Political and sexual repression in Hungary, just after the revolution of 1956. In 1958, the body of Eva Szalanczky, a political journalist, is discovered near the border. Her friend Livia is in hospital with a broken neck; Livia’s husband, Donci, is under arrest. In a flashback to the year before, we see what leads up to the tragedy. Eva gets a job as a writer. She meets Livia and is attracted to her. Livia feels much the same, but as a married woman, has doubts and hesitations. In their work, they (and Eva in particular) bang up against the limits of telling political truths; in private, they confront the limits of living out sexual and emotional truth.
Read More »
Tag Archives: Hungary
Szezon / Eastern Sugar (2004) Ferenc Török, Zsolt Nagy, Judit Rezes, Ervin Nagy, Comedy, Drama
Three young friends, from the Hungarian countryside, want more sex and excitement in their life. Together they undertake a journey to Lake Balaton, where they hope to find plenty of summer fun as well as a temporary job.
Read More »
Delta (2008) Kornél Mundruczó, Félix Lajkó, Orsolya Tóth, Lili Monori, Drama
A young man (Félix Lajkó) returns to his village on the Danube delta after many years. Little is revealed about the time that has passed since his departure, but he is greeted by a stepfather he has never met before, as well as his mother and sister (Orsi Tóth)…
Read More »
Oda az igazság / So Much for Justice! (2010) Miklós Jancsó, Daniel Olbrychski, Kornél Mundruczó, György Cserhalmi, History
Concerning the Mátyás era in Hungarian history, during the reign of Matthias Corvinus, the film focuses on three eras of the king’s life: the young Mátyás fights for the throne, the older Mátyás as king, and the fate of the royal crown and the royal heir after his death.
Read More »
The Pierre Woodman Story / A Pierre Woodman sztori (2009) András Kovács M., Péter Szajki, Documentary, Erotic
This documentary shows the life of French porn film director and producer Pierre Woodman, who has discovered several dozen Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Russian girls for the porn industry; girls who did not have a second though about participating in Pierre’s castings. This French-born entrepreneur and dare-devil is famous and envied for recording his porn movie castings, during which he “tests“ the candidates. Monsieur Woodman is 45 years old and has had 3000 sexual contacts with women so far.
Read More »
Katyi (1942) Ákos Ráthonyi, Klári Tolnay, Manyi Kiss, Tivadar Bilicsi
Kató Varga (Klári Tolnay) is unable to play its part in front of the Admissions Committee of the School of Dramatic Art. Geszty (Tivadar Bilicsi), severe President of the Commission maintains that she has no talent for acting and mercilessly tells you will never be an actress. Kató prepares to take revenge and under the false name of Katyi Csiba, dressed as a peasant village, obtains admission to the house Geszty. Turning everything upside down, she makes your life hell.
Read More »
Max (2002) Menno Meyjes, John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski
Munich, 1918. German-Jew Max Rothman has returned to much of his pre-war life which includes to his wife Nina and their two children, to his mistress Liselore von Peltz, and to his work as an art dealer. He has however not returned to being an aspiring painter as he lost his dominant right arm during the war. He is approached by an aspiring painter, a thirty-year old Austrian war veteran named Adolf Hitler, who wants him to show his works. Although he doesn’t think the paintings are all that original and he doesn’t really like Hitler as a person, Rothman takes Hitler under his wings if only because of their camaraderie of being war veterans, and knowing that Hitler had nothing and no one to come back to after the war unlike himself. Rothman believes that Hitler has promise if only he can find his original artistic point of view. In part out of need for money, Hitler, on the urging of Captain Karl Mayr, agrees to work for the army as a political spokesman in anti-Semitic propaganda.
Read More »