I haven’t read it! I should. Olivia Laing’s book for me is the ultimate text on loneliness but it’s good to have more books about it. There are so many books about how to COMBAT it but not nearly enough books ABOUT it.
I'm so glad you mentioned that movie in a thread that had very little to do with it, thank you!
What struck me the most is how she seems to be suspended in time - when the movie opened on the bright green and blue I wondered if I was watching something from the 70s, and her hairstyle and red lipstick make her look from a few decades before that. Except for the iPhones, everything else is stuck in time: the hospital, the cars, the vinyls records. It's like she's so untethered she's floating through time. I found that very unsettling, and it really reinforced the "is this all in her head" of it all. At the end, when she's wearing her white jacket, with her hair up, all of sudden she looks more of this earth and of this time, and it felt so strange to me, that it had all become so real and so grounded - their relationship, and her self.
I think I can't see mirror scenes without thinking of you, now. :)
I love your comments about the colors - and also her LOOK. I agree: the slight throwback look to her hair and makeup - definitely adds to the sense of timelessness - or like time is blending together. We're not completely in the current day - she's detached from the Right Now.
I also love the final image of that GIGANTIC speaker hovering in the air above her. (are the windows even big enough to let that thing in?) I am not sure what it symbolizes - it could be many different things. She's alert now? She can "receive" things and "reflect" them back - or maybe ... one needs a speaker that gigantic in order to "hear" the messages you need to hear? and that HE gave it to her.
I love how ... it's not one thing. somehow she's joined the world again. and I believe they will "be togehter" for "an unknown period of time' and that's all we can ask for, because Now is the only thing. you just can't project forward. You can't count on it. the way she was COUNTING on it in the beginning.
That speaker... I might have seen too many people get crushed by Stuff Falling in movies but I find it slighty threatening, especially because, like you said, I don't see how it will fit through her window. He seems gentle but he's also big, and his decisions have so much weight on her life (even his absence of decision). With two kids, a literary career, his body... he's big and she's so small. Maybe it takes a bit more preparation not to crush her completely, even though like Mutecypher noted she can hold her own. I left them thinking there would be together for an unknown period of time but I was slightly worried for her, still.
I am definitely still concerned for her but I think by the end she was embracing the mystery of it more. Maybe it won’t work out and maybe that will be okay.
The book Seek You that was reviewed in one of the links that Sheila gave... it's about loneliness. The author points out that loneliness can make people hyper vigilant, looking for offense or misinterpreting the regular ebb and flow of attention in a relationship as abandonment. Loneliness can make you do things that keep you lonely - it can even be contagious. So Màrta (and Jànos) may have to fight through that to keep their relationship going. I'm hopeful that they can make things work since they both took the step of attempting the relationship. But habits are definitely hard to break.
Olivia Laing writes about this in her book The Lonely City. Loneliness makes you paranoid - and also like you’re literally starving while everyone else gets to eat. I wrote about that book in my piece on What Happened Was - which I discussed here in this piece as well. One of the great films about the warping properties of loneliness.
Thanks for writing about this movie. I was mesmerized from the first shots by Natasa Stork's Gene Tierney coloration. And how she was shot from one side of her face and then the other as she spoke about her reason for coming to Budapest. I wasn't certain then that she was talking to someone else. Was she talking to herself, was her personality fragmented? That was my initial reaction. And as you mentioned, I was also struck by all the beautiful blues around her then and when she was waiting on the bridge.
Later, after her collapse and her decision not to fly back to the US, it felt like some gigantic "tell" that she was in her hotel room with those rich browns all around her. And then she looked in her notebook/calender and we see that Màrta's notes about meeting Jànos were in green - the color of the Liberty Bridge. I didn't notice that detail until I'd done a rewatch. The ugly apartment she chose was all beige/brown and green - in addition to having the view of the bridge. She wears a blue blouse and a green skirt when she comes to his book release. The first time Jànos waits for her, after she has stalked him to his home, Màrta sees him framed in green iron around the gate and against a beige and brown wall. They do their sidewalk dance against backgrounds of those colors. When he comes to her apartment for the first time, she isn't wearing anything blue. That didn't feel like giving up something of herself, more like being open. For me, the mixing of "her" blue, with the green of the Liberty Bridge, with the beige/brown that I associated with some sort of domesticity/satisfaction was a fascinating mixture, and a beautiful sort of integration. I had a harder time coming up with a consistent theme for the beige/brown. I didn't associate any colors with Alex, perhaps intentionally done to indicate his peripheral place in Màrta's mind? Maybe the flash of yellow when he drove her home for the first time - though I didn't associate that with him, more with her warning herself.
