Gloomy Sunday
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B
One of
the ugliest sides of the Nazi purge happened in Budapest, where they were particularly
interested in clearing Jews and any other objectors to their growing power out
of there. Though we have had many films
on the Holocaust and WWII, there is still unfinished business to be dealt with
in regarding Budapest and Rolf Schübel’s Gloomy Sunday (Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod, 1999) is one of the films to go there.
The film
begins with a simple visit to a popular restaurant in Budapest long after WWII
ended and German reunification has long since occurred, it becomes a place with
many memories. A pair of older couples
dines and tries to enjoy themselves, they enjoy their meal and each other’s
company and everything goes along well.
Then, one of them decides to request for the pianist to play Gloomy Sunday, a beautiful composition
that became marred in a darker use and one of the husbands has a heart attack
and dies at his table. Why? The film flashes back and tells us the whole
story.
The
restaurant has been around since prior to the “ethnic cleansing” of WWII and
unlike similar U.S. landmarks has long survived. As the Nazi’s gain power, one young lady named
Ilona (Erika Marozsan) has an affair with one man, then two, then two at the
same time, then maybe a third named Hans (Ben Becker), who happens to be part
of the new SS. Her love triangle
disintegrates into a loyalty-challenging situation as the worst kicks in. The men (Joachim Kròl, Stefano Dionisi) have
their own conflicts, but all cannot compare to the murderous purge ahead.
Hans is
portrayed as somewhat indecisive in a realistic way, but is slowly turning into
something he needs to reconsider.
Misogynists will easily try to dump all the troubles on Ilona’s actions,
but the film is not that shallow and with Nazis on the rise, that is a telling
oversimplification from smaller minds.
Fortunately, the screenplay by Ruth Toma and Schübel’s is a nuanced
adaptation of Nick Barkow’s novel The
Song Of The Gloomy Sunday and so much is done well in the film that you
just keep watching.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is nicely shot by cinematographer Edward
Klosinski, who has worked on the Decalogue
and Three Colors trilogy, as well as
some Tom Tykwer’s films and simply known how to shoot a film on film with
exceptional substance, form and depth.
The transfer here is so nice that we hope Warner will issue this in both
HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The Dolby Digital
German 5.1 mix is also pretty good for a dialogue-oriented film, with natural
sounding ambience and the presenting in various forms of the ever-important
title song. There are no extras, but the
film is worth your time and if you enjoy smart, mature foreign cinema, pick
this one up.
- Nicholas Sheffo
