35 pm
Sunday, February 8: 4 pm
THE FALCONS / MAGASISKOLA
Gaál István, 1969; 87 minutes
Awarded the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.
THE FALCONS begins as a young student is sent to work with the
enigmatic manager of a falconry station whose purpose is to control the
local bird population. Gabor is soon enmeshed in Lilik's world: the
strict schedule for the care and feeding of the birds, the disciplinary
measures needed to make them expert hunters--"like little Teutonic
knights," as Lilik says. THE FALCONS features the wonderful lyricism of
Gaál István's earlier work; the repeated shots of the birds flying, gliding,
swooping in on their prey create a sense of precision and order that are
as initially awe-inspiring to the viewer as they are to Gabor.
Thursday, February 5: 4 pm
Sunday, February 8: 6 pm
THE RED AND THE WHITE /
CSILLAGOSOK, KATONAK
Miklós Jancsó, 1967; 90 minutes
At the end of WWI, thousands of Hungarian soldiers are prisoners behind
Russian lines; the new Bolshevik authorities offer them freedom if they
will join the "Reds" in their struggle against the "White" forces still
loyal to the Czar. Some join up out of socialist solidarity; others for
the chance to loot the newly "liberated" estates. The battle scenes are
simply mesmerizing; the dense, multilayered narrative challenges the
viewer to continually reassess notions of victory and defeat. The first
film in which one can see examples of what would become the director's
trademark "long take/moving camera style."
Friday, February 6: 4 and 8:10 pm
THE LADY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE /
SZIGET A SZARAZFOLDON
Judit Elek, 1969; 79 minutes
In this delightfully bittersweet film, young director Judit Elek
contrasts the lonely life of the old-fashioned lady (played by Manyi
Kiss, an Hungarian Ida Kaminska or Laurette Taylor) and the merry hell
that breaks loose when she decides to exchange her apartment and half
Budapest invades her flat makes the film.
Saturday, February 7: 4 and 9:30 pm
COLD DAYS / HIDEG NAPOK
András Kovács, 1966; 101 minutes
In the winter of 1942, the Hungarian Army was responsible for a horrible
massacre of over 3,000 Serbian and Hungarian nationals, mostly Jews, in
the town of Ujvidek (now Novi Sad, Serbia). András Kovács' remarkable
film about this incident is both a grim record of the atrocity as well
as a meditation on the memory of it. The stark contrast of dark figures
on all-white, snow-covered landscapes and the movement between the
massacre and postwar sequences keep the viewer off-balance, always
searching for a fixed position from which to view and judge the events.
Saturday, February 7: 7:30 pm
Sunday, February 8: 7:45 pm
RED PSALM / MEG KER A NEP
Miklós Jancsó, 1971; 88 minutes
A radical new version of cinematic musical emerges in this colorfully
symbolic ballet about striking farm workers up against an army brought
in to quell the revolt. Jancsó metamorphoses individual character and
event into hieratic dance patterns and encourages the color red to bloom
as metaphor for killing passion.
Tuesday, February 10: 2 and 6:15 pm
SINDBAD / SZINDBAD
Huszarik Zoltan, 1971; 98 minutes
A dying devotée of la dolce vita recalls the women, the food and drink,
and other rich delights that he has enjoyed in his time. Based on Gula
Krúdy's classic Hungarian tales, SINDBAD is a uniquely visualized dream
of sensuality, beautifully photographed, superbly acted--especially by
Zoltan Latinovits as Sindbad.
Tuesday, February 10: 4 and 8 pm
AMERICAN POSTCARD aka AMERICAN TORSO /
AMERIKAI ANZIX
Gábor Bódy, 1975; 104 minutes
The story of three Hungarians--refugees from the failed rebellions of
1848-49--who fight in the American Civil War on the side of the Union. At
the war's end, each must decide whether to move on to yet another
"liberal" struggle in another part of the world, or to return home and
pick up the fight they had left years earlier. Or perhaps to settle down
in this new country, America, so full of promise and possibility.
Friday, February 13: 2 and 6:15 pm
ANGI VERA
Pál Gábor, 1978; 96 minutes
When young, idealistic Vera (Veronika Papp) finds much to criticize
about the management of the hospital where she works, she's shipped off
for re-education in the ways of the Party. Gábor shows how subtly and
effectively Vera is corrupted into a perfect tool of communism in this
absorbing, horrifying record of a soul lost to totalitarianism.