I liked that her friend Helen "saved" her by finding Jànos' overcoat and phone. Even with such a pared down life, a friend was valuable.
I also liked that the purchases associated with Jànos were too big to easily fit into her apartment. The couch only got through the door with some of the legs removed and the speakers required pulleys and had to come in through the window. Open up your life, Màrta!
I admired Màrta that she played with Jànos even though she was obsessed with him. She left the book release with Alex to tease him, she made him wait both with their hours-long walk on opposite sides of the street, and told him she had a dinner party. "Not so fast, mf-er, you made me doubt myself and now you've got some work to do."
I was surprised that the therapist used Rorschach test, I had thought they were considered unreliable. But in visiting the Wikipedia page on them, I see that this has been revised and they are thought to have some diagnostic value. Forensic psychologist use them and 80% of grad schools in psych use them. Learned something new. Also, from a photo of the guy, Dr. Rorschach was one good looking guy. Shame he died so young, probably from a burst appendix.
This was just an excellent film, so glad to have heard about it. And I was really drawn in by your great essay here.
I watched again. The green pen is so distinct - the same color as the green meet-up bridge! I also noticed how sparingly the color red was used - I think she has a red umbrella - then there is red lipstick - on her - on the young woman who turns out to be the daughter - but other than that, the colors are cool and dreamy. I noticed a mirroring shot I didn't notice before. Early on, she leaves her hotel room - presumably to move into her new apartment - and as she walks, the camera suddenly switches to her pov as she walks down what is a curved hallway - so she can't see far ahead of her. The colors are yellows and browns. Later, when Alex is driving her home from their dinner (I think?) the car enters a short tunnel - and it's the same shot - the tunnel is gently curving, the same color scheme - the same sensation of not knowing what's right ahead of you. And one last thing I totally missed the first time around: In one of the sessions with the psychiatrist, she says that "this" - meaning making someone up in your head, entering a dream you created - happened to her once before. She doesn't elaborate.
Yes, the only other time I recall red was when Màrta was following Jànos and he hit his brake lights. That was a very Saul Leiter moment.
When the camera, and Marta's gaze, were lingering on the young woman's face I imagined that Màrta was thinking Jànos must have a "type" that he was attracted to, or Vertigo-like, molded his lovers into. Red lipstick and a certain curve of the eyebrow.
Hearing that she had done "this" before helped sustain the ambivalence, the dreaminess and dislocation. I was also intrigued by the exchange with Helen where she joked that she hoped "Henry" did not sell the kids, and then later made a comment about Henry maybe taking Marta back. Was Henry Helen's husband - my first thought with the joke about the kids. Or was Henry the ex-boyfriend? Or was Henry the second friend and upset at Marta for leaving the US without a warning? More questions created than answered.
And what was going on early in the film when Marta was riding the bus and she saw Janos waiting on the bridge? But then couldn't find him? Hallucination? Longing? Was he actually there and feeling guilty (before we learn that he really did remember her)?
I was struck that we don't directly see how Janos knew to go to the Liberty Bridge to wait for Marta, at the end. In fact, his confession outside her door and his time waiting on the bridge were the only times we didn't see things from Marta's viewpoint or observe her. Did Marta come out and hit him with a frying pan a few times and then tell him to wait on the bridge to see if she'd show up? Were we switched to his viewpoint since he was now the one in doubt? Is the viewer the Observer of Doubt and Longing?
I really loved this film!
