Our favourites - Volume 3.

Only a few days left until the list of the nominees is official.

1.) Attila Till: Panic (release date: 2008. Film Week)

“By the age of 30, Zsuzsi has reached everything: she’s got a good job with good salary, an own car, an own apartment and she is passionately in love. Then one day, the armchair begins to move towards the door, and the wardrobe towards the window. She can’t breathe. ‘Ouch, a heart attack.’ When her love leaves her, she goes into the Panic Clinic of her own free will. Beyond the walls, of course everybody is sane: her mother and her best friend are shopaholics, her friend is suffering from paranoia and worry too much about her baby, and her brother would only like to get rid of the monster devouring their mother...” Attila Till’s first feature film of surprisingly high standard was made with the participation of a cameraman from Los Angeles, of the special makeup artist of the Pirates of The Caribbean, of Ambrus Tövisházi, who composed the music, and with exceptional collaboration of producers in the background.

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2.) Attila Gigor: Detective (release date: 2008. Film Week)

In the first feature film of the creator of the short film, Rossz helyen szálltunk le, a general pathologist (played by Zsolt Anger) becomes an assassin to get some money. “Tibor Malkáv kills a complete stranger to save his own mother. Tibor Malkáv murders Ferenc Szirmai. He receives the money and everything seems to be fine but next day Tibor Malkáv receives a letter from Ferenc Szirmai. They turn out to be no strangers at all. Tibor Malkáv is in trouble. He must find out who hired him if he would like to avoid being punished for what he did. Tibor Malkáv is a pathologist. Tibor Malkáv starts to follow a dead man to find out surprising things about himself.” Besides Zsolt Anger, Judit Rezes, Sándor Terhes, Ildikó Tóth and Éva Kerekes also appear in the film.

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3.) Tamás Sas: 9 and a Half Dates (release date: 14th February 2008.)
The Sas-Neményi team’s previous film, S. O. S. Love! was a box office hit: 240.000 people have seen it so far. The successful team joined to make a film about love again, a cheerful story, which takes place in Budapest. Iván Fenyő plays a very successful author, who gets into trouble and the only way to get out of this embarrassing situation is to date with 10 single women within 10 days. He has to give account of all his adventures in his new novel. Young Hungarian actresses play the roles of the potential girlfriends (Patrícia Kovács, Andrea Söptei, Viktória Szávai, Judit Rezes, Kitty Kéri, Adrienn Herczeg, Adél Jordán, Réka Pelsőczy, Kata Gáspár and Katinka Egres).

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Adél Jordán, Iván Fenyő


4.) József Sipos: Esther’s Inheritance (release date: 2008. Film Week)
After Embers and In Exile, here is another Márai adaptation, directed by József Sipos. Eszter Kálózy-Nagy, in the title role, is seduced by Lajos, the elderly adventurer. Lajos suddenly appears in Esther’s life after a twenty-year-long “break”. Despite all the disappointment, the woman hopes to be her lover but the man only wants her fortune. The filmmakers intend to “advertise” Hungary with this film at international film festivals in an indirect way.

Official site
Imdb


Mari Törőcsik, Eszter Kálózy-Nagy, Dorottya Udvaros, Gabriella Hámori

5.) András Szőke: Bakkermann (release date: 2008. Film Week)

In one of the video comments of Estiskola, Sándor Badár (Suzumi) described the film as a typical Szőke movie, in which the already familiar characters appear, such as Sándor Badár himself, or András Szőke himself. The success of Hasutasok may have turned Szőke’s head, as he asked the pop group, Bon-Bon to compose the music of the film (they composed the title song of a Kind of America as well). The story takes place in a village, where the local people help the bakerman to make the biggest bread ever.

6.) István Márton: Buhera mátrix (released: 29th March 2007.)

TV films which were also distributed at cimemas are a bit problematic, but finally we also took them into account. Buhera Mátrix is based on the humorist, Gergely Litkay’s autobiographical novel. It was released with 21 copies at the Hungarian cinemas but only 11 thousand people have seen the movie. At the end of his life, the main character remembers the most important moments of his life. “All those awkward moments a family album usually contains: carnival in the kindergarten, school leaving ceremony, high school ball, the installation of a water meter and a lifeless driving instructor.” Our critic wasn’t fascinated by the film: “Buhera Mátrix proves that a good script, good foundation or good humour is not enough for a (good) feature film.” Information of common concern: the film will be shown at Christmas on one of the Hungarian TV channels, RTL Klub.

Official site
Imdb

7.) Elemér Ragályi: No Mercy (released: 22nd March 2007.)

If Elemér Ragályi’s film were a respectable, but dry ‘legal case’, the adaptation of the Pusoma-case would be of great concern. No Mercy, which was shown with the title Black-and-white on Duna TV in February, is, however, the best TV film in the last few years. My only critical remark was: how it would do at cinemas?” – asked our critic with a good reason. It was released with 3 copies for 3 thousand viewers. As a matter of curiosity, Hungary nominated No Mercy for the European Film Awards. The film was not selected as a top six finalist.

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8.) Zsolt Pozsgai: The Well of Tranquility (released: 4th October 2007.)

Zsolt Pozsgai was insipred by real events: the lyrical-historical film chronicles the life of the poet, Attila Gérecz, who is considered to be a Petőfi like figure of 1956. The outstanding sportsman was languishing in Rákosi’s prison for more than six years: he got mixed up with poets and he himself became a poet too. On 31st October 1956, he was freed from prison, then on 7th November died a glorious death on the barricades. “His life is the symbol of the discord of the age. He was accused of treason, was buried four times until he found his final resting place.”

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9.) Péter Forgács: Own death

At the end of our list we are recommending two totally different film specialities. The Erasmus Prize winner Péter Forgács has been best known for his original documentaries so far, such as Private Hungary, The Danube Exodus, Black Dog or Miss Universe. This time he was inspired by Péter Nádas’ novel, Own Death. “Reading Péter Nádas’ Own Death, the reader visualize the words of the book as a film. I also visualized it, as the vision is the ‘narrated story’ itself. The sensual ethereal travelouge did not use out-of-date means of expression characteristic of filmic adaptations, instead it created a special visual atmosphere. Random black-and-white slow-motion flashing images alternate with the images of the coloured ‘reality’, while we are watching the details inwards in fact. At other times the minimalist footages restricted to the texture and the body take us to a long journey. The story of one day.” – as the website says.

Official site

10.) Tomi Gerencsér: Happened Tomorrow

And the other extreme. The interactivity of the first Hungarian celebrity movie lies in the fact that the viewers also took part in the making of the movie. Readers of one of the daily papers could vote throughout a month, which celebrity they would like to see on screen, and in what role. They could even influence the storyline. The cast includes Anettka and Cini Zalatnay, two Hungarian “media stars”. The story is as follows: ‘An ambitious journalist (Anettka) starts to investigate the circumstances of a famous pop diva’s (Cini Zalatnay) death. Of course, nothing is what it seems.’

Official site

That’s all. No more. The End.