Friday, February 13: 4 and 8:30 pm
Saturday, February 14: 6:15 pm
TIME STANDS STILL / MEGALL AZ IDO
Péter Gothár, 1983; 99 minutes
Seven years after their freedom-fighter father fled--to America--the
failed 1956 Uprising, his two sons are in their painful adolescence,
made more so as their dad is branded an "enemy of the people." Once
again revolution is in the air, only this time it tastes like Coca-Cola
and sounds like Elvis Presley.... Working with the great cinematographer
Lajos Koltai, Gothár serves up an amazing array of visual effects that
capture a world at once falling apart and desperately seeking
reconciliation.
Saturday, February 14: 4 and 8:15 pm
Sunday, February 15: 8:45 pm
FILM NOVEL -- THREE SISTERS / FILMREGENY
Istvan Darday and Gyorgyi Szalai,
1977;
270 minutes
FILM NOVEL follows the lives and loves of three sisters: Zsuzsa,
divorced and a textile designer; Agi, an economics student, in love
with a boy from a "good" family; and Mari, a clerk who decides to pursue
a career in journalism. For their film, Darday and Szalai chose to work
only with non-professional actors and an improvised script. A powerful
portrait of contemporary Hungarian life in which characters' thoughts
and emotions are conveyed through the accumulation of looks, gestures
and offhand remarks.
Sunday, February 15: 4 pm
PHOTOGRAPHY / FOTOGRAPHIA
Pál Zolnay, 1972; 82 minutes
Zolnay draws on Hungary's documentary tradition for his tale of two
young wandering photographers traveling the backroads of Hungary. They
soon discover that people pose for photographs not as they are, but as
they'd like to be seen: the photograph as a record of one's fantasy.
When one of their subjects begins relating events of her past that
possibly involve a murder, the photographers begin to search for the
story behind the image.
Monday, February 16: 2 and 6:15 pm
FAMILY NEST /
CSALADI TUZFESZEK
Béla Tarr, 1980; 106 minutes
Béla Tarr's first film shows his unique cinematic themes and style right
from the start. FAMILY NEST looks grittily realistic in its almost
documentary account of the small war that erupts among father-in-law,
young wife and hapless husband--played by non-professionals--as they try
to deal with the crowded living arrangements so prevalent in communist
countries.
Tuesday, February 17: 4 and 8:15 pm
DANIEL TAKES A TRAIN /
SZERENCSES DANIEL
Pál Sandor, 1984; 93 minutes
Three short days in the lives of two teenagers, Daniel and Gyuri, who
in the final weeks of the 1956 Uprising decide to escape to the West.
For Daniel, the journey is somewhat of a lark, a great adventure, a
chance to step out on his own; for Gyuri the trip is a way to settle a
score with the past and to reunite with his father, a former communist
official now working as a mechanic. The wonderfully realized scenes of
overcrowded trains and border hotels offers a rich portrait of the
emigrants--their contradictions, naïve dreams and hopes, as well as the
the tensions of those who've chosen to remain in Hungary.
Wednesday, February 18: 2 and 6:15 pm
LOST ILLUSIONS /
ELVESZETT ILLUZIOK
Gyula Gazdag, 1982; 106 minutes
"A comic ‘operetta’ with incidental music by the Who: This update of the
second part of the famous Balzac novel is transposed to Budapest in the
summer of 1968 (after Paris, but before Prague). Telling the seriocomic
story of an ambitious young writer who comes from the provinces to make
a career in the capital, this portrait of literary, sexual and actual
politics creates a wonderfully entertaining and very mordant satire." --
1983 New York Film Festival Program
Wednesday, February 18: 4 and 8:10 pm
DIARY FOR MY CHILDREN /
NAPLO GYERMEKEIMNEK
Márta Mészáros, 1982; 106 minutes
A powerfully personal (and autobiographical) story about an orphan who
returns to her Hungarian homeland after her father has become a victim
of political purges in the Soviet Union. Adopted into a family rife with
the kind of conflicts, corruption and cruelty that the Stalinist years
encouraged, the bright, stubborn teenager crosses swords with a
matriarchal tyrant utterly in thrall to the Party. Mészáros is such an
intelligent connoisseur of complexity, there’s nothing black and white
about the issues or people in DIARY.