Have you seen any of her others? I did a quick peak on IMDb and I didn't see anything about what she might do next.
and I LOVE the title. I think it's the answer to all the questions. what we are seeing are two people preparing to be together for an unknown period of time. It takes a lot when you're middle-aged, lol. You have to GET READY and CLEAR THE DECK and get your self together. anyway, that's how I take it. It's a hopeful film, I think - not depressing, although sometimes melancholy. I love how the director managed the tone!
Her first film is called Tuesday I think - but I haven't seen it. It's also not available - I mean, maybe on some illegal Russian streaming site you could find it. I'm so glad I caught this one and now I can look forward to whatever she does next.
One of the things I love is how she often shows someone seeing someone else - and we don't SEE what they're looking at. Like Janos on the bridge - he looks and looks and looks until finally - you can tell he sees her. His whole face changes and softens. but we never SEE her. the scene ends. I think the next scene is when the speaker is being hoisted into her building. So ... they're seeing each other, but still separated - at least by the camera.
Marta was riding the bus and she saw Janos waiting on the bridge? - when I first moved to New York City I was so madly in love with someone - whom I left behind 0- it was over - that I thought I was losing my mind. and one day I legit saw him on the street. I ran at him. shocked. like: "why aren't you in Milwaukee??? what are you DOING here?" but before I got to him I saw that it was - of course - not him at all.
It's like your inner world is literally projected out into the real world. which is one way of describing madness. "merely" madness, like Rosalind says. :).
later made a comment about Henry maybe taking Marta back. ... I thought that Henry might have been the hot-shot neurosurgeon who hired her. "take her back" meaning - she could get her job back. that's how I put it together anyway. So Helen was married to Marta's boss - which also speaks to the smallness of Marta's world - that her best friend was her boss' wife. ALSO, we never see Helen LEAVE. she's just not there anymore. The things you would expect to see - a goodbye hug at the airport, whatever - just isn't there. the connecting links are lost.
// Jànos must have a "type" that he was attracted to, or Vertigo-like, molded his lovers into. // Yes! and she is so devastated when that same girl says "oh you mean my dad?" I think she's devastated because she realizes how much she was making up in her head - that this nice fresh-faced girl was cast - in Marta's mind - as a red-lipsticked seductress, a rival.
Henry is Helen's husband AND Marta's boss - that makes the most sense. It's a wonder I can make my way through human relationships. ;-)
//It takes a lot when you're middle-aged, lol.//. Preach it, sister.
I agree that the movie is hopeful. I would like to think that they have a good relationship. I'm of a mind that the next serious one I get into will not involve moving in together. Having two separate spaces, but comfortable for time together, seems like an age-appropriate way to arrange things. I wonder what purchases Màrta will make for Jànos' place to make her stays there more to her liking.
Janos' place looked very comfy and lived-in and lively. Kind of hard to picture Marta there - and where would she put her new speaker? IN the back yard?? but maybe this whole process is about her "preparing" to be ready to enter a wider world - more relationships, more people in it.
Yeah, I don't really see Màrta requiring anything that Jànos doesn't have. And she's apparently good with children, so I don't think it should be a problem for her to integrate with the family.
Maybe she can introduce Alex to Jànos' college-age daughter. Or maybe not.
I'd like to hope that Marta opens up to more relationships. It seems like her coworkers had started respecting her, after she got the diagnosis of the tumor in the vertibra correct. Jànos clearly had a social life, she could bootstrap from that.
These are amazing observations. the colors!! I did not notice the green pen - and didn't notice the colors as a "scheme" (beyond the psychiatrist's blue walls) - but I think you're right. I want to watch it again now and see what else I pick up on.
I wonder if the browns/beige was reality and the blues were the dream. Or not the dream - but ... the world of the emotions and feelings.
and great catch on those purchases not being able to fit through the doors in the apartment. lol!! I also loved the symbolic resonance (heh) of the speakers themselves - the speakers hanging in the air - so powerful - way too powerful maybe for her small weird little apartment. It's almost like he was hoisting a satellite dish up there - something that could pick up signals from deep space. Just hovering there over them. I don't think the symbol is nailed down into a specific meaning - but I did like thinking about all thje different possible meanings.
