Budapest Noir

"Budapoest Noir" (2017 release from Hungary; 95 min.) brings the story of Zsigmond Gordon, a newspaper reporter on the crime beat, investigating a murder in 1936 Budapest. As the movie opens, a train rolls in the station, and we see the casket carrying the body of Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös. We then get to know Gordon, always looking for the next good crime story. At lunch, a mysterious woman asks him to light her cigarette (and manages to have him pay for lunch too). Then one day, he gets a tip that a woman is found dead in the streets. And wouldn't you know, it's the very same woman who had asked for a light. Turns out the woman is Jewish. As the country is readying for the Prime Minister's funeral, Gordon is determined to find the killer... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the big screen adaptation of the Hungarian bestseller, reportedly the first book noir in Hungary's history. I haven't read the book so I can't comment on how close the film stays to the book (or not). What I can comment on is that, regretfully, the movie lacks on all levels. The performers act in a wooden and very staged way, and you can practically hear the director yell "and... ACTION" at the beginning of each scene. I can't recall the last time i saw a film so incredibly awkward. As to the film's "noir" element, there's a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of cigarette smoking going on... That's about the only aspect I detected as being "noir". Bottom line: at no time did I feel ever any emotional connection or involvement with the movie's characters. I should care who murdered the young woman and wonder why she was murdered, but I simply didn't...

I recently saw this film at the 2019 Jewish & Israeli Film Festival here in Cincinnati, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. I have attended the festival for years, and most of the time the festival's planning committee does an excellent job in putting together a worthwhile and engaging program. Alas, on this one, they simply whiffed and I cannot recommend "Budapest Noir" to anyone in good conscience, sorry.

For starters, the book upon which the film iss based is creating atmosphere, historical authenticity, character building and suspenseful storytelling, all of which are, surprisingly, missing in the movie. Moreover, the actors play horribly, as if they'd lost forgotten metier, the cinematographer ditto. Hungary used to be driving on the left-hand side - the scenes in the underground are set accordingly but all the cars in the movie have wheels on the left - probably the rental of appropriate cars would've been to expensive. The noir aspect is depicted with tons of smoking and blighted courtyards and nothing else. The former issue may be correct in terms of authenticity, but the inner city of Budapest in the 1930s was still shiny and rather brand-vnew as it was mostly constructed 30 to 40 years upon. All the direct facade and ruined courtyards are the products of the neglect during the socialist period. As to the storyline, the movie is as suspenseful as a dead fish. All in all, it is a missed opportunity, the book, as well as other books in the series, is brilliant, and the movie is simply bad, despite the talented artists and actors, and the huge pile of money spent on it.

This is a well-written, and well-acted movie that is beautifully shot. The plot, set in Budapest right before WWII, is an intriguing crime story that unfolds over the course of the movie and keeps you engaged. I loved seeing the re-enactment of Budapest in the 1930's.

Having read the original novel, I was excited to see this movie since I loved the book.

As always, movies introduce changes from their original books to make the movie more "movie-like", and while I understand that it is difficult to have source material that is hundreds of pages long, something has got to go, I felt that they made some significant changes that lead to a worse movie.

In the books Zsigmond Gordon is quite a nice guy. He treats his girlfriend/wife all in all pretty well. In the movie he is portrayed as a bit of a chauvinist, a womanizer. The madame at the wh**e-house was also portrayed in a very different way, in the book she was sad and lonely. And so on, there are several changes like this.

Several of the locations felt very much like shot in a studio lot, which was also a shame since it would've given much more authenticity to the movie if more was shot in Budapest. But a difficult thing to pull of, logistically. The direction and acting was stiff at times, but all in all, not bad for a Hungarian movie with a limited budget.

In any case, a watchable movie!

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BUDAPEST NOIR is a murder mystery set in the German influenced Budapest of 1936 with Antisemitism on the rise. Superbly directed, acted, and beautifully lensed by master cinematographer Elemér Ragály. This is by far the Best Hungarian film of the year in what has been a very good year for Magyar cinema generally. In terms of genre the very first film of its kind from this country and an eye opener of the first order.

Zsigmond Gordon (Krisztián Kolovratnik) is a tough scruffy unflappable investigative reporter for the biggest newspaper in Budapest in Horthy's increasingly fascist dominated Hungary. He specializes in murder stories but when a nameless hooker he met the night before is found dead on Nagydiófautca ("Big Walnut Street", the heart of the whorehouse district) and he starts following up on this "fait divers" which nobody else cares about or wants to know about he finds he is on to something far bigger than he bargained for. The mystery moves into high gear when the corpus dilecti disappears from the morgue. The coroner blithely consumes his fresh lunch amidst the freshly dead bodies as Gordon plies him with questions. Meanwhile his ex-girlfriend, Krisztina (who once gave him a very hard time, returns from Germany and plunks herself down in his apartment. Gordon has reservations about resuming the relationship but she's a very good photographer and good pictures are just what he needs to back up his investigation. Dialogue: He: (Cynically) "What happened. Didja give another guy a hard time in Berlin?" She: (Dryly) "Yeah. His name was Adolph and he had a little mustache under his nose".

We soon gather that Krisztina's pictures showing the harassing of Jews got her into political hot water and she had to scram fast. However, she has received offers from Britain ... For the time being, since she is down and out, she is willing to work with Gordon to pay her way. The old flames are rekindled with a flourish of passion in a red dark room as critical pictures are developing and a rousing love scene ensues in the midst of all the noir anxiety and suspense. They are now a couple fighting crime together, but there is always an "if" in the air, because this is after all a film noir... with many surprising Jewish twists and turns (a Jewish ladies prayer book turns out to be a significant clue).

This remarkable movie has the feeling of a Dashiel Hammet or Mickey Spillane thriller time-warped to the mid thirties in central Europe. Kolovratnik is outstanding as the tenacious reporter. So scruffy and noir to the core that he seems to be mouthing pure wisecrack English and could pass for Mike Hammer or Sam Spade if he were a gumshoe instead of a journalist. -- Inspired casting. This hitherto little known actor was born for the role. He won't be little known for long.

All other roles are just as sharply etched, notably "Moochy" Zoltan as a restrained informer minus his customary buzzmeg vocabulary, and Kata Dobó as the flaming red-haired madame of an upscale brothel named "Les Fleurs du Mal". A fancy nightclub called The Ring features female boxers in a real ring as the Floor show. The owner is a wealthy coffee importer with high level connections in Berlin. Here the plot begins to thicken. Set pieces such as the frame-up of the hero are so smoothly handled they more or less ooze from the script. Period decor and reconstruction is letter perfect while those familiar with Budapest will recognize many locations even if slightly modified.

The ending is a pure noir shocker which cannot be revealed here. Shrewd savvy direction by Éva Gárdos, a Hollywood industry veteran who directed the Hungarian American film "An American Rhapsody" with Nastassia Kinski and Scarlett Johansson in 2001, is impeccable. One wonders where she has been hiding all this time. Bottom Line: A perfect Hungarian film noir with kosher overtones but it took a Hungarian expatriate to make it! Splendid job. Ten stars are not enough.