Kontroll

So what is this one about?
Van Jegyed, indeed!!!!!

Wikipedia has a nice long explanation of this one. One of my Netflix friends has said that this movie was a waste of time...but he is wrong. And Wikipedia will tell you why.

Netflix also tells us, This Hungarian box office smash hit and winner of the Prix de la Jeunes award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival takes place entirely underground in the Budapest subway system. A variety of personalities converge on the turnstiles, including a dashing young man, an exotic woman and a murderer, all of whom are desperately racing against time and their surroundings to find one another … before they are found themselves.

You hear that? Prix de la Jeunes! You know, the prize of the youngs! It is very prestigious.

And how much did I pay to watch?
Netflix.

And what did I think?
I thought it was quite an accomplishment for Hungarian cinema. I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume that Hungarian cinema--like Romanian cinema--isn't too wildly popular outside of Hungary. Though, there were oodles, just OODLES, of Hungarian films at the movie theatre near our house in BP.

I also thought it was incredible, nay, extraordinary that before the film even started that there was a public service type message from the BKV (the Budapest Metro) telling us that they thought it was important for ambience that the film was actually filmed in the subway system, and that the ticket takers (the Kontroll) in the movie in no way represented the actual Kontroll who work for BKV. It was a brilliant joining together of Warsaw Pact subway systems and modern movie making!! And really the Kontroll were nothing like the actual Kontroll who work for the BKV. (man, Budapest rules...you should go visit!)

I found the netflix description somewhat misleading though. The killer mentioned in the summary was barely in the movie, and there was little to no resolution of it. Wikipedia suggests (because I know you guys didn't read the article...except maybe Alisha...hey buddddddy) "One interpretation of the final death race between Bulcsú [thats the main character] and the murderer is that the murderer is in fact Bulcsú himself, and that the last "rail run" is a symbolic race where the evil Bulcsú perishes while the good Bulcsú survives. Other interpretations suggest the killer is actually one of the other metro workers, or merely the creation of Bulcsú's imagination."

Though there was little resolution at the end, well, sort of, the pacing was great, and the movie was actually quite funny. Funnier, I think, if you've been to BP...but, my dad thought it was funny too.

So what is the rating? (out of 10)
I think just like with Romanian film, I am more leniant with Hungarian film. I really liked it though, and it really transported me back to BP. As if I didn't already miss it enough.... It was a laugh to hear and see Hungarian language (which is like alien babblespeak) and see the metro stations again (including the one we got off at for school! Deeyak Beyatch!). I thought it was quite good, it prolly could have been better, but I thought it was quite an accomplishment.

I'll give it a 7.5.

And just for posterity, here is a photo of my station, Moskva Ter (not Terrace, not Square, just Ter) as seen from our glorious apartment.