Liza, the Fox-Fairy (Liza, a rókatündér)
Written by Bálint Hegedûs & Károly Ujj Mészáros
Directed by Károly Ujj Mészáros
Hungary, 2015
Imagine the gnome from Amélie was still sending out travel photos, only, instead of visiting tourist landmarks, he was posing at crime scenes. Such is the droll wit of Liza, the Fox-Fairy. The feature debut from Hungarian director Károly Ujj Mészáros is awash in bizarre and curious pleasures. Perverse, hilarious, and poignant, this absurdist fairy tale still features one of 2015’s most touching love stories.
Amélie from Hell. Perhaps that’s the best way to describe Liza, the Fox-Fairy. Like Amélie, Liza (Mónika Balsai) wants to be the plucky heroine who meets the perfect man and lives happily-ever-after. She slavishly memorizes a Japanese romance novel, hoping the words will magically change her fortunes. Sadly, fate has other plans for her. In this case, fate is her imaginary friend, Tomy Tani (David Sakurai...
Written by Bálint Hegedûs & Károly Ujj Mészáros
Directed by Károly Ujj Mészáros
Hungary, 2015
Imagine the gnome from Amélie was still sending out travel photos, only, instead of visiting tourist landmarks, he was posing at crime scenes. Such is the droll wit of Liza, the Fox-Fairy. The feature debut from Hungarian director Károly Ujj Mészáros is awash in bizarre and curious pleasures. Perverse, hilarious, and poignant, this absurdist fairy tale still features one of 2015’s most touching love stories.
Amélie from Hell. Perhaps that’s the best way to describe Liza, the Fox-Fairy. Like Amélie, Liza (Mónika Balsai) wants to be the plucky heroine who meets the perfect man and lives happily-ever-after. She slavishly memorizes a Japanese romance novel, hoping the words will magically change her fortunes. Sadly, fate has other plans for her. In this case, fate is her imaginary friend, Tomy Tani (David Sakurai...
- 9/30/2015
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Russia big winner at FilmFestival Cottbus for second consecutive year.
Russia was the big winner for the second year in a row at the FilmFestival Cottbus with Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s Corrections Class picking up four awards at the weekend.
The feature debut received the International Jury’s main prize ¨for its unsentimental and unpretentious presentation of a powerful social theme presented through the prism of an excellent ensemble performance¨, thereby qualifying for the Connecting Cottbus Special Pitch Award, which will allow Tverdovsky and his producers to pitch a new project at the East-West co-production market in a year’s time.
Tverdovsky’s Russian-German co-production, which won the Best Debut prize at Kinotavr in Sochi and the East of the West Award in Karlovy Vary, also picked up the prizes from the Fipresci and Interfilm juries in Cottbus.
Last year, the main prize at Cottbus went to Russian director Alexander Veledinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe...
Russia was the big winner for the second year in a row at the FilmFestival Cottbus with Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s Corrections Class picking up four awards at the weekend.
The feature debut received the International Jury’s main prize ¨for its unsentimental and unpretentious presentation of a powerful social theme presented through the prism of an excellent ensemble performance¨, thereby qualifying for the Connecting Cottbus Special Pitch Award, which will allow Tverdovsky and his producers to pitch a new project at the East-West co-production market in a year’s time.
Tverdovsky’s Russian-German co-production, which won the Best Debut prize at Kinotavr in Sochi and the East of the West Award in Karlovy Vary, also picked up the prizes from the Fipresci and Interfilm juries in Cottbus.
Last year, the main prize at Cottbus went to Russian director Alexander Veledinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe...
- 11/10/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
The Notebook
Written by János Szász and András Szekér
Directed by János Szász
Hungary, 2013
We’ve seen countless films depicting the monstrosity of World War II, but The Notebook gives us an unflinching look at the monsters it created. Both observant and nonjudgmental, director, János Szász, drops us into a war zone bereft of borders or buffers. Allegiances crumble and shift like the tattered landscape, where even familial ties yield to stark necessity. This is a challenging film that reaffirms the survival of the human spirit, not through acts of courage or bravery, but by harnessing our spitefulness and hatred to outlast the enemy. Whether the soul can endure such a coldhearted transformation is left for the audience to decide.
For most filmgoers, it’s impossible to comprehend the daily horror of living in a residential war zone and the toll it takes on the human spirit. Based on the French novel by Agota Kristof,...
