Sunset (15.)
Directed by László Nemes.
Starring Juli Jakab, Vlad Ivanov, Evelin Dobos, Levente Molnár and Marcin Czarnik. In Hungarian with subtitles. 142 mins.
Nemes' remarkable first film, Holocaust drama Son of Saul, presented a period of history when civilisation had broken down. His second, set in Budapest in the long, dry, dusty summer of 1913, captures a civilisation on the brink of collapse. The Sunset is that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, about to be buried beneath the turmoil of the First World War. This is a grand and vibrant exploration of a seemingly strong and secure society that is riven by hidden conflict - in a hat shop.
Like Son of Saul, Sunset uses a highly subjective viewpoint. The focus on a single character isn't quite as tight here as it was in Saul, where the whole film was the title character's face, head or point of view. There's a little more breathing space here but the whole film is seen from the perspective of Irisz Leiter (Jakab) who arrives in Budapest looking for work in the city's most upmarket, prestigious milliner's, which still bears the names of her late parents who built it up before dying in a fire.
Here the technique is used to give Irisz's quest to find out the truth about her family an increasingly dreamlike quality that leaves the viewer unsure of what is meant to be real. Initially, the film seems to be a rather conventional mystery, a search for a hidden family truth but, as it goes on, an inexplicable menace takes over the narrative.
The film is slightly reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut but in some strange way it reminded me of another, very fine, Hungarian film, The Werchmeister Harmonies. In Bela Tarr's masterpiece, dark forces form around the body of a dead blue whale in a small Hungarian town and the film's impact is rooted in never quite knowing what is behind this disruption. It's a chilling vision of how disruptive beliefs can sweep through a society. Nemes' film tries to visualise the notion that civilisation is like an iceberg, the majority of it exists unseen under the water. This is the moment it comes to the surface.
Sunset is a fine technical achievement but not I think entirely convincing. Labyrinthian is the go-to word when describing the plot. Which it is. But it is also one of those a-stranger-returns-to-town-to-find-out-the-truth-of-what-happened-years-before plots where the stranger is constantly told to not to dig up the past because they'll not like what they find. Of course, they don't stop and, of course, they don't like what they find and you think well if only someone had just told them what had happened rather than fan the flames of her curiosity, all of this bother could've been avoided.
Directed by László Nemes.
Starring Juli Jakab, Vlad Ivanov, Evelin Dobos, Levente Molnár and Marcin Czarnik. In Hungarian with subtitles. 142 mins.
Nemes' remarkable first film, Holocaust drama Son of Saul, presented a period of history when civilisation had broken down. His second, set in Budapest in the long, dry, dusty summer of 1913, captures a civilisation on the brink of collapse. The Sunset is that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, about to be buried beneath the turmoil of the First World War. This is a grand and vibrant exploration of a seemingly strong and secure society that is riven by hidden conflict - in a hat shop.
Like Son of Saul, Sunset uses a highly subjective viewpoint. The focus on a single character isn't quite as tight here as it was in Saul, where the whole film was the title character's face, head or point of view. There's a little more breathing space here but the whole film is seen from the perspective of Irisz Leiter (Jakab) who arrives in Budapest looking for work in the city's most upmarket, prestigious milliner's, which still bears the names of her late parents who built it up before dying in a fire.
Here the technique is used to give Irisz's quest to find out the truth about her family an increasingly dreamlike quality that leaves the viewer unsure of what is meant to be real. Initially, the film seems to be a rather conventional mystery, a search for a hidden family truth but, as it goes on, an inexplicable menace takes over the narrative.
The film is slightly reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut but in some strange way it reminded me of another, very fine, Hungarian film, The Werchmeister Harmonies. In Bela Tarr's masterpiece, dark forces form around the body of a dead blue whale in a small Hungarian town and the film's impact is rooted in never quite knowing what is behind this disruption. It's a chilling vision of how disruptive beliefs can sweep through a society. Nemes' film tries to visualise the notion that civilisation is like an iceberg, the majority of it exists unseen under the water. This is the moment it comes to the surface.
Sunset is a fine technical achievement but not I think entirely convincing. Labyrinthian is the go-to word when describing the plot. Which it is. But it is also one of those a-stranger-returns-to-town-to-find-out-the-truth-of-what-happened-years-before plots where the stranger is constantly told to not to dig up the past because they'll not like what they find. Of course, they don't stop and, of course, they don't like what they find and you think well if only someone had just told them what had happened rather than fan the flames of her curiosity, all of this bother could've been avoided.
