As I said in my article on page eleven, this year has been rough for film thus far.
I can’t remember the last time I saw something decent, so I decided to take a 40 minute drive to catch Sunset by Hungarian director László Nemes.
The director’s last film, Son of Saul, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
And folks, I can’t even catch a break on foreign films.
In the Hungarian Sunset, we follow Írisz Leiter (a little too closely because of the jarring cinematography), who goes back to Budapest so she can work at a hat store that bares her last name.
However, Leiter uncovers a dark past and a brother she left behind when she split from Budapest as a little girl.
There’s a good story to be told, but Nemes has trouble telling it.
A glaring issue is the camera work by Mátyás Erdély. Throughout, the camera is closely up against Leiter as she navigates through Budapest.
Although, it’s hard to see where exactly she is because the background is always out of focus.
You can’t tell there’s a $10 million budget to this movie because it’s all blurred out in the back!
While you could say it makes the viewer feel uneasy, I say there’s certain times for that. It feels like you’re on a nauseating piggyback ride for two-and-a-half hours.
It’s also hard to hang on to the ride because the plot is incoherent.
The characters don’t really talk that much, and most of the time it’s just Leiter walking around with a shocked face.
They try to explain somethings, but these characters pop out of nowhere and when that happens so much, it’s hard to follow who is telling what.
Sure, it’s hard to follow the plot, but when you take a step back, you can kinda see what Nemes was trying to tell.
Unfortunately, the sun sets on his opportunity to do so.
Just as Leiter looks for her brother, my search for a decent film this year continues.
IMAGE TAKEN from HungaryToday