Written by János Szász and András Szekér
Directed by János Szász
Hungary, 2013
We’ve seen countless films depicting the monstrosity of World War II, but The Notebook gives us an unflinching look at the monsters it created. Both observant and nonjudgmental, director, János Szász, drops us into a war zone bereft of borders or buffers. Allegiances crumble and shift like the tattered landscape, where even familial ties yield to stark necessity. This is a challenging film that reaffirms the survival of the human spirit, not through acts of courage or bravery, but by harnessing our spitefulness and hatred to outlast the enemy. Whether the soul can endure such a coldhearted transformation is left for the audience to decide.
For most filmgoers, it’s impossible to comprehend the daily horror of living in a residential war zone and the toll it takes on the human spirit. Based on the French novel by Agota Kristof,...
- 9/5/2014
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
About as different from its 2004 Ryan Gosling — Rachel McAdams namesake as possible, The Notebook (A nagy füzet) recounts the harrowing saga of unnamed teenage twin boys (András and Lázló Gyémánt) who, in 1944 Hungary, are unceremoniously dumped by their mother (Gyöngyvér Bognár) at their grandmother's (Piroska Molnár) remote farm for protection from WWII horrors.
There, the old "witch" beats them and berates them as "bastards." In response, the siblings teach one another how to endure pain and hardship. Bleak circumstances lead to bleak moral codes in János Szász's sobering wartime drama, as the boys study the Ten Commandments but find that blackmail, cruelty, and murder are not...
There, the old "witch" beats them and berates them as "bastards." In response, the siblings teach one another how to endure pain and hardship. Bleak circumstances lead to bleak moral codes in János Szász's sobering wartime drama, as the boys study the Ten Commandments but find that blackmail, cruelty, and murder are not...
- 8/27/2014
- Village Voice
The Notebook (Le grand cahier) (A nagy füzet) Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes Grade: A- Director: János Szász Screenplay: Agota Kristof, András Szekér, Tom Abrams – adapted from Agota Kristof’s novel (see below) Cast: András Gyémánt, Gyöngyvér Bognár, László Gyémánt, Piroska Molnár, András Réthelyi, Ulrich Matthes Screened at: Sony, NYC, 8/13/14 Opens: August 29, 2014 In his 1954 dystopian novel “Lord of the Flies,” William Golding creates a world of British boys as sole inhabitants of an island without adult authorities. They try to govern themselves but end up with disaster. Simply put, the youngsters become barbarians. In “The Notebook,” we discover [ Read More ]
The post The Notebook Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Notebook Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 8/17/2014
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Notebook
Written by Tom Abrams, András Szekér and János Szász
Directed by János Szász
Hungary/Germany/Austria/France, 2013
Set in a small border village over the course of World War II, Hungarian curio The Notebook is unlike any war film you’ve ever seen. Its central characters are twin boys, named only in the credits as One (András Gyémánt) and Other (László Gyémánt), who think and act as a single person. At the beginning of the film, their parents take them away from their luxurious city apartment, fearing that identical twins would be too conspicuous in wartime. They are sent to live with their mean-spirited Grandmother (Piroska Molnár), despite the fact that she has unequivocally fallen out with their mother and is suspected of murdering her husband. The only instructions given to them are to keep up with their studies and record everything that happens in a notebook. It...
Written by Tom Abrams, András Szekér and János Szász
Directed by János Szász
Hungary/Germany/Austria/France, 2013
Set in a small border village over the course of World War II, Hungarian curio The Notebook is unlike any war film you’ve ever seen. Its central characters are twin boys, named only in the credits as One (András Gyémánt) and Other (László Gyémánt), who think and act as a single person. At the beginning of the film, their parents take them away from their luxurious city apartment, fearing that identical twins would be too conspicuous in wartime. They are sent to live with their mean-spirited Grandmother (Piroska Molnár), despite the fact that she has unequivocally fallen out with their mother and is suspected of murdering her husband. The only instructions given to them are to keep up with their studies and record everything that happens in a notebook. It...
- 3/12/2014
- by Rob Dickie
- SoundOnSight
The Notebook, Hungary''s Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. International Sales Agent: Beta Cinema
Survival is defined as the ability to remain alive and persevere through all the obstacles that can halt one’ existence. It could be said that most of the endeavors an individual undertakes are solely to prolong life. During wartime, this task becomes exponentially more difficult and requires the skills, both mental and physical, to carry on as inhumane atrocities become quotidian occurrences. Perhaps the most horrendous case in history is the social decay that prevailed during World War II, more prominently in countries under Nazi control, which completely dehumanized those targeted by the Reich as well as the bystanders forced to reevaluate the value of a person’s life, rendering many as subhuman. In his ambitious and terrific film The Notebook, director János Szász approaches this instinctive resilience by way of an unbreakable bond between two twin brothers and their assertiveness to persist and overcome the extreme austerity they encounter.
