The Lord's Lantern in Budapest

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Movie
German title The Lord's Lantern in Budapest
Original title Nekem lámpást adott kezembe az úr Pesten
Country of production Hungary
original language Hungarian
Publishing year 1999
length 103 minutes
Rod
Director Miklós Jancsó
script Gyula Hernádi
Ferenc Grunwalsky
Miklós Jancsó
music György Ferenczi
camera Ferenc Grunwalsky
cut Zsuzsa Csákány
occupation

With The Lord's Lantern in Budapest in 1998, the then 77-year-old Hungarian film director Miklós Jancsó surprised after a long break. The original title Nekem lámpást adott kezembe az úr Pesten literally means "God gave me a lantern in Budapest".

action

Instead of a storyline that extends from beginning to end, Jancsó offers a series of episodes that themselves have no story arc. He talks about the winners and the losers of the turnaround. The characters Kapa and Pepe appear in all parts, talking, singing and dancing a lot and loudly. In the beginning and in the end they are grave diggers in a secluded Budapest cemetery, and occasionally also very wealthy privatization winners or criminals. Jancsó and his inseparable screenwriter Gyula Hernádi portray themselves, two old men sitting on a park bench. Both the gravedigger and the filmmaker are killed repeatedly and reappear in the next story.

Background and criticism

The flick was in Budapest cinemas from January 1999 with two copies continuously until the summer in the program. He went unnoticed at the Berlinale of the same year. The German Art Academy screened the film in 1999 on the occasion of the Budapest-Berlin city meeting. The “confusing, ambitious clown game” was not well received by the forum audience. He was better received by the German press. For epd Film , Jancsó showed himself "for the first time as a master of coarse comedy and fine irony" . Jancsó spins a surreal world, "furiously absurd" , and aims at confusing the viewer, said Jan Kixmüler in the Tagesspiegel . The Hungarian had staged his own death, the work was an obituary for himself, a "cryptic dream whose meaning it is better not to think about." Claus Löser also said in the film service that Jancsó wanted to deal with his future whereabouts, the cemetery, familiarize yourself in a separate cinematic obituary. The film is “wistful, angry, wise and ironic” and does not allow any compromise: “Either you get involved with it and indulge in its mysteriousness, or you stay outside.” In der Welt , Olaf Möller said the film was “A number revue in the best sense of the word” and has “something of a liberating all-round blow” for the filmmaker. The film, made with little money, demonstrates "that great cinema is a question of attitude and not of means."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jörg Taszman: Comedies instead of Tristesse In: epd Film July 1999, pp. 12–13
  2. ↑ Hans-Jörg Rother: The Academy of Arts invites you to a discussion starting this evening In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 9, 1999
  3. ↑ Jan Kixmüller: How do you film an obituary for yourself? Miklós Jancsós tried it In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 19, 2000
  4. ↑ Claus Löser: God's lantern in Budapest In: film-dienst No. 4/2000
  5. ^ Olaf Möller: Sitcom: The Hungarian variant for intellectuals In: Die Welt , January 20, 2000