Kerala - Kochi   

Two films from Eastern Europe

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Cochin Film Society is again bringing to the city a couple of well-known movies from Eastern Europe. From Hungary comes the film `Gloomy Sunday' directed by Rolf Schubel and from Poland, the famous Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi's `Constants.'

`Gloomy Sunday' takes its name from the song by the same title that was popular in Hungary during the Thirties. It tells a love story presented in the backdrop of the name.

The song, a haunting melody that came to be popularly known as the `Hungarian Suicide Song,' was blamed for inducing people to commit suicide. It was banned by the BBC as it was considered dangerously depressing.

The film tells the story of a German businessman, Hans Wieck. It opens with the 80th birthday party of Wieck, being celebrated at a restaurant in contemporary Budapest.

However, the man falls dead after he spots a black and white photograph of a woman, and when the pianist had started playing the song `Gloomy Sunday.'

Then, it goes on to explore the story of Wieck, Ilona, the woman in the photograph; Laszlo Szabo, her lover and owner of the restaurant and the restaurant's pianist, Andras.

Made in 2000, the film had won the Bavarian Film Awards for best direction and cinematography in the same year.

Zanussi's `Constants' (Constant Factor), which had won him the Best Director Award in Cannes Film Festival in 1980, tells the story of Witold, a man who has a high ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. But circumstances make his dreams crumble, with no indication of future improvement.

The film deals with death more bluntly and frighteningly than any film has lately.

The film had won a Special Jury Prize in the Polish Film Festival and it was also nominated to Golden Palm Award in Cannes Film Festival in 1980.

`Gloomy Sunday' will be screened on September 19 at I.M.A. Hall on Warriam Road in the evening. It will be a DVD projection. `Constants' will be screened at Savitha Theatre on September 25, as part of the Cochin Film Society's monthly archive screening programme being held in association with the National Film Archives of India, Pune.

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