Considering his twin sons a conspicuous liability, a Hungarian soldier and his wife agree they must hide them with their grandmother in a remote village on the outskirts of the country. Before parting with them, the father entrusts them with a mission, he provides them with a notebook in which they must write an account of everything that happens to them. Taking this assignment to heart, the boys (played by András Gyémánt and László Gyémánt) begin to write about their experiences, not only in text but also with visuals, as a scrapbook of sorts. Spiteful due to her daughter’s abandonment, the grandmother (Piroska Molnár) refuses to care for the children. She refers to them as bastards, hits them, and treats them cruelly even as they work for her around her farm. The twins understand that hardships will only worsen and they must be prepared. As instructed by their mother, they keep their studies up aided by an old encyclopedia and a bible, yet, the greatest lessons come from their terrible fate. Crushing any trace of childish mentality or oversensitivity by means of pain, the boys begin to train themselves to bear incredible suffering. They fight each other to increase their tolerance to physical pain, they starve to be ready when winter hits, and they deny themselves any emotion towards their mother’s letters.
Along the way they meet varied characters that test their compassion, and others who shatter any remains of innocence: a friendly Nazi officer that ends up saving their lives, to a Jewish shoemaker who generously gives them boots, a sexually deviant priest, a disfigured thief, and a flirtatious xenophobic woman. Eventually the malevolent grandmother comprehends the pair are the only reason she is still alive and warms up to them, although she never verbalizes it. When the boys’ parents finally return for them, they are not the same. Their perception of family is now less romanticized. Having their fraternal love as only source of reassurance, their parents have now become a burden in their goal to survive.
In what is the most psychologically intriguing element of the story, the twins undergo a self-imposed journey to desensitize themselves and by doing so their moral convictions must adapt to the situations with which they are confronted. They cannot afford to second-guess their illicit practices to obtain food or other much needed supplies. For them, there is logic in their every move, which is still dictated by the convictions imposed by their parents. Righteously they believe evil must be punished, and they are sympathetic towards those who, like them, are trying not to perish. Disturbingly comfortable with killing animals, their pragmatism allows them to see murder simultaneously as a benevolent act of kindness for those unfit to keep going, and as the ultimate tactic to protect themselves. After mastering all sorts of emotional and bodily deprivation, their only weakness becomes their dependence on each other. András and László Gyémánt give equally courageous performances entirely removing any expression of joy from their faces. It is a saddening bravery that propels them to behave in such a cold-hearted manner. Contained, vigilant, and ferocious against the world these young actors defy their age and truly astound in their first screen appearance.
With an immaculate production the film is visually captivating. Photographing a bleak rural charm Christian Berger constructs an elegant depiction of a terrible time that in spite of the turmoil around, emphasizes the boys’ experiences via their drawings, souvenirs, and mismatched pictures which becomes their collective, truthful, memory. Deserving of even greater accolade is director János Szász who elicits spectacularly raw performances out of his entire cast, and whose vision creates a film that provides powerful and honest insight into a passage of history which has been revised repeatedly. As a world-class filmmaker he seeks to explore humanity through his art, delivering cinematic philosophy. Savagely beautiful, The Notebook can be summarized as a darkly poetic period piece about children for adults.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...
Survival is defined as the ability to remain alive and persevere through all the obstacles that can halt one’ existence. It could be said that most of the endeavors an individual undertakes are solely to prolong life. During wartime, this task becomes exponentially more difficult and requires the skills, both mental and physical, to carry on as inhumane atrocities become quotidian occurrences. Perhaps the most horrendous case in history is the social decay that prevailed during World War II, more prominently in countries under Nazi control, which completely dehumanized those targeted by the Reich as well as the bystanders forced to reevaluate the value of a person’s life, rendering many as subhuman. In his ambitious and terrific film The Notebook, director János Szász approaches this instinctive resilience by way of an unbreakable bond between two twin brothers and their assertiveness to persist and overcome the extreme austerity they encounter.