I also loved hjow she was totally wrong about the younger woman always with Drexler - how she kept focusing on those bright red lips, and ... interpreting her a certain way. she got it ** all wrong ** and it's just crushing. But ... it was so real. You try to "put together" the signs but you are in WAY too heightened a state to be considered a reliable witness ... to your own life!
The actor playing Drexler is really interesting - he's actually a famous director in Hungary - theatre director, founder of theatre companies - very influential and successful. they reached out to him for Drexler because they wanted someone with name recognition - someone with that weight of fame behind him - and the actress had only done small parts thus far, no leads. so the status differential is present - just through the casting. They weren't even sure Viktor Bodo would even do it - it was a long shot. But he said Yes. I'm so glad he did. I thought he was perfect. Kind of hard to read. Which id perfect.
Interesting about the Rorschach - thanks for the intel.
I'm so glad you saw it. It's a rarity - I saw some people I REALLY respect posting about it on Instagram and I was like "..... this sounds right up my alley...." and it really was!
I like your comment about browns/beige being reality. That seems better than my thought.
I did some reading on the Liberty Bridge. It's the shortest one in Budapest across the Danube. Was destroyed by the Nazis when they retreated, but built back shortly after WWII. I couldn't find anything that gave significance to Màrta's preference for the Pest side, perhaps something understood by Hungarians and not in the touristy sources I found about it.
I was curious about Hungarian names being given as last name then first name. Apparently that's a consequence of Hungarian not being a Romance language.
I only have a tiny knowledge of classical music, so I had to piece together from the snatches of lyrics that the child prodigy Jànos was singing Schubert's <em>The Trout</em>. I didn't recognize it from the tune alone. Looking up the lyrics I see that the singer was admiring a "moody" trout and hoping that it would escape the angler trying to catch it. The singer thinks the trout won't be caught as long as the water is clear, but the fisherman muddies up the water and catches the trout (not my experience with trout fishing, but...). The singer thinks the trout has been betrayed. It's intriguing to consider who in the movie might be the singer, who might be the angler, and who the trout.
Just like with the colors, lots of ambiguous signals to tease the view with possible meanings. If you do watch again, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts.
it's such a pretty bridge. Also, let's hear it for the location scouting - finding that apartment (or at least that WINDOW where you can see the bridge)! that teeny glimpse! I can see the director knocking on doors in some random apartment building - Hi, we need your window - can we have it for an afternoon?
I was struck by the resentment people had for her returning from the US. "Why the hell would you come back here and work at a hospital where the doctors need to bring their own toilet paper?" I realize I have a very particular view here, but Hungarian physicists were incredible in the 30's to 60's. Seems like something to be proud of. Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Wigner, von Karman, and the demigod John von Neumann. Most of them attended the same high school in Budapest. I know they did much of their work in the US, but they went out and were brilliant. They were called The Martians. People who know both said von Neumann was smarter than Einstein. Maybe the folks left behind viewed them leaving before the Nazis and the Communists as a sign of their intelligence. Decades of communists really f'up a society.
Yes - I saw an inferiority complex - that those who "got out" thought they were better - OR even more so, an internalized same-ness - imposed by Socialist control - everyone the same, tall poppy syndrome, etc. - so someone comes back and sets herself apart from the group, and everyone resents it. I thought that whole aspect was fascinating - it's like the doctor interviewing her was like "why do you want to work HERE?"
Did you know there is a small park named for Elvis in Budapest? and that he was named an honorary citizen of Hungary (in 2011!!) - because he was vocal in his support for the Hungarian people during the Soviet squashing of their 1956 revolution? He was on the Ed Sullivan Show, his final appearance - he sang "Peace in the Valley" - and dedicated it to the people rising up in Hungary - and he asked Ed Sullivan to provide an address where people could send relief/aid to the people of Hungary - which Sullivan did.
I followed the link to the review of Kristen Radtke's Seek You in The Atlantic, and then picked up the book. It's incredible! Have you read it?
