2 reviews
Among other Jancso films I've seen, this is perhaps closest to the relatively commercial "Private Virtues, Public Vices" in that it is to a degree visually lush high-end erotica aimed at international audiences, not least by casting "Caligula" star Teresa Ann Savoy, whose presence at this point guaranteed a certain kind of content. The story involves a naive young 14th-century Hungarian prince who is retrieved from Italy-where he seems to have fallen in with various parasitical pleasure-seekers including Pasolini's frequent star Ninetto Davoli-when informed that his father has been killed. There's a "Hamlet"-like feel to the somewhat murky political mechanizations that keep our heir-apparent hero in the dark as to just what happened to his father, whether his mother is killing young women (rather like Elisabeth Bathory), who his allies/enemies are, etc. Eventually, it seems, everybody kills everyone else, but instead of the real horror of a Jacobean revenge tragedy, it all feels like ritualistic play-acting.
Then again, narrative content is somewhat incidental to the formal spectacle here, in which "Italy" and "Hungary" scarcely seem different because everything is shot on theatrical soundstage sets, camera and actor movements are elaborately choreographed (with use of turntables and such on top of Jancso's usual complicated tracking shots), and lots of (almost entirely female) nudity. The result is an aesthetically defined and distinctive work of art, but more a sort of avant-garde theatrical experience designed for film than anything of emotional, narrative or thematic impact. The director's familiar stylistic choices aside, this is more like Derek Jarman's more elaborate costume fantasias such as "Caravaggio" in its heightened artificiality and eroticism, complete with lots of candles, "raining" feathers, and so forth. The effect is always handsome, if not much more.
Though this is not the kind of movie in which "acting" matters so much (the actors are often used like statuary, models, mimes or processions), the male lead has an unfortunately rather fatuous presence that would be better suited to one of the supporting-schemer roles. I'm not sure why he got so many leading roles in Hungarian films, but in any case he's the wrong choice here. Savoy is mostly deployed as a mute figure until she gets a few lines late in the going.
Then again, narrative content is somewhat incidental to the formal spectacle here, in which "Italy" and "Hungary" scarcely seem different because everything is shot on theatrical soundstage sets, camera and actor movements are elaborately choreographed (with use of turntables and such on top of Jancso's usual complicated tracking shots), and lots of (almost entirely female) nudity. The result is an aesthetically defined and distinctive work of art, but more a sort of avant-garde theatrical experience designed for film than anything of emotional, narrative or thematic impact. The director's familiar stylistic choices aside, this is more like Derek Jarman's more elaborate costume fantasias such as "Caravaggio" in its heightened artificiality and eroticism, complete with lots of candles, "raining" feathers, and so forth. The effect is always handsome, if not much more.
Though this is not the kind of movie in which "acting" matters so much (the actors are often used like statuary, models, mimes or processions), the male lead has an unfortunately rather fatuous presence that would be better suited to one of the supporting-schemer roles. I'm not sure why he got so many leading roles in Hungarian films, but in any case he's the wrong choice here. Savoy is mostly deployed as a mute figure until she gets a few lines late in the going.
Miklos Jancsó is perhaps the most well-known hungarian director outside of Hungary. "A Zsarnok Szive..." is the second and last collaboration between the director and the very beautiful but underused English actress Teresa Ann Savoy (whose most "famous" role was that of Drusilla in the controversial "Caligula").
In their first collaboration, Savoy was wasted in the role of a depraved hermaphrodite in the bizarre "Vizi Private, Pubbliche Virtú" (1975).
In this second collaboration, also co-wrote by Giovanna Gagliardo, Teresa plays a queen in a medieval court, who spends most of her little screen time in a kind of trance. Fans of the actress, like me, will be disappointed to find that, despite appearing first on the cast credits, she hasn't much screen time. So sad because her beauty is incomparable. Why she never was properly used in a movie? Were film producers blind?
The plot of the film seems to be confusing, especially because I watched it in hungarian, with French subtitles. Hungarian, I don't understand anything, and French, I understand very little.
Anyway, the film is extremely boring and repetitive. Ninetto Davoli is very irritating and none of the main actors has charisma. And I really can't understand why Teresa is the first name if she had only a cameo!
In their first collaboration, Savoy was wasted in the role of a depraved hermaphrodite in the bizarre "Vizi Private, Pubbliche Virtú" (1975).
In this second collaboration, also co-wrote by Giovanna Gagliardo, Teresa plays a queen in a medieval court, who spends most of her little screen time in a kind of trance. Fans of the actress, like me, will be disappointed to find that, despite appearing first on the cast credits, she hasn't much screen time. So sad because her beauty is incomparable. Why she never was properly used in a movie? Were film producers blind?
The plot of the film seems to be confusing, especially because I watched it in hungarian, with French subtitles. Hungarian, I don't understand anything, and French, I understand very little.
Anyway, the film is extremely boring and repetitive. Ninetto Davoli is very irritating and none of the main actors has charisma. And I really can't understand why Teresa is the first name if she had only a cameo!
- feministafanatico
- Apr 26, 2020
- Permalink