'Szerelem' is the story of the persistence of love between two people, one of whom is imprisoned under the post war communist regime in Hungary (in this case the Kadar regime, but all the phases of Soviet engendered Hungarian communism were much of a muchness in terms of the arbitrary and unaccountable injustices which were visited on decent people - although Rakosi is the one who I would most like to bring back from the dead for all of us to punch in the face eternally until the end of time).
The story is told very simply and with an extraordinary visual elegance. At first the viewer perhaps believes the relationship between the mother and Luca to be that of one of mother and daughter, but gradually it becomes clear that Luca is, in fact, the wife of political prisoner Janos, the favourite son of the dying mother, and has the objective of sustaining the life of her husband's mother with tales of his burgeoning prosperity in the US, in the (ultimately) forlorn hope that he will be released before she dies.
By minimising the appearance of the authorities to just that which is required by the narrative, Makk allows us to concentrate on the minute detail of love, loss and recovery. I found the eventual encounter of the couple to have been handled perfectly in its mix of the banal and the passionate.
This film is held in high regard by many, but especially those who suffered under communism, and rightly so. I almost deducted one point because I think the flashbacks could have been held a tad longer, but I think that would have been a bit churlish of me.
The story is told very simply and with an extraordinary visual elegance. At first the viewer perhaps believes the relationship between the mother and Luca to be that of one of mother and daughter, but gradually it becomes clear that Luca is, in fact, the wife of political prisoner Janos, the favourite son of the dying mother, and has the objective of sustaining the life of her husband's mother with tales of his burgeoning prosperity in the US, in the (ultimately) forlorn hope that he will be released before she dies.
By minimising the appearance of the authorities to just that which is required by the narrative, Makk allows us to concentrate on the minute detail of love, loss and recovery. I found the eventual encounter of the couple to have been handled perfectly in its mix of the banal and the passionate.
This film is held in high regard by many, but especially those who suffered under communism, and rightly so. I almost deducted one point because I think the flashbacks could have been held a tad longer, but I think that would have been a bit churlish of me.