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Product Description
Regarded as one of the great 'lost' masterpieces of international cinema, Zoltán Huszárik's 1971 film is finally availabe for the first time on DVD. A surreal and highly stylized adaptation of the early 20th century writings of author Gyula Krúdy, the film depicts the life, loves and memories of traveller and womanizer Szindbád (played by the great Hungarian actor Zoltán Latinovits), as he contemplates his life of hedonism and impropriety and who tries to recover his great lost love before he dies. Evoking time and memory to extraordinary effect, Szindbád is a filmic elegy that is both lyrical and surreal - an experience unlike anything in modern cinema.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: Hungarian ( Mono ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Booklet, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Remastered, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This lavish Hungarian film chronicles the exploits of a Magyar Casanova in the early years of the 20th century. Sensual Szindbad (Zoltan Latinovitz) leaves behind broken hearts and fond memories when he moves from one woman to another. Some of them, overwhelmed by their tragic attachment, seek to have him join them in a suicide pact, others carelessly toss their lives away. He remains fundamentally untouched, but he finally gets his comeuppance at a grand dinner in a fine restaurant. The headwaiter confides in him at great length about troubles he is having with his wife, who was one of Szindbad's conquests. ...Sinbad ( Szindbád ) ( Szindbad )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful
This film's a spellbinding tapestry of images, and there's not a sailor in sight!
The plot (there's not much to speak of really) revolves around an old man (called Szindbad) recounting his many previous loves. It's a truly beautiful tale full of wonderful imagery, and every shot is like a beautiful painting, it's reminiscent of other Eastern European New Wave / surrealist films such as 'Daisies', 'Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors' and 'The Hourglass Sanitorium'.
Szindbad is considered to be a major classic of Hungarian cinema, and is well worth a few of your hard-earned forints!
The plot (there's not much to speak of really) revolves around an old man (called Szindbad) recounting his many previous loves. It's a truly beautiful tale full of wonderful imagery, and every shot is like a beautiful painting, it's reminiscent of other Eastern European New Wave / surrealist films such as 'Daisies', 'Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors' and 'The Hourglass Sanitorium'.
Szindbad is considered to be a major classic of Hungarian cinema, and is well worth a few of your hard-earned forints!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
This film undoubtedly contains some very beautiful sequences, although my feeling is that Huszarik excels at composing exteriors and in capturing the natural world but is rather less assured when shooting interiors. The opening sequence is very promising, comprising of a succession of fast cut close-ups, some distinguishable some not, while 'poor' old Szindbad is sent from pillar-to-post around the countryside in a horse drawn cart.
Then, immediately after the titles comes a sequence, which is far too long to my mind, and alienates me to such a degree that I have to work hard not to let it affect my appreciation of the rest of the film. Had the director cut straight to Szindbad's beautiful encounter with the nymph of the wood I think I would have flown with him. Unfortunately, the prolonged and silly dance sequence brought me crashing to the ground and I never really got up again.
The presence of the obscure fast cuts presage later events, in much the same way as with a Roeg or Resnais narrative. Although such edits are rather abrupt they are very much a formal narrative devise and rather less to do with experimentation per se. In the otherwise languid atmosphere that is as heady as the scent of lilies, such cuts tend to wake one up. The fragmented, elliptical narrative structure is diverting and enjoyable but hardly innovative even in 1971.
There is certainly an intoxicating quality to this film. I have now watched it a number of times and on more than one occasion I have felt my eyelids become very heavy as if the screen was exuding a sedative. I confess that I slumbered for several moments. I have to say that I am rather less enthusiastic about this film than the other reviewers and commentators. In fact Michael Brooke's research packed essay is more interesting to me than the film itself. The whole Second Run package is of course excellent but like Herz's Morgiana, also bought on trust, neither film is likely to leave my shelf very often.
I've had this since it was released and have been struggling with it ever since, trying to put my finger on what it is that doesn't appeal. Perhaps I can express it like this; in a line-up between The Virgin Spring and Elvira Madigan, it is the former that I'd rather watch.
Szindbad's solipsistic reflections are rather less deserving of our attention than the ornate 19th century settings and beautifully realised landscapes. He has enjoyed a life full of sex and seduction but very little, if any, love. As he drifts from one remembered liaison to another, like a shard of ice slowly diminishing from the overwhelming warmth of his surroundings, we witness the journey of a dead man.
Then, immediately after the titles comes a sequence, which is far too long to my mind, and alienates me to such a degree that I have to work hard not to let it affect my appreciation of the rest of the film. Had the director cut straight to Szindbad's beautiful encounter with the nymph of the wood I think I would have flown with him. Unfortunately, the prolonged and silly dance sequence brought me crashing to the ground and I never really got up again.
The presence of the obscure fast cuts presage later events, in much the same way as with a Roeg or Resnais narrative. Although such edits are rather abrupt they are very much a formal narrative devise and rather less to do with experimentation per se. In the otherwise languid atmosphere that is as heady as the scent of lilies, such cuts tend to wake one up. The fragmented, elliptical narrative structure is diverting and enjoyable but hardly innovative even in 1971.
There is certainly an intoxicating quality to this film. I have now watched it a number of times and on more than one occasion I have felt my eyelids become very heavy as if the screen was exuding a sedative. I confess that I slumbered for several moments. I have to say that I am rather less enthusiastic about this film than the other reviewers and commentators. In fact Michael Brooke's research packed essay is more interesting to me than the film itself. The whole Second Run package is of course excellent but like Herz's Morgiana, also bought on trust, neither film is likely to leave my shelf very often.
I've had this since it was released and have been struggling with it ever since, trying to put my finger on what it is that doesn't appeal. Perhaps I can express it like this; in a line-up between The Virgin Spring and Elvira Madigan, it is the former that I'd rather watch.
Szindbad's solipsistic reflections are rather less deserving of our attention than the ornate 19th century settings and beautifully realised landscapes. He has enjoyed a life full of sex and seduction but very little, if any, love. As he drifts from one remembered liaison to another, like a shard of ice slowly diminishing from the overwhelming warmth of his surroundings, we witness the journey of a dead man.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
You probably do not know the writer, nor the book, you have not heard about any of the actors or the director but here is the occasion to discover this world very different from the one of Hollywood and the TV series! If you want action, car-chasing or bombs exploding, don't buy this. The film does not have one clear storyline, it is more emotions, thoughts, feelings, it has an atmosphere that will enchant you. Latinovits, the male actor is unique, of course it is best if you understand Hungarian.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A visual masterpiece and more...
I've just recently discovered this gem of the Hungarian cinema on the
Second Run DVD series (many "lost" and recently restored excellent
films,especially of the Eastern... Read more
Second Run DVD series (many "lost" and recently restored excellent
films,especially of the Eastern... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Yoselovich Boris
very much of its time
there's an abstract quality in the initial passages. then it literally loses the plot or perhaps it's trying to discover one. better that it stayed true to the first scenes. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Marinko Vukovojac
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