Thursday, February 19: 2 and 9 pm
SATANTANGO
Belá Tarr, 1994;
420 minutes (with two intermissions)
"A seven hour epic offering a near definitive statement about the end of Communism in Eastern Europe, Bela Tarr's black comedy--acid and grungy to the max--focuses on the intrigues, betrayals, boozy revels and readjustments made by several members of a farming collective after their squalid but relatively secure lifestyle collapses. Employing a virtuoso, choreographed black-and white camera style suggesting a despiritualized Tarkovsky, shot through with apocalyptic, gallows humor and beautifully as well as slyly structured as narrative, this stunning masterpiece paradoxically proves that Hungarian cinema is alive
and well and Tarr's hands, frighteningly lucid."--Jonathan Rosenbaum, 1994 New York Film Festival Program
Saturday, Feb 21: 4pm
LIGHT PHYSICAL INJURIES /
KONNYU TESTI SERTES
György Szomjas, 1985; 91 minutes
"A sardonic bedroom farce arising from the usual housing shortage
problem: A feckless young worker stabs a pimp in a barroom brawl, is
sentenced to jail, then returns to discover that his wife has taken up
with a somewhat more respectable clod. In a grotesque travesty of
"socialist harmony," the three create a volatile ménage à trois--marked
by drunken outbursts, battles for control of the hot water, sexual
harassment, and phone calls to the police. This lumpen Jules and Jim was
groundbreaking for its frank sex and earthy slang." -- edited from 1989
San Francisco Film Festival program
Thursday, February 19: 4 pm
Sunday, February 22: 7 pm
WOYZECK
Janós Szasz, 1994; 93 minutes
Georg Büchner’s enduring dramatic classic is here transplanted to
contemporary Budapest, where Woyzeck is a laborer in a sprawling railway
yard. Amid clouds of pollution, in the heart of a modernday wasteland,
we companion the endlessly humiliated Woyzeck through meaningless work
and loveless marriage to his final destiny
Friday, February 20: 2, 6:15 and 9:45 pm
Sunday, February 22: 5 pm
VASKA / VASKA EASOFF
Péter Gothár, 1996; 85 minutes
This magical fable raised spirits among prisoners in the Soviet gulags
by providing disguised digs at their oppressors. Vanka and Vaska are no
ordinary Leningrad bankrobbers--first of all, they can fly and secondly,
they are armed with weird items such as the Bloodied Sardine Tin Key and
the Guiding Thread. But their nemesis Zinoviev wants revenge, and he’s
got his own brand of magic to help him.
Friday, February 20: 4 and 8:10 pm
Sunday, February 22: 8:45 pm
MY TWENTIETH CENTURY /
AZ EN XX. SZAZADOM
Ildiko Enyedi, 1988; 100 minutes
Dora and Lili (Dorotha Segda) are identical twins born in Budapest in
1880; they eke out a bare living until they are mysteriously separated.
Nineteen years later, on the eve of a promising new century, the sisters
turn up--unbeknownst to each other--on the Orient Express to Budapest:
One, a gorgeous con-artist who travels first-class; the other, a plain,
passionate anarchist with plans for a bomb. This sort-of fairy tale
plays with the duality of human character and mystery of human destiny.
Monday, February 23: 2 and 6:15 pm
THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS /
GOLDBERG-VARIACIOK
Ferenc Grunwalsky, 1991; 92 minutes
A harrowing exploration of almost unthinkable emotional territory: the
effects on two parents of the suicide of their 13-year-old son. In the
hours after the funeral, the parents try to understand who their son
was, why he died, whether they might still have a life together. Aided
by superb performances, Grunwalsky creates a subtly drawn yet riveting
drama that charts a family’s emotional dissolution.
Monday, February 23: 4 and 8:15 pm
BOLSHE VITA
Ibolye Fekete, 1995; 97 minutes
"Painted with humor and affection, a portrait of the desperation and
euphoria of 1989/90, the hectic period when the communist empire was
crumbling and Hungary opened up its western borders. Drawn by the bright
lights of Budapest, refugees from war, poverty and politics flood in,
willing to do anything to survive and find some brave new world. Our
"heroes" are two goofy Russian musicians, an engineer, and two
fun-seeking girlfriends who gather at a down-at-the-heels rock pub, the
eponymous Bolshe Vita."-- 1997 New Directors/New Films Program
Wednesday, February 25: 2, 6:15 and 10 pm
THE WITMAN BOYS /
WITMAN FIUK
Janós Szász, 1997; 93 minutes
Writer Dmitri Eipides calls
THE WITMAN BOYS "extremely creepy and
hauntingly beautiful...a kind of psychological horror film, reminiscent
of Roman Polanski around the time of The Tenant." This ochre-tinged
film, set in 1914, follows the bizarre psychic journey of two
brothers--very much from their point of view--who become obsessed with sex
and death after their father passes away.
Wednesday, February 25: 4 and 8:15 pm
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