Directed by:
Miklós JancsóScreenplay:
Gyula HernádiCinematography:
János KendeCast:
József Madaras, György Cserhalmi, Ferenc Kállai, Júlia Nyakó, Katarzyna Figura, Erzsi Cserhalmi, András Bálint, Miklós Székely B., András Kozák (more)Plots(1)
On the 60th birthday of teacher Kovács, in his country house, there is a reunion of his one-time pupils, now all celebrated men in their forties with domestic and foreign careers. The last one to arrive is professor Kamondi. His egalitarian principles conflict with those of the elitist Bardócz, and the company breaks up into parties. Showmen arrive, frightening and weird things happen. As night draws near, the party turns more and more into a mystery-play. And the omnipresent TV-screens make events appear from a different perspective. An allegation is made: Kamondi murdered the showmen and sank their corpses in his car into the lake. Colonel Antal and the lorry with the crane lift nothing else but a wreckage of the last world war out of the lake. The dead come to life again. In the end, everybody leaves the scene in the fog, accompanied by the tunes of the music played by the saxophone. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (1)
A Hungarian contribution to postmodern skepticism. If we consider Sparkling Winds a reference framework (as well as movies from the wasteland, which Season of Monsters resembles in its overall style), we can see the obvious bitterness and tragicomic irony over the waning of revolutionary (or mass) historical energy that propelled the "Heroes" of these films in both positive and negative senses. In the 80s, all that remains for us are individualistic "heroes," satisfied with the increase in the number of cars and TVs per capita, who gather at the site of their youth only to reminisce. However, this is not entirely the case because Jancsó did not give up on his efforts to search for a better society, and yet the characters embarrassingly striving for its fulfillment are merely tragicomic figures (the dispute between the scientist trying to achieve equality of people through brain operations and a philosopher advocating natural aristocratism with the elimination of the incapable...). The resulting skepticism about the possibility of achieving a just future is demonstrated on the content level by the constant relativization of all alternatives (spoiler: equality through the operation of people - murder - the idea of catastrophe as purification (everyone must die) - everyone dies X nothing happens – Jesus will come (!) and resurrects everyone - the philosopher and scientist kill Jesus - Jancsó concludes the film with a quote from the Bible, which is clearly meant sarcastically given the situation...). The relativism of the content thus spills over into formal relativism and eclecticism.
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