Love (Szerelem) [DVD]

Love (Szerelem) is an interesting and satisfying oddity. It's a Hungarian film made in 1971, but set in the late 1950s, and deals mainly with the wife and mother of a political prisoner who are both awaiting his return. In an idea perhaps re-used indirectly in 'Goodbye Lenin', the wife is maintaining the old, bedridden mother's illusion that the man they both love is in fact a famous filmmaker in New York, not in jail in their own country.

What might otherwise have turned out as a dull or sentimental film is made very watchable and endlessly intriguing by the way it has been directed and edited. Dream-like images of objects and flashback sequences together with photography that is beautiful and perfectly composed throughout more than compensate for the slow drama.

At the time this was no doubt a very political film, like most Eastern European cinema during the Cold War. Now, however, we can enjoy it, if nothing else, for the way it looks and the subtle way it deals with the theme of absence. It's a bargain at a tenner, and also contains an excellent interview / introduction, filmed recently, with Karoly Makk, the director, who talks about all aspects of the making of the film.

Highly recommended.

I picked this up after seeing lots of people raving about it on a couple of movie websites. what a find. Ok so it's not for everyone - it's slow, hungarian and b & w but its also wonderfully moving and looks absolutely ravishing. The interview with the director is great as well - helped me put the film into the context of the time.

It's a real 'grown ups' movie. If you like your films with emotion and just the right amount of 'art' then buy this.

"Love" ("Szerelem" in Hungarian) is not a perfect movie, as much of its value remains in the 1970s, when Communist still reigned feebly in Hungary. There is an art house tone to some of the camera shots, making it less accessible to the popular moviegoing public. Despite this, "Love" evokes core human questions, and shows a resolution that is passionate in its subtlety.

The conflict is quiet: can love survive during dark times? Can a daughter-in-law love her mother-in-law as she lay dying? Can the wife love her husband, stolen into prison by the government? If he is released, with she love him as she loved him before?

Set in Budapest, largely within the mother's bedroom, the movie examines the challenge of committed love.

Luca is a long-suffering daughter of her dying elderly mother-in-law, and wife of Janos, imprisoned for a minor political action in the severe Communist-era Hungary.

Lili Darvas, who plays the bedridden mother, pulls off a difficult role with complete persuasion. Her mannerisms and nuances are convincing, and she maintains this throughout the movie. Her son Janos is in prison, but she is told by Luca otherwise.

Mari Torocsik, as Luca, has a wry Valerie Bertinelli look with twice the intelligence. Her husband is in prison, but she concocts an elaborate story about his success as a film maker in New York. Her facts about the USA are not all correct, but her effort to help her mother-in-law believe is creative and strong.

As the mother's days grow bleaker, Luca struggles to keep her spirits up. Her own loneliness aches on, and, if were not for the support of the mother's housekeeper, Iren, may have given in long ago.

The anti-Communist subtext does not dominate the film. Rather, the repression of Communism is presented as a simple reality. Homes get taken away when the person dies or loses a spouse. People are fired because of the spouse's actions. There is no real opportunity to do more than survive. None of this is shouted loudly, but is organic to life in Hungary at this time.

I fully recommend "Love."

Anthony Trendl

editor, HungarianBookstore.com