I haven’t read it! I should. Olivia Laing’s book for me is the ultimate text on loneliness but it’s good to have more books about it. There are so many books about how to COMBAT it but not nearly enough books ABOUT it.
I'm so glad you mentioned that movie in a thread that had very little to do with it, thank you!
What struck me the most is how she seems to be suspended in time - when the movie opened on the bright green and blue I wondered if I was watching something from the 70s, and her hairstyle and red lipstick make her look from a few decades before that. Except for the iPhones, everything else is stuck in time: the hospital, the cars, the vinyls records. It's like she's so untethered she's floating through time. I found that very unsettling, and it really reinforced the "is this all in her head" of it all. At the end, when she's wearing her white jacket, with her hair up, all of sudden she looks more of this earth and of this time, and it felt so strange to me, that it had all become so real and so grounded - their relationship, and her self.
I think I can't see mirror scenes without thinking of you, now. :)
I love your comments about the colors - and also her LOOK. I agree: the slight throwback look to her hair and makeup - definitely adds to the sense of timelessness - or like time is blending together. We're not completely in the current day - she's detached from the Right Now.
I also love the final image of that GIGANTIC speaker hovering in the air above her. (are the windows even big enough to let that thing in?) I am not sure what it symbolizes - it could be many different things. She's alert now? She can "receive" things and "reflect" them back - or maybe ... one needs a speaker that gigantic in order to "hear" the messages you need to hear? and that HE gave it to her.
I love how ... it's not one thing. somehow she's joined the world again. and I believe they will "be togehter" for "an unknown period of time' and that's all we can ask for, because Now is the only thing. you just can't project forward. You can't count on it. the way she was COUNTING on it in the beginning.
so glad you watched!
That speaker... I might have seen too many people get crushed by Stuff Falling in movies but I find it slighty threatening, especially because, like you said, I don't see how it will fit through her window. He seems gentle but he's also big, and his decisions have so much weight on her life (even his absence of decision). With two kids, a literary career, his body... he's big and she's so small. Maybe it takes a bit more preparation not to crush her completely, even though like Mutecypher noted she can hold her own. I left them thinking there would be together for an unknown period of time but I was slightly worried for her, still.
I am definitely still concerned for her but I think by the end she was embracing the mystery of it more. Maybe it won’t work out and maybe that will be okay.
//he's big and she's so small.//
The book Seek You that was reviewed in one of the links that Sheila gave... it's about loneliness. The author points out that loneliness can make people hyper vigilant, looking for offense or misinterpreting the regular ebb and flow of attention in a relationship as abandonment. Loneliness can make you do things that keep you lonely - it can even be contagious. So Màrta (and Jànos) may have to fight through that to keep their relationship going. I'm hopeful that they can make things work since they both took the step of attempting the relationship. But habits are definitely hard to break.
Olivia Laing writes about this in her book The Lonely City. Loneliness makes you paranoid - and also like you’re literally starving while everyone else gets to eat. I wrote about that book in my piece on What Happened Was - which I discussed here in this piece as well. One of the great films about the warping properties of loneliness.
Thanks for writing about this movie. I was mesmerized from the first shots by Natasa Stork's Gene Tierney coloration. And how she was shot from one side of her face and then the other as she spoke about her reason for coming to Budapest. I wasn't certain then that she was talking to someone else. Was she talking to herself, was her personality fragmented? That was my initial reaction. And as you mentioned, I was also struck by all the beautiful blues around her then and when she was waiting on the bridge.
