8 posts categorized "Hungarian Cinema"

January 09, 2009

TAKING SIDES

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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ColeSmithey.comOscar-winning director Istvan Szabo’s (“Mephisto”) “Taking Sides” is a moderately effective small-scale courtroom drama set in the immediate years after Germany’s surrender and shortly after the trials at Nuremberg.

Based on Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood’s (“The Pianist”) play the movie covers a U.S. military investigation, led by Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel), of superstar Berlin orchestra conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard).

ColeSmithey.com

Wilhelm has a connection with Nazi officials for concerts that he gave for Hitler.

Keitel is sublime as an arrogant badgering Army officer whose shallow comprehension of ideological differences between America and Europe blind him to Furtwangler’s defense based on his devotion to music as something separate from politics.

ColeSmithey.com

"Taking Sides" keeps alive a lively political and philosophical debate regarding collaboration that is as fresh today as it was 60 years ago.

Not Rated.105 mins.

3 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

 

January 02, 2009

GLOOMY SUNDAY

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

 

 

ColeSmithey.comWith the haunting Hungarian song of would-be suicide "Gloomy Sunday" as its thematic centerpiece, this personalized story of World War II-era  Budapest becomes a satisfying romantic drama about four divergently different people.

The wartime drama centers around a lively restaurant called "Szabo," where the owner Joachim Krol shares a love affair with his beautiful hostess Erika Marozsan. The couple enters into a a ménage à trois with their newly hired pianist.

ColeSmithey.com

The Nazi invasion of Hungary turns German Szabo-regular Ben Becker into an SS colonel, who enriches himself by bartering the freedom of local Jews and threatening the future of our enthusiastic lovers. This movie is a gem.

No Rating. 114 mins. 

4 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

 

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