Though based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1958 crime novella The Pledge (which was also the source for Sean Penn’s 2001 film of the same name), György Fehér’s Twilight plays more like an existential horror film than a noir or police procedural. Indeed, the ins and outs of the investigation into the mysterious murder of a child are of little concern to Fehér, who crafts a mood piece that’s keyed to the aura of dread and despair that grips a community in the wake of this and other similar murders.
Set in a small, remote Hungarian town surrounded by vast hills and dense thickets of trees, Twilight exists in a sort of metaphorical purgatory. Throughout, the film’s spare black-and-white images, deliberate pacing, and glacial camera movements, coupled with the near-constant rumbling ambiance that dominates the soundtrack, brilliantly conjure how an unseen but ubiquitous evil haunts the townsfolk. Long tracking...
Set in a small, remote Hungarian town surrounded by vast hills and dense thickets of trees, Twilight exists in a sort of metaphorical purgatory. Throughout, the film’s spare black-and-white images, deliberate pacing, and glacial camera movements, coupled with the near-constant rumbling ambiance that dominates the soundtrack, brilliantly conjure how an unseen but ubiquitous evil haunts the townsfolk. Long tracking...
- 2/15/2024
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”
— John Cage
Sátántangó’s first few minutes provide an unsubtle hint that we’re in for a slow and gloomy slog, though you would expect that from any film by Béla Tarr. The Hungarian master, currently retired (he insists), is an international star who never set out to make a crowd-pleaser, even if his primary characters are pleasure-seeking proles at large in the swampy ruins of the post-Communist Eastern European Bloc.
Sátántangó commences with a wide, stagnant shot over a muddy paddock, a congregation of cows rooted in puddles in the near distance. The cows are themselves pretty interesting to observe, especially as one or two appear aware of the camera. They saunter toward the edges of the frame, and the camera bestirs itself,...
— John Cage
Sátántangó’s first few minutes provide an unsubtle hint that we’re in for a slow and gloomy slog, though you would expect that from any film by Béla Tarr. The Hungarian master, currently retired (he insists), is an international star who never set out to make a crowd-pleaser, even if his primary characters are pleasure-seeking proles at large in the swampy ruins of the post-Communist Eastern European Bloc.
Sátántangó commences with a wide, stagnant shot over a muddy paddock, a congregation of cows rooted in puddles in the near distance. The cows are themselves pretty interesting to observe, especially as one or two appear aware of the camera. They saunter toward the edges of the frame, and the camera bestirs itself,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Jessica Almereyda
- The Film Stage
Though based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1958 crime novella The Pledge (which was also the source for Sean Penn’s 2001 film of the same name), György Fehér’s Twilight plays more like an existential horror film than a noir or police procedural. Indeed, the ins and outs of the investigation into the mysterious murder of a child are of little concern to Fehér, who crafts a mood piece that’s keyed to the aura of dread and despair that grips a community in the wake of this and other similar murders.
Set in a small, remote Hungarian town surrounded by vast hills and dense thickets of trees, Twilight exists in a sort of metaphorical purgatory. Throughout, the film’s spare black-and-white images, deliberate pacing, and glacial camera movements, coupled with the near-constant rumbling ambiance that dominates the soundtrack, brilliantly conjure how an unseen but ubiquitous evil haunts the townsfolk. Long tracking...
Set in a small, remote Hungarian town surrounded by vast hills and dense thickets of trees, Twilight exists in a sort of metaphorical purgatory. Throughout, the film’s spare black-and-white images, deliberate pacing, and glacial camera movements, coupled with the near-constant rumbling ambiance that dominates the soundtrack, brilliantly conjure how an unseen but ubiquitous evil haunts the townsfolk. Long tracking...
- 6/20/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
The Stationmaster (István Znamenák) and Suba Mihály (Miklós B. Székely) prepare to take their mysterious Jewish visitors into town. Photo credit: Lenke Szilagyi / Menemsha Films
Hungarian director Ferenc Torok’s haunting, visually striking black-and-white drama 1945 takes place in a small Hungarian village shortly after the end of World War II. The well-acted drama unfolds a tale of guilt and greed among the villagers following the arrival of two strangers, a drama that reveals what was done to the Jewish population by ordinary citizens across Europe during the war.
The film played the 2017 St. Louis International Film Festival but returns for a longer theatrical run at Landmarks’ Plaza Frontenac Cinema starting Friday, April 6, 2018
The arrival of two men dressed in black at a rural Hungarian train station grips the residents of the neighboring town with fear and guilt. The two men appear to be Orthodox Jews but no one recognizes them...
Hungarian director Ferenc Torok’s haunting, visually striking black-and-white drama 1945 takes place in a small Hungarian village shortly after the end of World War II. The well-acted drama unfolds a tale of guilt and greed among the villagers following the arrival of two strangers, a drama that reveals what was done to the Jewish population by ordinary citizens across Europe during the war.
The film played the 2017 St. Louis International Film Festival but returns for a longer theatrical run at Landmarks’ Plaza Frontenac Cinema starting Friday, April 6, 2018
The arrival of two men dressed in black at a rural Hungarian train station grips the residents of the neighboring town with fear and guilt. The two men appear to be Orthodox Jews but no one recognizes them...
- 4/6/2018
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
★★★☆☆ "Who are we living with? What kind of people?" asks a character in the midst of Bela Tarr's 1984 feature Autumn Almanac, but this being Bela Tarr the complaint of awkward cohabitation takes on a further metaphysical twist: "Are we even alive?" Hédi (Hédi Temessy) is an elderly middle class dowager, living in a sprawling apartment of crumbling grandeur. Attended by her nurse and confidante Anna (Erika Bodnár) and Anna's lover the morose Miklós (Miklós Székely B.), Hédi is plagued by her wastrel son János (János Dezsi) with whom she has a toxic aggressive relationship; and wooed by a possible suitor in the former teacher Tibor (Pál Hetényi). As each character jockeys for position, a repressed aggression simmers.
- 3/15/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Next movie we’re going to talk about is one with title Tender Son – The Frankenstein Project directed by Kornél Mundruczó.
This movie has been added to the main competition selection, which was announced April 15, next to Wang Xiaoshuai and his Chongqing Blues.
So, this year at Cannes Film Festival, very interesting projects, and one of them is definitely this Frankenstein story by young and highly talented Hungarian filmmaker Mundruczó.
What we know about this one? It is the story “of how a 19 year-old (Rudolf Frecska) attending a boarding school moves back to live with his family. His attempts to win the love of his near ones prove more difficult than he thought and it all ends in disaster.”
The whole project is actually based on the novel by Mary Shelley and the play scripted in 2007 by Mundruczó.
The film is something that we could already describe as a re-interpretation...
This movie has been added to the main competition selection, which was announced April 15, next to Wang Xiaoshuai and his Chongqing Blues.
So, this year at Cannes Film Festival, very interesting projects, and one of them is definitely this Frankenstein story by young and highly talented Hungarian filmmaker Mundruczó.
What we know about this one? It is the story “of how a 19 year-old (Rudolf Frecska) attending a boarding school moves back to live with his family. His attempts to win the love of his near ones prove more difficult than he thought and it all ends in disaster.”
The whole project is actually based on the novel by Mary Shelley and the play scripted in 2007 by Mundruczó.
The film is something that we could already describe as a re-interpretation...
- 4/29/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
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