Later, after her collapse and her decision not to fly back to the US, it felt like some gigantic "tell" that she was in her hotel room with those rich browns all around her. And then she looked in her notebook/calender and we see that Màrta's notes about meeting Jànos were in green - the color of the Liberty Bridge. I didn't notice that detail until I'd done a rewatch. The ugly apartment she chose was all beige/brown and green - in addition to having the view of the bridge. She wears a blue blouse and a green skirt when she comes to his book release. The first time Jànos waits for her, after she has stalked him to his home, Màrta sees him framed in green iron around the gate and against a beige and brown wall. They do their sidewalk dance against backgrounds of those colors. When he comes to her apartment for the first time, she isn't wearing anything blue. That didn't feel like giving up something of herself, more like being open. For me, the mixing of "her" blue, with the green of the Liberty Bridge, with the beige/brown that I associated with some sort of domesticity/satisfaction was a fascinating mixture, and a beautiful sort of integration. I had a harder time coming up with a consistent theme for the beige/brown. I didn't associate any colors with Alex, perhaps intentionally done to indicate his peripheral place in Màrta's mind? Maybe the flash of yellow when he drove her home for the first time - though I didn't associate that with him, more with her warning herself.
I liked that her friend Helen "saved" her by finding Jànos' overcoat and phone. Even with such a pared down life, a friend was valuable.
I also liked that the purchases associated with Jànos were too big to easily fit into her apartment. The couch only got through the door with some of the legs removed and the speakers required pulleys and had to come in through the window. Open up your life, Màrta!
I admired Màrta that she played with Jànos even though she was obsessed with him. She left the book release with Alex to tease him, she made him wait both with their hours-long walk on opposite sides of the street, and told him she had a dinner party. "Not so fast, mf-er, you made me doubt myself and now you've got some work to do."
I was surprised that the therapist used Rorschach test, I had thought they were considered unreliable. But in visiting the Wikipedia page on them, I see that this has been revised and they are thought to have some diagnostic value. Forensic psychologist use them and 80% of grad schools in psych use them. Learned something new. Also, from a photo of the guy, Dr. Rorschach was one good looking guy. Shame he died so young, probably from a burst appendix.
This was just an excellent film, so glad to have heard about it. And I was really drawn in by your great essay here.
I watched again. The green pen is so distinct - the same color as the green meet-up bridge! I also noticed how sparingly the color red was used - I think she has a red umbrella - then there is red lipstick - on her - on the young woman who turns out to be the daughter - but other than that, the colors are cool and dreamy. I noticed a mirroring shot I didn't notice before. Early on, she leaves her hotel room - presumably to move into her new apartment - and as she walks, the camera suddenly switches to her pov as she walks down what is a curved hallway - so she can't see far ahead of her. The colors are yellows and browns. Later, when Alex is driving her home from their dinner (I think?) the car enters a short tunnel - and it's the same shot - the tunnel is gently curving, the same color scheme - the same sensation of not knowing what's right ahead of you. And one last thing I totally missed the first time around: In one of the sessions with the psychiatrist, she says that "this" - meaning making someone up in your head, entering a dream you created - happened to her once before. She doesn't elaborate.
Yes, the only other time I recall red was when Màrta was following Jànos and he hit his brake lights. That was a very Saul Leiter moment.
When the camera, and Marta's gaze, were lingering on the young woman's face I imagined that Màrta was thinking Jànos must have a "type" that he was attracted to, or Vertigo-like, molded his lovers into. Red lipstick and a certain curve of the eyebrow.
Hearing that she had done "this" before helped sustain the ambivalence, the dreaminess and dislocation. I was also intrigued by the exchange with Helen where she joked that she hoped "Henry" did not sell the kids, and then later made a comment about Henry maybe taking Marta back. Was Henry Helen's husband - my first thought with the joke about the kids. Or was Henry the ex-boyfriend? Or was Henry the second friend and upset at Marta for leaving the US without a warning? More questions created than answered.
And what was going on early in the film when Marta was riding the bus and she saw Janos waiting on the bridge? But then couldn't find him? Hallucination? Longing? Was he actually there and feeling guilty (before we learn that he really did remember her)?
I was struck that we don't directly see how Janos knew to go to the Liberty Bridge to wait for Marta, at the end. In fact, his confession outside her door and his time waiting on the bridge were the only times we didn't see things from Marta's viewpoint or observe her. Did Marta come out and hit him with a frying pan a few times and then tell him to wait on the bridge to see if she'd show up? Were we switched to his viewpoint since he was now the one in doubt? Is the viewer the Observer of Doubt and Longing?
I really loved this film!
