Your Account   Help   |   Your Basket: Empty   Checkout

 

Coming Soon      Bestsellers      Recommended      Special Offers      MovieMail Latest

MovieMailMovieMail HomeSin City

Recommended Love

Karoly Makk, 1971

Star Review

Long unavailable anywhere, this is a very welcome release of Karoly Makk’s Cannes’ jury prize-winning film of 1971 in a beautiful print.

Set during a time of state repression, the love in the film takes place in a core of absence. Janos has been taken and imprisoned; his wife Luca eases his bedridden mother’s last days by making believe that he is in America, heading for golden success with a film he is making. She fabricates the letters telling his news and then listens impassively while his mother reads her the details.

Lovingly filmed in black and white, the film’s concentration on textures and details – of clocks and postcards, photographs and fabrics, often shown as brief flashes of memories, is reminiscent of someone like Svankmajer or Borowczyk. When this is added to the conviction with which the women play their relationship out, their teasing dialogue capturing well the mixture of affection and resentment that typifies such situations, then you have a very special film. At one point Luca rubs and then tenderly holds her mother-in-law’s hands. It is a touch that neither prefers, but linked by the absence of Janos, it is what they have. This is love composed of fortitude and forbearance, restraint and fear, nobility in the face of injustice; the belief that you may meet again, the acceptance that you may not.

The last third of the film concentrates on Janos’s life – his dreams, his hopes and his fears. It is a profound section of film. At times it has the delicacy of a pictorial essay; a collaboration between John Berger and Jean Mohr perhaps. Put this on; you’ll be inextricably hooked before the credits have finished.

Graeme Hobbs on 5th July 2005

View all 222 of Graeme Hobbs’s reviews

[ Show Film Description ]

Reviews

Share your thoughts - write a review

Film Stills - click to view in full


View all 2 film stills in full size

Related Collections

Related Articles

Related Genres

£7.99

RRP: £12.99
Save £5.00 (38%)
Free Delivery on UK Orders!

Availability
This product should be despatched within 7-10 days. Delivery times

DVD Extras
  • Digitally re-mastered with restored image and sound, approved by the Director
  • New introduction to film from director Karoly Makk
  • Booklet essay on film
  • New and improved English subtitle translation.
Film Details

Director

Karoly Makk

Year

1971

Country

Europe, Eastern Europe

Cast

Lila Darvas, Mari Torocsik

Technical Details

Certificate

PG

Length

84 mins

Label

2RUN

Format

DVD B&W

Region

0

Aspect

1.77:1 Anamorphic widescreen

Cat No

SECONDRUN004

Main Language

Hungarian

Subtitles

English

Customers who liked this also liked...

1982, Karoly Makk, DVD

 

£7.99

RRP: £12.99
Save £5.00

Another Way

A tender and tragic love story of two women, set against the backdrop of the fall-out from the 1956 Hungarian...

More Details

 

See Alsos -
Handpicked recommendations of related films

MovieMail Latest

 

 

 

Films by Karoly Makk

 

 

 

 

 RSS Feeds | Podcast | October Film Catalogue | Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Browse our Film catalogue: DVDs by Genre | DVDs by Country | DVDs by Director | DVDs by Actor

New Releases | Bestsellers | Recommended | Special Offers | MovieMail Latest

 

 

MovieMail use a Thawte certificate to ensure secure transmission of your information. Click here for for information HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99.9% of hacker crime.

 

 

For questions or assistance, call us on (+44) 0844 776 0900 or email enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

© 1996-2008 MovieMail Ltd., All Rights Reserved. Find out more about MovieMail