Friday, July 1, 2011

Spotlight on Hungarian Cinema


Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will probably be aware of my infatuation with Romanian cinema.  Part of that stems from the fact that they have received a lot of awards, critical acclaim, and festival exposure recently.  But I think the real reason I have this fascination comes from my lack of exposure to Eastern European culture while growing up.  Because at that time they were still behind the Iron Curtain, and well our textbooks and teachers barely glossed over that region.  To this day when I think of the word foreign, it conjures up images in my mind of the countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
So I've decided over the next little while to spend some time exploring more of these countries' films.  This informal marathon will start off with a selection of films from Romania's next door neighbor Hungary, with a lineup that spans from the 1930s to the present.  All of which will be first time viewings for me.  There isn't a set schedule, but I'll be screening them in chronological order, and I will also continue to watch and review my usual random selections in the meantime too. 

The Red and the White (1967)
Here is the list of Hungarian films I will be watching.  The list isn't set in stone so if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations that I may have overlooked please let me know:

Mephisto (1981)

11 comments:

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for the recommendation Zsófia, I will try and track that one down, and please don't hesitate to suggest any other Hungarian films you think I should watch.

Zsófia Machó said...

I suggest you to watch Kontroll too (from Nimród Antal, 2003). 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I hope to expand this list soon, I still have to catch up on Tarr's earliest films.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

That is probably the one I'm most looking forward to seeing.

batucan cologlu said...

i should watch this movie

Blorriepoes said...

lol i never noticed it goes like that.

thanks for reminding!

The Angry Lurker said...

Seeing as I know very little about it, I will be happy with your choices. 

d_4 said...

That's almost longer than my "to watch" list. I haven't seen a movie in a month. You're a trooper in my eyes.

Hermann Rorschach said...

Not slighting Hungarian cinema, but judging from the titles and the time frame, things might be a little depressing...
Then I realized your blog address already told me this...
So sad...

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

I look forward to it.

thevoid99 said...

The film I want to see most is Bela Tarr's "Satantango" largely because it's what it influenced some of the recent work of Gus Van Sant.

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