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[font=Times New Roman][size=4]Summary (from Criticker): A story of two young people in Hungary, Jancsi and Kata. Soon after the 56-Revolution Kata leaves Hungary, Jancsi stays there. After about 10 years Jancsi is allowed to visit Kata in France, their love is reborn, but after a short, very happy period Jancsi has to return to Hungary.[/size][/font]
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[font=Times New Roman][size=4]There's a lot of potential here to be a film that I really loved, but overall the movie was too much of a mess. The first hour is edited in a way that makes everything entirely too fast. The whole memory/dream mixed with reality thing didn't bother me, but the way the images zoomed by and rarely allowed me to register them was a little out of control. The second half of the film is quite a bit better. Once Szabo focuses on one time period and lets us viewers really have a feel for everything, the relationship becomes quite good (well, as good as a semi-incestuous fling can be [img]http://www.forumcircle.com/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] ). There are definitely scenes that stand out as near perfect, such as the couple's time at the beach. Overall, though, I had trouble getting into this.[/size][/font]
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
but i need to see it again ....
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The atypical order of the scenes is more confusing to a foreign viewer than the original intended audience?Hungarians in the early 1970s who experienced all of the social changes outlined in the film?but again, through this confusion can come new meaning to a different type of filmgoer. It was surely a confusing and jarring time to live in?all of the radical changes in how government works in such a relatively short period of time are a lot to take on.
Jancsi (András Bálint and András Szamosfalvi) and his life-long best friend and romantic interest, Kata (Judit Halász and Edit Kelemen) have experienced the social change of Hungary in the most confusing way possible, as they start out as small children not knowing any different way of living. All of this craziness in his world causes Jansci (among others) to find comfort in a sort of escapism, which is shown the most literally while huddling together as children and imagining a game of tag. This is one of the most subjective shots in the film, as we are seeing inside the characters? heads while they think about the game of tag?and it is through this literal representation of escapism that the rest of the film?s techniques for showing Jansci?s escapist mentality come all the more to the forefront of the plot. Jansci has gotten so used to trying to think about being in a different place (from all the bad things going on around him) that his mind is constantly racing from one memory to another, and so that is how the film is edited.
Once Jansci meets up with Kata as an adult, there are noticeably less racing flashbacks. Since Jansci is shown to be the most comfortable that he has been in the entire film (through being with Kata), he does not have to keep his mind elsewhere, because for the first time in the film, he is content with where he is in that moment. He is content with his reality.
Oddly, though, it is during this same part of his life (while he is in France with Kata) that one of the most real scenes occur: Klári (Rita Békés)recalls in an uninterrupted several-minute shot of her face what would otherwise be the most disturbing scene of the film (if it were staged like other flashbacks). Because they do not show her memories on screen, it is more ?realistic? in that it would be the same thing we would see if she was really in the room with us, telling this story. Even in Jansci and Kata?s moments of happiness, there is still the memory of the unhappiness before lingering always, even while Jansci is shown to not be thinking about it as much.
The disturbing nature of the scene with Klári illustrates why it is otherwise important for Jansci to keep his mind elsewhere, and why even in happy times, his mind travels to different places in reflex?and still cannot keep the bad times out of his mind even then.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/15/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I've seen this film before. It's not particularly memorable. There's something stilted about the pacing. And do people ever really chase after trains waving? Or is that some form of precursor to zombieism. Regardless, it's a richly developed film viewed mostly through rememberances.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
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