Sunday, August 14, 2011

Diary for my Children (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)
Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)


Genre: Drama
Director: Márta Mészáros
Starring:  Zsuzsa Czinkóczi, Anna Polony, Jan Nowicki
Duration: 106 min.
Rating: 7.3  

Summary:
Juli, a young woman returns home to Budapest from the Soviet Union where her parents were exiled and had died.  Scarred by the wounds of the past, she is repulsed to see the very same spectre of Stalinist oppression now rife in her homeland.

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)


Diary for My Children is a Hungarian film written and directed by Márta Mészáros.  It screened in competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury.  This is the first part of Mészáros' autobiographical trilogy, followed by 1987's Diary for my Lovers, and 1990's Diary for my Mother and Father.  Currently this is the only one of the three available on DVD, released in 2009 by UK company Second Run DVD.

The film is set in late forties Budapest, as Juli (Zsuzsa Czinkóczi) a teenage orphan, returns to Hungary from the Soviet Union where she lived in exile with her parents.  Accompanied by a family friend (Pál Zolnay) whom she calls 'Grandfather' to the home of Magda (Anna Polony) the woman who would be her foster mother.

Juli is a rebellious girl and she frequently clashes with Magda's futile efforts to assert authority.  Despite the relatively good life provided for her, Juli cannot accept living with Magda because the woman is rising up in the communist party, and Juli resents this because of what the regime did to her parents.  She skips school spending her days at the cinema and develops a bond with János (Jan Nowicki), an older man who reminds her of her father.

This is obviously a very personal and intimate work that succeeds quite well in showing the political and social climate of the era.  The black and white cinematography by Mészáros' son Nyika Jancsó greatly helps tell the story with some expertly arranged shots, my favorite being one of Juli up in the balcony of a cinema emulating the body language of Greta Garbo in Mata Hari.  There are also some well crafted flashback sequences that help us understand the inner feelings and motivations of Juli, who otherwise would come across as a spoiled and ungrateful child.

Overall it could have used some tighter pacing and the ending was not entirely satisfying, but this was still a very worthwhile effort from Mészáros, and I look forward to seeing the rest of her and Juli's story.  Hopefully Second Run will release the rest of the trilogy sometime soon.

Bonjour Tristesse

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

Diary for my Children • Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

5 comments:

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I suggest perhaps waiting until the other parts become available. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Figured I should include a link that navigates back to the main post.

d_4 said...

I'm not sure. I don't think I'll go out of my way to see it, but if I ever do come across it, I will.

Christine@TheFiveSenses said...

This looks really interesting.  I'll have to check it out.  

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

I notice there's a new Spotlight on Hungarian Cinema banner.

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