Have you seen any of her others? I did a quick peak on IMDb and I didn't see anything about what she might do next.
and I LOVE the title. I think it's the answer to all the questions. what we are seeing are two people preparing to be together for an unknown period of time. It takes a lot when you're middle-aged, lol. You have to GET READY and CLEAR THE DECK and get your self together. anyway, that's how I take it. It's a hopeful film, I think - not depressing, although sometimes melancholy. I love how the director managed the tone!
Her first film is called Tuesday I think - but I haven't seen it. It's also not available - I mean, maybe on some illegal Russian streaming site you could find it. I'm so glad I caught this one and now I can look forward to whatever she does next.
One of the things I love is how she often shows someone seeing someone else - and we don't SEE what they're looking at. Like Janos on the bridge - he looks and looks and looks until finally - you can tell he sees her. His whole face changes and softens. but we never SEE her. the scene ends. I think the next scene is when the speaker is being hoisted into her building. So ... they're seeing each other, but still separated - at least by the camera.
Marta was riding the bus and she saw Janos waiting on the bridge? - when I first moved to New York City I was so madly in love with someone - whom I left behind 0- it was over - that I thought I was losing my mind. and one day I legit saw him on the street. I ran at him. shocked. like: "why aren't you in Milwaukee??? what are you DOING here?" but before I got to him I saw that it was - of course - not him at all.
It's like your inner world is literally projected out into the real world. which is one way of describing madness. "merely" madness, like Rosalind says. :).
later made a comment about Henry maybe taking Marta back. ... I thought that Henry might have been the hot-shot neurosurgeon who hired her. "take her back" meaning - she could get her job back. that's how I put it together anyway. So Helen was married to Marta's boss - which also speaks to the smallness of Marta's world - that her best friend was her boss' wife. ALSO, we never see Helen LEAVE. she's just not there anymore. The things you would expect to see - a goodbye hug at the airport, whatever - just isn't there. the connecting links are lost.
// Jànos must have a "type" that he was attracted to, or Vertigo-like, molded his lovers into. // Yes! and she is so devastated when that same girl says "oh you mean my dad?" I think she's devastated because she realizes how much she was making up in her head - that this nice fresh-faced girl was cast - in Marta's mind - as a red-lipsticked seductress, a rival.
Henry is Helen's husband AND Marta's boss - that makes the most sense. It's a wonder I can make my way through human relationships. ;-)
//It takes a lot when you're middle-aged, lol.//. Preach it, sister.
I agree that the movie is hopeful. I would like to think that they have a good relationship. I'm of a mind that the next serious one I get into will not involve moving in together. Having two separate spaces, but comfortable for time together, seems like an age-appropriate way to arrange things. I wonder what purchases Màrta will make for Jànos' place to make her stays there more to her liking.
Separate spaces seem ideal to me.
Janos' place looked very comfy and lived-in and lively. Kind of hard to picture Marta there - and where would she put her new speaker? IN the back yard?? but maybe this whole process is about her "preparing" to be ready to enter a wider world - more relationships, more people in it.
And the title telling you literally what the movie was about... agreed.
Yeah, I don't really see Màrta requiring anything that Jànos doesn't have. And she's apparently good with children, so I don't think it should be a problem for her to integrate with the family.
Maybe she can introduce Alex to Jànos' college-age daughter. Or maybe not.
I'd like to hope that Marta opens up to more relationships. It seems like her coworkers had started respecting her, after she got the diagnosis of the tumor in the vertibra correct. Jànos clearly had a social life, she could bootstrap from that.
These are amazing observations. the colors!! I did not notice the green pen - and didn't notice the colors as a "scheme" (beyond the psychiatrist's blue walls) - but I think you're right. I want to watch it again now and see what else I pick up on.
I wonder if the browns/beige was reality and the blues were the dream. Or not the dream - but ... the world of the emotions and feelings.
and great catch on those purchases not being able to fit through the doors in the apartment. lol!! I also loved the symbolic resonance (heh) of the speakers themselves - the speakers hanging in the air - so powerful - way too powerful maybe for her small weird little apartment. It's almost like he was hoisting a satellite dish up there - something that could pick up signals from deep space. Just hovering there over them. I don't think the symbol is nailed down into a specific meaning - but I did like thinking about all thje different possible meanings.