Considering his twin sons a conspicuous liability, a Hungarian soldier and his wife agree they must hide them with their grandmother in a remote village on the outskirts of the country. Before parting with them, the father entrusts them with a mission, he provides them with a notebook in which they must write an account of everything that happens to them. Taking this assignment to heart, the boys (played by András Gyémánt and László Gyémánt) begin to write about their experiences, not only in text but also with visuals, as a scrapbook of sorts. Spiteful due to her daughter’s abandonment, the grandmother (Piroska Molnár) refuses to care for the children. She refers to them as bastards, hits them, and treats them cruelly even as they work for her around her farm. The twins understand that hardships will only worsen and they must be prepared. As instructed by their mother, they keep their studies up aided by an old encyclopedia and a bible, yet, the greatest lessons come from their terrible fate. Crushing any trace of childish mentality or oversensitivity by means of pain, the boys begin to train themselves to bear incredible suffering. They fight each other to increase their tolerance to physical pain, they starve to be ready when winter hits, and they deny themselves any emotion towards their mother’s letters.
Along the way they meet varied characters that test their compassion, and others who shatter any remains of innocence: a friendly Nazi officer that ends up saving their lives, to a Jewish shoemaker who generously gives them boots, a sexually deviant priest, a disfigured thief, and a flirtatious xenophobic woman. Eventually the malevolent grandmother comprehends the pair are the only reason she is still alive and warms up to them, although she never verbalizes it. When the boys’ parents finally return for them, they are not the same. Their perception of family is now less romanticized. Having their fraternal love as only source of reassurance, their parents have now become a burden in their goal to survive.
In what is the most psychologically intriguing element of the story, the twins undergo a self-imposed journey to desensitize themselves and by doing so their moral convictions must adapt to the situations with which they are confronted. They cannot afford to second-guess their illicit practices to obtain food or other much needed supplies. For them, there is logic in their every move, which is still dictated by the convictions imposed by their parents. Righteously they believe evil must be punished, and they are sympathetic towards those who, like them, are trying not to perish. Disturbingly comfortable with killing animals, their pragmatism allows them to see murder simultaneously as a benevolent act of kindness for those unfit to keep going, and as the ultimate tactic to protect themselves. After mastering all sorts of emotional and bodily deprivation, their only weakness becomes their dependence on each other. András and László Gyémánt give equally courageous performances entirely removing any expression of joy from their faces. It is a saddening bravery that propels them to behave in such a cold-hearted manner. Contained, vigilant, and ferocious against the world these young actors defy their age and truly astound in their first screen appearance.
With an immaculate production the film is visually captivating. Photographing a bleak rural charm Christian Berger constructs an elegant depiction of a terrible time that in spite of the turmoil around, emphasizes the boys’ experiences via their drawings, souvenirs, and mismatched pictures which becomes their collective, truthful, memory. Deserving of even greater accolade is director János Szász who elicits spectacularly raw performances out of his entire cast, and whose vision creates a film that provides powerful and honest insight into a passage of history which has been revised repeatedly. As a world-class filmmaker he seeks to explore humanity through his art, delivering cinematic philosophy. Savagely beautiful, The Notebook can be summarized as a darkly poetic period piece about children for adults.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...
- 12/3/2013
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Chicago – The 2013 49th Annual Chicago International Film Festival and Michael Kutza – Festival Founder and Artistic Director – announced the competition award winners at a ceremony in the ‘W’ Hotel City Center on October 18th. The Gold Hugo for Best Film went to “My Sweet Pepper Land,” from Iraq, France and Germany.
Kutza made the announcements along with Mimi Plauché, Head of Programming, Programmers Alex Kopecky and Penny Bartlett, plus members of the various juries who worked evaluating the competition. The W Hotel City Center is near Chicago’s financial district and the Sears (now Willis) Tower. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.
International Feature Film Competition
’My Sweet Pepper Land’
Photo Credit: © Chicago International Film Festival
The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “My Sweet Pepper Land” (Iraq/France/Germany), directed by Hiner Saleem
The Silver Hugo – Special Jury Prize: “The Verdict...
Kutza made the announcements along with Mimi Plauché, Head of Programming, Programmers Alex Kopecky and Penny Bartlett, plus members of the various juries who worked evaluating the competition. The W Hotel City Center is near Chicago’s financial district and the Sears (now Willis) Tower. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.
International Feature Film Competition
’My Sweet Pepper Land’
Photo Credit: © Chicago International Film Festival
The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “My Sweet Pepper Land” (Iraq/France/Germany), directed by Hiner Saleem
The Silver Hugo – Special Jury Prize: “The Verdict...
- 10/20/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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