Piroska Molnar Movies
- 2007
At some indeterminate point in a dystopian near-future, Bogdanski Dolina - a grubby, unkempt Central European hamlet - buckles beneath the weight of misery. Armed barbarians guard the wire fences that ensconce the town, while the residents must contend with abusive draconian laws. The town governance is abetted, in its attempts to maintain order, by a TB camp - home to not only tuberculosis victims but also a host of societal rejects. But lives are about to grow a thousand times more unbearable with the arrival of a bizarre, totalitarian band of clerical oppressors, known as 'The Vicarage,' comprised almost entirely of onetime guards from the village, who sport cassocks and phony beards attached with cords. Thus begins Hungarian director Zoltan Kamondi's quaternary feature, the sociopolitical allegory Dolina. Kamondi sets up a half dozen crisscrossing subplots that unfurl in and around the village. In one, resident Colentina Dunka (Piroska Molnar), the lesbian proprietress of a combination brothel, hair-salon and bath house, schemes to drive one of her employees-cum-romantic pursuits away from her husband; she also plans and plots to orchestrate the return of her son, Petrus (Milan Vajda) from a lengthy exile. At about the same time, a new arrival turns up in town, Gabriel Ventuza (Adriano Giannini) and attempts to exhume the corpse his father, but encounters only frustration and hardship. Meanwhile, a dispute erupts between two Vicarage members, a small band of locals plots to spring an unjustly interred member of the TB facility from that hellhole, and reunite him with his Armenian relatives, and least two members of the community struggle with irreciprocal affections. And uniting everything is fear of the massive, oppressive impact that the new governing body will make on the tiny hamlet. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adriano Giannini, Piroska Molnar, (more)
- 2006
A virtuous man discovers just how deep corruption can run, and how easy one can succumb to it, in this satiric comedy-drama from Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo. When a scandal brings down the attorney general of a small but prosperous community near Budapest, Istvan Kopjass (Sandor Csanyi), a man with a clear record and impeccable ethics, is invited to take over the position. While his wife Lina (Ildiko Toth) is wary of the appointment and wants to avoid uprooting their children, Istvan is convinced he can make positive change and he accepts. However, only a few days after taking his new position, Istvan becomes aware of how challenging his job can be when the town's mayor (Oleg Tabakov) persuades him to abandon plans for a new tax schedule that would lower assessments for the poor. Istvan also discovers nearly everyone he meets claims to be some sort of distant relative, and as a consequence wants some sort of special consideration that he often finds difficult to refuse. Istvan's downfall begins when a less than honest banker (Karoly Eperjes) arranges for him to get a special deal on a large house in exchange for some favors, and things get much worse when the banker's attractive wife (Erika Marozsan) uses her charms to lure Istvan into some serious white collar crime. Rokonok (aka Relatives) was adapted from the novel of the same name by Zsigmond Moricz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sándor Csányi, Ildiko Toth, (more)
- 2005
- NR
A strange young man takes his family's long tradition of bizarre behavior to new heights (or depths) in this wildly perverse and explicit horror comedy from director György Pálfi. Kálmán Balatony (Gergo Trócsányi) is a grotesquely fat gentleman who was fathered by an angry hospital orderly getting revenge on his boss by having sex with his wife. While the embittered husband killed the orderly when he was caught in the act, Kálmán was born as a result of the wife's indiscretion, and when he grows to adulthood he earns a modest fame as a competitive eating champion. At an eating contest, Kálmán meets a female competitor, the freakish Gizi (Adél Stanczel), and the two fall in love. Kálmán and Gizi marry, and she gives birth to a son, Lajos (Marc Bischoff), who grows up to be just as skinny as his parents are fat. Lajos studies taxidermy and takes up preserving animals as a career when he isn't busy taking care of his elderly and increasingly massive father. Lajos also raises a handful of unusually large house cats, and when they begin to turn on their master, Lajos uses his talents to keep them around the house without the danger of their bothering anyone. Taxidermia received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Csaba Czene, Gergo Trócsányi, (more)
- 2003
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
- Starring:
- Janos Ban, Peter Scherer, (more)
- 2001
A man discovers it doesn't hurt to have a cool car if he wants to meet women in this comedy. Janos (Andras Stohl) is young, good-looking, and a well-to-do businessman, but his love life is not making him very happy; the only women he meets are vacuous and more interested in his money than in himself. One afternoon, Janos is tooling around in his new BMW when he accidentally runs into Vera (Eszter Ondori), an attractive young woman on rollerblades. Immediately smitten, Janos tells her that he's just won a special contest in which she's won the use of the car for a month -- and he'll be her driver. Very happily she accepts the offer, but before long, Janos realizes that he'll have to do a lot of double talking to conceal his real identity and explain his absence to his staff. Meseauto is a remake of the 1935 Hungarian feature of the same title, which starred Ella Gombaszogi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andras Stohl, Eszter Onodi, (more)
- 1999
Kinai vedelem is based on the true story of Peter György, a Romanian of Hungarian descent from Transylvania, who spent twenty-two years imprisoned in a Gulag near the Ussuri river. During the border conflict between the Soviet Union and China, he was liberated by the Chinese and allowed to return home. He arrived in Transylvania with a roll of dollar bills and a piece of radioactive uranium; he had been instructed to inform the Romanians (and the representatives of the Ceausescu regime maneuvering between Moscow and Beijing) about the horrors of his imprisonment, as well as the economic and atomic potential of the People's Republic of China. The authorities were highly suspicious of him, and began following him everywhere. His money and papers were confiscated, and he became a victim of bureaucracy, a worse humiliation than what he had already endured. The film, which reflects the absurd realities of Romania under the regime of Ceausescu, is the first co-production between Hungary and Romania. It was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Gyory, Ivan Dengyei, (more)
- 1997
This nostalgic and upbeat Hungarian comedy presents a tasty slice of life taken from a Budapest suburb on a summer's day in 1962. The day begins as the neighborhood Communist Party Chief, Uncle Simon, reads the day's official announcements over a loudspeaker. He then reads the winning lottery numbers. The rest of the film centers on a series of eccentric characters as they go about their daily business. ~ Sandra Brennan, 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
- 1991
Despite superficial similarities to Naked Lunch, including a low-life and down-on-his-luck writer who experiences hallucinogenically surreal fantasies and confuses them for reality, this experimental, black-and-white drama is not based on William S. Burroughs' classic beat novel. In this movie, the writer earns cash by working at a day job at a factory, and when this isn't enough he takes on his buddy and buddy's girlfriend as roommates. In addition, he sometimes puts on impromptu poetry performances on busy street corners to raise a little cash. Despite some strikingly European fantasies (including one featuring Nubian priests and a Wagnerian heroine), vodka is the fuel this writer uses to keep his creative juices flowing. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Vallai, Juli Basti, (more)