I also loved hjow she was totally wrong about the younger woman always with Drexler - how she kept focusing on those bright red lips, and ... interpreting her a certain way. she got it ** all wrong ** and it's just crushing. But ... it was so real. You try to "put together" the signs but you are in WAY too heightened a state to be considered a reliable witness ... to your own life!
The actor playing Drexler is really interesting - he's actually a famous director in Hungary - theatre director, founder of theatre companies - very influential and successful. they reached out to him for Drexler because they wanted someone with name recognition - someone with that weight of fame behind him - and the actress had only done small parts thus far, no leads. so the status differential is present - just through the casting. They weren't even sure Viktor Bodo would even do it - it was a long shot. But he said Yes. I'm so glad he did. I thought he was perfect. Kind of hard to read. Which id perfect.
Interesting about the Rorschach - thanks for the intel.
I'm so glad you saw it. It's a rarity - I saw some people I REALLY respect posting about it on Instagram and I was like "..... this sounds right up my alley...." and it really was!
I like your comment about browns/beige being reality. That seems better than my thought.
I did some reading on the Liberty Bridge. It's the shortest one in Budapest across the Danube. Was destroyed by the Nazis when they retreated, but built back shortly after WWII. I couldn't find anything that gave significance to Màrta's preference for the Pest side, perhaps something understood by Hungarians and not in the touristy sources I found about it.
I was curious about Hungarian names being given as last name then first name. Apparently that's a consequence of Hungarian not being a Romance language.
I only have a tiny knowledge of classical music, so I had to piece together from the snatches of lyrics that the child prodigy Jànos was singing Schubert's <em>The Trout</em>. I didn't recognize it from the tune alone. Looking up the lyrics I see that the singer was admiring a "moody" trout and hoping that it would escape the angler trying to catch it. The singer thinks the trout won't be caught as long as the water is clear, but the fisherman muddies up the water and catches the trout (not my experience with trout fishing, but...). The singer thinks the trout has been betrayed. It's intriguing to consider who in the movie might be the singer, who might be the angler, and who the trout.
Just like with the colors, lots of ambiguous signals to tease the view with possible meanings. If you do watch again, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts.
it's such a pretty bridge. Also, let's hear it for the location scouting - finding that apartment (or at least that WINDOW where you can see the bridge)! that teeny glimpse! I can see the director knocking on doors in some random apartment building - Hi, we need your window - can we have it for an afternoon?
I was struck by the resentment people had for her returning from the US. "Why the hell would you come back here and work at a hospital where the doctors need to bring their own toilet paper?" I realize I have a very particular view here, but Hungarian physicists were incredible in the 30's to 60's. Seems like something to be proud of. Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Wigner, von Karman, and the demigod John von Neumann. Most of them attended the same high school in Budapest. I know they did much of their work in the US, but they went out and were brilliant. They were called The Martians. People who know both said von Neumann was smarter than Einstein. Maybe the folks left behind viewed them leaving before the Nazis and the Communists as a sign of their intelligence. Decades of communists really f'up a society.
Yes - I saw an inferiority complex - that those who "got out" thought they were better - OR even more so, an internalized same-ness - imposed by Socialist control - everyone the same, tall poppy syndrome, etc. - so someone comes back and sets herself apart from the group, and everyone resents it. I thought that whole aspect was fascinating - it's like the doctor interviewing her was like "why do you want to work HERE?"
Did you know there is a small park named for Elvis in Budapest? and that he was named an honorary citizen of Hungary (in 2011!!) - because he was vocal in his support for the Hungarian people during the Soviet squashing of their 1956 revolution? He was on the Ed Sullivan Show, his final appearance - he sang "Peace in the Valley" - and dedicated it to the people rising up in Hungary - and he asked Ed Sullivan to provide an address where people could send relief/aid to the people of Hungary - which Sullivan did.
Your boy Elvis had a good heart.