Adoption

A single woman turned 40 wants a baby but has nobody to give her one. Her instincts displaced, she befriends a tearaway girl from a young offender's institution. The two women, each at a watershed in their lives, draw something from each other without being able to relate to each other properly.

It has an ungainly, unstructured feel to it – more sentiment than substance - like a day imperfectly remembered, which amounts to a startling, artless realism. The smudgy black and white Hungarian landscape and sparse dialogue are forefunners of Tarr's, and there are some nicely observed characters. Women will connect with Meszaros' worldview: life as a forlorn struggle to be as benign as one might want to be, but inevitably held back by the sheer dourness of the world. So we make do with what we have and hope that things occasionally work out, as they do here. Winner of the Golden Bear.

Marta Meszaros was born in 1931 and still making films having made about thirty and shorts and TV also previously married to Miklos Jancso. Mostly known for Diary For My Children (1984) and recently Aurora Borealis: Northern Light (2017) and Adoption made earlier with an award at Berlin. The film is rather sad with the woman in her 40s and really wanting to have a baby but her lover not happy as he already has a wife and children. A young dysfunctional girl, she thinks, it might be an idea, although it is rather silly and it becomes complicated she is already unhappy with her life and her parents. The end is very sudden as she runs for a bus, although it doesn't look like being a good outcome. Nevertheless I thought it was well done and especially of the young girl and the older woman, and of course everyone at the wedding.

Beautiful black and white cinematography full of close-ups and the depiction of faces, details and of factory workers. Good acting depicting a sudden relationshipt that arises and develops between an unmarried woman who wants a baby (and her married boyfriend does not) and a teenager who has been abandoned by her parents and wants to marry her boyfriend. By helping and listening the latter, the former understands better her own situation and makes decisive decisions. I am not entirely convinced about the development of any of these two characters, and the so much mentioned troubled life of the girl and the labour condition of the woman seem not to seriously influence their attitude along the story. Script perhaps does not show enough coherence (the slap being the most gratuitous moment, perhaps) despite the slow time dedicated to dialogues.

Katalin Berek has a checkup She's 42 and wants to see if she can have a child. She wants one, but her lover doesn't. He is a married man, and they understand he's not going to leave his family. Miss Berek is trying to write a letter apologizing for upsetting him when Gyöngyvér Vigh walks into her life. Miss Vigh has her own letter, this one to her mother saying she's been neglected, and she is going off to lead her own life. Then, while she's putting her own life in order, she stays with Miss Berek.

Márta Mészáros's movie about what defines family is neither subtle nor deep, but watching Miss Berek figure it out on her own is rather interesting, and reasonably paced; I never grew impatient with her not getting it sooner. Even the 1970s depression that hangs over this movie and never quite lifts seems appropriate.

Based on the first 30 min, which was all I could take, this film, consisting mostly of chain smoking Hungarians earnestly and humorlessly conversing about motherhood and adoption, seems designed to repel viewers. C minus.