Anniversary of the Love
On January 21, 1971, the film "Szerelem (Love)" directed by Károly Makk was released in cinemas in Hungary.
The film is based on two stories - "Love" and "Two Women" - by Hungarian writer Tibor Déry. In 1948, Tibor Déry, an active participant in the communist movement and anti-fascist resistance, was awarded the Lajos Kossuth Prize, the highest state prize awarded for outstanding contributions to the development of literature and art. His story "Love" was published in July 1956. And in April 1957, 62-year-old Tibor Déry was sentenced to 9 years in prison for active participation in the events of the end of 1956. In 1960 he was amnestied. Until 1962, the works of Tibor Déry were banned. The story "Two Women", which also formed the basis of the film's plot, was written in 1962. In 1964, Tibor Deri wrote a script based on these two stories, but the then authorities did not consider the creation of the film "timely", so the picture was created only in 1970.
In the film, there is no clear indication of the time of the events taking place in it. Many critics believe that the release of the main character's husband from prison is associated with the death of Stalin in 1953 and the amnesty that followed. However, one fleeting frame shows that this is not the case. The shot shows the newspaper, which began to appear in 1957. By the way, Iván Darvas, who played the role of the husband of the main character in the film, was sentenced to 32 months in prison for participating in the events of 1956. After his release from prison in 1959, he was forbidden to play on stage, i.e. carry out professional activities. The ban was lifted only in 1963.
In May 1971, Károly Makk's film "Szerelem (Love)" was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. But the jury of the film festival, chaired by French actress Michelle Morgan, awarded the award to the British film "The Go-Between" directed by Joseph Losey. Among the losers of this film were the American film "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo, the Soviet "Бег (The Flight)" by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov, the French "Le souffle au coeur (Murmur in the Heart)" by Louis Malle, the Italian "Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice)" by Luchino Visconti and others. However, the film of Károly Makk did not remain without an award. It was awarded the Jury Prize by unanimous decision of the jury (tied with the Swedish film "Joe Hill" by Bo Wiederberg).
The American film review aggregator site rottentomatoes.com does not contain any information about the reviews of film critics for Karoly Makk's film, although the film participated in festivals in both Chicago and New York, and was shown in theaters in the United States since March 1973. As for European film critics and bloggers, they highly appreciated the picture. For example, the French film critic Gérard Crespo noted in his review:
"L’absurdité bureaucratique de la dictature et les lâchetés du quotidien sont montrées avec plus de force que bien des films engagés, ce qui n’empêche pas le réalisateur de s’inspirer du meilleur cinéma européen intimiste de l’époque."
The review of the online publication bonjourtristesse.net noted:
"Makk has created a brilliantly powerful film that both captures the sense of dread that comes from living under a totalitarian regime; and expresses the feelings and plight of his characters in a perfectly poetic way, all without resorting to any heavy handed preaching."
British blogger Sheila Seacroft, author of the blog aseatinthedark, noted:
"Few films have managed such a perfect balance of humanism, political criticism and sorrowful fragile beauty."
The film cannot be called widely known and popular. In the Soviet Union, it was not shown at all. But those viewers who had a chance to watch this film appreciated it quite highly. 69% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated this film from 8 to 10. Taking this into account and the above, the rating of Károly Mak's film "Szerelem (Love)" by FilmGourmand was 8.499, making it 323rd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
