Guest Co-Hosts: Samm Deighan, Spencer ParsonsSamm Deighan and Spencer Parsons join Mike to look at the 1976 Hungarian film from Zoltán Fábri, The Fifth Seal / Az ötödik pecsét (1976). Based on the novel by Ferenc Sánta, the film is a deceptively simple story of five men who meet and drink in an urban watering hole in World War II. One of them proposes a bit of a thought experiment which colors the world of his companions and eventually manifests in real life thanks to the fascists, the Arrow Cross Party, running the place.
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Music:
Opening Theme - George Vukan
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Fábri is fabulous. He adapted a lot of literary works, mostly novels and created many classic Hungarian films. A bit similar to "The Fifth Seal" is "Isten hozta, Őrnagy Úr" (The Tóth Family), which is an adaptation of a play by István Örkény, who mostly wrote absurd pieces (like Sławomir Mrożek). That film is also an exploration of the way how power/tyranny and obedience distorts and destroys one's personality and leads to total catastrophy. He also worked as an actor in few films, most notably in "A tanú" (The Witness/1969)from Péter Bacsó, which is an absolutely hilarious, but also scary analysis of Hungarian communism. One of my favourites and one of the pinnacles of Hungarian experimental and absurd cinema is András Jeles's "Álombrigád"(Dream Brigade).
ReplyDeleteFábri is fabulous. He adapted a lot of literary works, mostly novels. He created many classic Hungarian films. A bit similar to "The Fifth Seal" is "Isten hozta, Őrnagy Úr" (The Tóth Family), which is an adaptation of a play by István Örkény, who mostly wrote absurd pieces (like Sławomir Mrożek). That film is also an exploration of the way how power and tyranny and obediance distorts and destroys one's personality.
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