Lajos Kovács Movies

Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who watch over the city of Berlin. They don't have harps or wings (well, they usually don't have wings) and they prefer overcoats to gossamer gowns. But they can travel unseen through the city, listening to people's thoughts, watching their actions and studying their lives. While they can make their presence felt in small ways, only children and other angels can see them. They spend their days serenely observing, unable to interact with people, and they feel neither pain nor joy. One day, Damiel finds his way into a circus and sees Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a high-wire artist, practicing her act; he is immediately smitten. After the owners of the circus tell the company that the show is out of money and must disband, Marion sinks into a funk, shuffling back to her trailer to ponder what to do next. As he watches her, Damiel makes a decision: he wants to be human, and he wants to be with Marion, to lift her spirits and, if need be, to share her pain. Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire is a remarkable modern fairy tale about the nature of being alive. The angels witness the gamut of human emotions, and they experience the luxury of simple pleasures (even a cup of coffee and a cigarette) as ones who've never known them. From the angels' viewpoint, Berlin is seen in gorgeous black-and-white -- strikingly beautiful but unreal; when they join the humans, the image shifts to rough but natural-looking color, and the waltz-like grace of the angels' drift through the city changes to a harsher rhythm. Peter Falk appears as himself, revealing a secret that we may not have known about the man who played Columbo, and there's also a brief but powerful appearance by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Wings of Desire hinges on the intangible and elusive, and it builds something beautiful from those qualities. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This is a two-part historical film exploring themes of how one carries forward one's political idealism in the face of overwhelming military force. In the first part, set on the battlefront in 1944, two soldiers are being court-martialed by the losing Hungarian Army for having survived when their entire unit was wiped out. When the Germans complete their conquest, they decide that they will save these two men for their purposes. Atal Bojtar discovers the kinds of nefarious deeds they want him for and escapes, only to be pursued relentlessly by the Nazis. Twelve years later, in 1956, Part Two explores the armed conflict between the Hungarians who want independence from the Soviet sphere of influence, and those who don't, as Bojtar's son attempts to live up to his father's nonviolent ideals. Filled with gorgeously shot imagery, both films contain many skillfully staged battle and mob scenes but reportedly fall flat on the dramatic side, particularly when one or another character is called on to give a speech. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this chilling drama, the events which led up to a son's shooting murder of his abusive father, aided and abetted by his mother, are explored during a police interrogation. The boy's matter-of-fact response to the questions put to him has a cumulatively powerful effect. Earlier events are shown in sepia flashbacks, the present is shown in black and white. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The post office building of a new housing development has almost been completed, but it will be a few weeks before it officially opens. In this crime caper comedy, a few schemers and con-artists wonder what would happen if they "opened" it a week early? A lot of money comes and goes by mail; they could make a killing. They decide to try to pull off this scheme, little suspecting that in the course of it, they will have to cope with a would-be bomber, a postal strike, and a blackmail attempt, as well as the police and the authorities. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Wim Wenders revisits his masterpiece Der Himmel Uber Berlin in this film which picks up several years after the original left off. Cassiel (Otto Sander) is an angel who watches over the lives of the people of recently reunified Berlin with Raphaella (Nastassja Kinski). Damiel (Bruno Ganz), Cassiel's former partner who opted to return to the land of the living in the first film, now lives happily as a pizza chef with the woman he loved and married, circus performer Marion (Solveig Dommartin). While angels are forbidden to directly intervene in the lives of humans, Cassiel impulsively breaks this rule when a little girl falls from the balcony of an apartment block, and he swoops down to catch her. Suddenly made flesh and blood, Cassiel has earned the enmity of Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), a sort of overseer of the angels on the physical plane. Emit makes it his business to make things difficult for Cassiel now that he's living among the humans, and after a period of alcoholism and imprisonment, Cassiel finds himself working for gangster Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz), who distributes weapons and pornography on the black market. However, Cassiel has a change of heart and decides to destroy Tony's stockpile in a bid to make the world a better place. Peter Falk, who played himself in Der Himmel Uber Berlin, makes a return appearance when a gallery shows the sketches that he was making in the first film; rock singer Lou Reed and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This feather-weight Hungarian comedy was helmed by popular local comedian Robert Koltai. It is the story of a hammy actor who tries to force his son to become a thespian too. To please his over enthusiastic father the son dutifully attends drama school. He falls in love with beautiful Eva and after they graduate they and their pal Geza begin working in a rural theater with a nest of has-beens and bad actors. It is there that the son begins to understand his father a little better. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Soft, sensual cinematography abounds in this erotic look back at a gypsy girl's coming of age. It is based on a popular novel penned by famed Hungarian novelist Peter Esterhazy using the pseudonym Lili Csokonai and represents 'Lili's" autobiography. In the film, Lili has lost her legs in a terrible accident. An extraordinary beauty, she spends a miserable wheelchair-bound life stranded in her apartment and forced to satisfy her husband's sexual whims. It is only through her diary that she finds comfort. Therein, she remembers her one great love, a dashing salesman who introduced the adolescent girl to all of life's sensual pleasures. Like a spoiled housecat, Lili comes to expect, demand that her lover Marton continue to satisfy her unending thirst for comfort, passion and love. When she discovers that he is engage to another she refuses to let go. Afterward she learns about another type of love with her beautiful lesbian neighbor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Outwardly Janos and Erno Witman seem like typical middle class teens, but beneath their facades of normalcy, the two are deeply disturbed and obsessed with the nature of sex and death. Leaving much to the viewer's imagination, this horrific and highly atmospheric tale begins in a small Hungarian town in 1914. The brothers live a happy, well-adjusted life until their father, a tax inspector, suddenly dies in terribly painful manner. After the funeral, Janos and Erno pay a nighttime visit to his grave and begin reflecting on death. They spy a big owl which they capture. On the way home, they find a dog tied up outside a bar and steal it. Six months pass. When their biology teacher dissects a frog in class one day, the two renew their fascination with death and begin experimenting on their pets -- their experimentation occurs off-camera. Their lives become even stranger when Janos becomes obsessed with a young prostitute. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The fortunes of a family of Hungarian Jews are followed over the course of nearly 150 years in this epic historical drama, with leading man Ralph Fiennes playing three different roles. The story begins in the late 18th century, as Aaron and Josefa Sonnenschein (the name means "Sunshine" in German) die in an explosion while making an herb tonic for sale in their village. Their son Emmanuel (David de Keyser), the only survivor of the tragedy, travels to Budapest, carrying the recipe for the medicine with him. He's able to parlay the formula into a successful business, and Emmanuel and his wife Rose (Miriam Margolyes) raise two sons, Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes), who becomes a successful lawyer, and hot-tempered Gustave (James Frain). The Sonnenscheins also make room in their home for Valerie (Jennifer Ehle), but Emmanuel and Rose become furious when Valerie becomes romantically involved with Ignatz. Eventually, Valerie and Ignatz raise two children, Istvan (Mark Strong) and Adam (Ralph Fiennes), and the family changes its name to Sors in hopes of avoiding the anti-Semitism sweeping Europe. In time, Adam goes so far as to convert to Catholicism, and he marries another Catholic, Hannah (Molly Parker). He soon begins an affair with his brother's wife, Greta (Rachel Weisz), who is unable to persuade Adam to leave as the Nazis rise to power. Adam and Hannah have only one son, Ivan, who is fated to watch his father die in a concentration camp; as Ivan grows to adulthood (now played by Ralph Fiennes), he swears revenge on the forces of fascism and embraces Communism. Ivan throws in his lot with Communist leader Andor Knorr (William Hurt), but a liaison with the wife of a party official (Deborah Kara Unger) leads Ivan to tragic consequences and a jail term. In time, Valarie and Gustave are reunited at the family's estate as the only two members of the Sonnenschein clan who survive to witness the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Hungarian director Istvan Szabo co-wrote Sunshine's original screenplay in collaboration with American playwright Israel Horovitz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Gabor Dettre's drama Felhö a Gangesz Felett (Cloud Above the River Ganges) is about a relationship that springs from heroin withdrawal. Juli (Ildiko Toth) has abandoned her husband and children when she meets Andras (Zoltan Ternyak) who convinces her to help him survive his attempt to quit his heroin addiction cold turkey. As she cares for him, the pair fall in love. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Hungarian director Tamas Toth's action film Rinaldo tells the story of a group of people defending an apartment building from at attack by a street gang. Rezso (Janos Ban) and Mazsola (Peter Scherer) are former co-workers who, after losing their jobs when the factory closes, end up opposing each other when Mazsola leads a band of people to stand up against the street gang led by Rezso. The title character is a circus performer and knife-throwing specialist who makes an important contribution to the battle. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide