Set during the fading glory of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the film tells of the rise and fall of Alfred Redl (Brandauer), an ambitious young officer who proceeds up the ladder to become head of the Secret Police only to become ensnared in political deception.Read More »
During the Russian Civil War, the Red Army – aided by Hungarian Communists – and the White Army fight for control of the area surrounding the Volga.
MUBI wrote:
Set in 1919, during the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Miklós Jancsó’s The Red and the White is a war film unlike any other. In the brutal Civil War which took place, Hungarian volunteers supported the ‘Red’ revolutionaries in a war of attrition against the ‘White’ counter-revolutionaries.Read More »
Introduction
The first signs of autumn are seen in a landscape along a river. Some villagers are stacking a bed of stone blocks on the river-bank to avoid more eroding. Others are occupied by plowing, fishing or repairing. A small steamboat passes by. In the engine room a stoker is shoveling coal into the oven. Further down the river a small town is passed by the water. A rowing-team is training for coming races. Some biologists are looking at microbes from the water through a microscope. A group of workers are painting a new barge and push it into the river. When a small boy sees a racing boat, he leaves his sand-castle and runs along the river.Read More »
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In 1956, there was an uprising of Hungarians against their Russian overlords, which the Russians briefly allowed to flower and then ruthlessly suppressed. One suspects that the country’s rulers knew about the uprising in advance and permitted it to continue so as to be able to identify who was most actively involved. In this film, it is 1958, and five very different men are waiting in their prison cells to be taken out and executed. Their dreams, fantasies and recollection relieve what might otherwise seem to be an unnecessarily repetitive situation. The internationally known French star Matthieu Carrière plays one of the condemned men. ~ Clarke Fountain, RoviRead More »
Synopsis
Broadway star Fitzroy Wynn is thrilled when his wife Lily writes a new script with a brilliant lead role. While ego-centric Fitz thinks himself perfect for the role, Lily dashes his hopes when she admits she wants to find someone different for the part. Fitz refuses to give up his pursuit. Enlisting the reluctant help of his agent, Fitz poses as Roberto Terranova- a young Italian actor and the exact model of what Lily wants for the role. But trouble arises when Lily appears to be falling for the charming Italian and Fitz is left to wonder just how serious she was about finding someone different.Read More »
Pure Virtual Function is an abstract meditation on the representation of violence, the connection of virtual and real agression. The film was made from painted 35 mm film strips and sound recording from Iraq war.Read More »
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In a small, dilapidated village in 1990s Hungary, life has come to a virtual stand-still. The Autumn rains have started. A few of the villagers expect to receive a large cash payment that evening, and then plan to leave. Some want to abscond earlier with more than their fair share of the money. However they hear that the smooth-talking Irimias, who they thought had died, is returning. They are apprehensive that he will take all their money in one of his grandiose schemes to keep the community going.Read More »
Zoltan Fabry’s last movie is based on Ferenc Karinthy’s play “Housewarning”. The economical and political stakeholders of a small town come together in a luxury villa on a name day celebration. Everything starts as usual, but this time an incident disrupts the men’s festivities. Andrea Bíró, accompanied by her boyfriend, announces to her father, the director of the local Iron Works, that she wants to leave home. The father shots the boy in his quick anger. The attendants adjust the incident as an accident, but a local newspaper-writer, Luca Péteri, begins an investigation in the case, despite the obstacles and lethal threads.Read More »
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Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr began his career making social realist domestic dramas, similar to the work of John Cassavetes. The feature before Damnation, Almanac of Fall, showed Tarr moving toward a more visually stylized form of filmmaking. With Damnation, the first of his collaborations with novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Tarr adopts a formally rigorous style, featuring long takes and slow tracking shots of the bleak landscape that surrounds the characters. Shot in black-and-white, Damnation tells the story of Karrer (Miklos B. Szekely), a depressed man in love with a married woman (Vali Kerekes) who sings at the local bar, Titanik. The singer has broken off their affair, despite her profession of love for him.Read More »