Un petit carrousel de fête

I'm from Hungary like this masterpiece. Zoltán Fábri the famous director made an excellent work about the story how the hard working people of Hungary lived in the '50s. Mari Törőcsik is still one of our favorite and talented actress and her partner here, Imre Soós was maybe our best actor at the time. He died young, so I think we must be proud of his energetic acting what he shows us in this movie. The most known words of this year was: "Land marries land". This tells us everything about the life in the middle '50s in our country. The cinematography is wonderful, also the classic Hungarian folk music which we can listen all the time. Maybe nowdays this kind of movie is too slow, and most of the teenagers smiles when they see this. But it was true, and very sad. Life is much more easier in 2008. But our grandparents lived there, and it was not easy. I've loved them telling about the past much more than everything, life is sometimes too short! I hold them in reverence! So, let's go and see this movie because it's a real unique art of cinema!

Oh boy and I thought my Event Horizon review will get me into trouble ... I watched this movie for the first time in 2006 at the International Film Festival in Berlin. Since this movie is 50 years old, it's clear that the pacing is slow. But that wasn't the main point that bothered me.

Because in general I also like slow paced films. It is just that the story as it was on screen didn't appeal to me. And that might only be me (I'm not here to offend any lover of this movie, especially as this was hailed by the critics in Cannes), because the movie itself is well executed. But I think there could be more here ... So if you like slow paced movies, which play in a village, where people live that might have more to them, than they initially show, than this might appeal to you (more than it did to me) (yes there is an underlying social commentary in there, but again it didn't leave me with an impression)

It is a wonderful film beautifully photographed throughout, at the open credits is a merry-go-round, suggestion of being at a circus but we would have thought it at a fairground and it is mesmerising. The lovely Mari Torocsik stars in a dazzling debut performance and although she seems in love with a farm worker but her father is adamant for her to marry with a wealthy man and it will mean that he will also be better off with 'the Law of the Land'. The story goes much as we imagine but then towards the end it is rather surprising. After the merry-go-round there is another one but there are also some amazing long incredible dancing pieces again with Mari. She was still a student and given the star role in this as she was only 20 and then in 1957 she went to work at the National Theatre in London. She worked at first in the theatre in UK and then TV and film in Hungary, when she was almost always there and made more than 170. I have only seen one of her other films and that was Miklos Jansco's, Silence and Cry (1968) which was beautiful but at the same time rather difficult to understand.

"Merry go Round" tells the timeless story of a young girl falling in love with another boy than chosen by her father. At this moment the same story in a slightly more complicated form is told in "The peasants" (2023, DK- and Hugh Welchman).

The merit of the film is however not in the story told, but in the way it is told. Only minimal use is made of spoken dialogue. Most of the emotions are conveyed by way of: facial expression / close ups; camera movements; framing (are characters close or distant in space).

The film is slow paced and every scene gets the time it requires. Every scenes has his function in the plot, but to me two scenes did stand out.

In the first place the opening scene about the yearly carnival. The scene makes very clear that this is THE happening of the year in the otherwise quiet village, the youth making fun and the adults doing business. It is also in this scene that Mari (the girl) falls in love with Maté (the boy) while at the same time Sandor approaches her father about a marriage, laying the foundation for the rest of the film.

In the second place the dancing scene. On the last wedding before that of Sandor and Mari, Maté graps his change and asks his love (still a free girl) to dance. She agrees, ... and how. Much to the chagrin of Sandor the dance becomes ever more passionate, the camera moving along with the dancing couple. This (long) scene reminded me of the famous dancing scene in "Il Gattopardo" (1963, Luchino Visconti).

"Merry go round" was directed by Zoltan Fabri. He is a famous Hungarian director, two of his films being nominated for an Academy Award for Best foreign language film. Until "Merry go round" he was unknown to me. Being a film buff for more than 30 years I still discover new directors every couple of years. That's how rich film history is!

The film was released in 1956, which was also the year of the Hungarian uprising against the Communist rule. This made me wonder if there was some relationship between political activism and artistic freedom in movies the way we saw it in the Czech new wave. This is however not the case. Politcally the film is very correct in the Communist sense.

Lover Maté works for a collective and is for self determinatian in marital affairs.

Sandor and the father of Mari are free farmers. They are very conservative in marital affairs. They treat a marriage as a business oppurtinity ("Land marries land").

Only Mari has real character development. Loyal to her father at first, she finally stands up for her freedom.

Only approximately ten years after "Merry go round" did Hungarian cinema become innovative with directors such as Miklos Jancso ("The red and the white", 1967) and Istvan Szabo ("Love film", 1970).

The character of Maté was played by actor Imre Soos. He passed away a year later, only 27 years old. The circumstances surrounding his dead (he was found together with his wife) indicated a double suicide, but conspiracy theories never went away completely.

Consistently ranked as one of Hungary's best films, this put its director Zoltan Fabri on the map. An outward-looking director whose style is influenced by French poetic realism, his films have a truly international appeal.

Despite it's being filmed during the dictatorship of the execrable Matyas Rakosi and set against the backdrop of the co-operatives versus the landowners there is mercifully no propogandist element here.

It is in fact a simple tale, beautifully told, of Mari, whose uncompromising father has arranged a marriage for her with fellow farmer Sandor based upon the age-old principle of "land marries land'. The only problem is that Mari loves and is loved by Biro, who just happens to belong to the co-operative. After a few confrontations, plenty of soul-searching, locking of horns and an axe-throwing(!) all ends happily and true love conquers all.

What is noteworthy about his piece is Fabri's marvellous mis-en-scene, especially his visual sense, pacing and skill with actors.

He was to work regularly with Mari Torocsik who is absolutely wondrous in this. She enjoyed a long career and left us only recently. The same cannot be said alas of Imre Soos who plays Biro, a splendid actor who took his own life at the age of 27. The performances of Bela Barsi and Adam Szirtes as father and rival suitor are strong.

Fabri has given us a film that touches the heart without being sentimental. It was entered at the Cannes Film Festival and just looking at the range and quality of the films in competition that year is awe-inspiring. A stark reminder of THEN and NOW!