A diocesan priest endures isolation and chastisement by the prince of darkness even as his mystical experiences bring him closer to God. Seeing the world shrouded in darkness he agonizes to understand the incompleteness of his visions and why the fallen world has been abandoned by God, even as he struggles fruitlessly to help others overcome the allure of evil.
Tag: 1970s
Varjú is a truck driver. One day he picks up a stunning hitchhiker who is on her way to Balatonboglár. Later on he cannot get the girl out of his mind, he spends all his time searching for the blonde hitchhiker while Zsozsó, who is madly in love, is at home waiting for him. The Kangaroo was one of the big hits of the 1970s, racking up a cinema audience of more than 1.8 million. It perfectly encapsulates the restless mood of the seventies when young people dressed in tight denim and listening to rock ‘n’ roll longed for all things western.
István Szabó reveals a lesser-known side to the public in this work, which strings together eight shorts of Budapest into a single movie. In the piece interpretable as a declaration of love addressed to the capital there are numerous motifs that are also to be found woven through the director’s major features, first and foremost Szerelmesfilm (Love Film), Tűzoltó utca 25. (25 Fireman’s Street) and Budapesti mesék (Budapest Tales). Besides allowing the viewer to marvel at the cityscape from 50 years ago in a series of fast-moving images, the film is still primarily about Szabó’s Budapest: his observations, his impressions, his imagination.
Jazz singer and writer George Melly takes a nostalgic trip through front rooms and backstreets as he reminiscences about the influence of Dada and Surrealism on his early life.
A terrified young man is running away from the mysterious man in a black coat and a bowler hat. He finds the asylum in the nearby mental hospital, where the doctor takes care of him. However, one cannot escape from his fate.
While travelling through the countryside, a young man named Ivan is drawn to an isolated castle feared by the local villagers. There he encounters Sibila, a mysterious young widow, and becomes captivated by her as well as by the strange music echoing through the castle. But as he grows increasingly entangled in her world, he begins to realize that the place harbors a dark secret.
Prison discharges Hans into the inhospitable freedom of a cold Munich winter. As a stranger, he strays through familiar streets and bars and tries unsuccessfully to contact old friends. Eventually he takes a plane to a friend in Berlin, fleeing from invisible enemies, on the way to an indeterminate destination.
A send-up of the bawdy life of Romantic composer/piano virtuoso Franz Liszt, with ubiquitous phallic imagery and a good portion of the film devoted to Liszt’s “friendship” with fellow composer Richard Wagner. The film begins during the time when Franz would give piano performance to a crowd of shrieking teenage fans while maintaining affairs with his (multiple!) mistresses. He eventually seeks Princess Carolyne of St. Petersburg (at her invitation), elopes, and, after their marriage is forbidden by the Pope, he embraces the monastic life as an abbé.