Gloomy Sunday

Much like Black Book, which I wrote about a few posts back, Gloomy Sunday is a European foreign-language film about Nazi occupation.  The same actor even plays a German officer in each film, although he is less prominent in this one.  This time the occupied country is Hungary (the story takes place in Budapest) and the language is German.  The original title, which you can see to the left, translates to A Song of Love and Death.

There is a song, and the song is one unavoidable, though slight, flaw in a generally entertaining movie.  The song is called Gloomy Sunday, this time a true translation of the German title.  When this song is played, people stop what they are doing and are entranced.  The sadness of the music affects them; numerous people supposedly hear the song on the radio and commit suicide while it plays.  The problem is, we hear the song, and while it's pretty... I just think you have to suspend your disbelief a bit to accept that, to the people in the movie at least, it is incredibly powerful.

Ok, disbelief suspended, and we can enjoy our film.  It is the story of two men and a woman.  Laszlo is the Jewish owner of a restaurant in Budapest before the Nazis rise to prominence.  Ilona is his beautiful waitress and lover.  He hires Andras to play piano in his restaurant, and it is Andras who writes the soon-to-be famous song, and who also becomes Ilona's lover.  But it's not that kind of tragic love triangle; the three of them seem like they will make it work just fine.

The trouble comes with a third admirer of Ilona, a German customer named Wieck, on holiday, who later returns as a Colonel in the occupying army, and Laszlo's Jewishness becomes a problem.  Although Colonel Wieck sees Laszlo as a friend based on their prior acquaintance (Laszlo actually saves his life) and tries to help him, his friendship only goes so far.  Despite having some influence with Wieck, Laszlo finds himself ever closer to being rounded up and sent away with the other Hungarian Jews.

The film works because we learn enough about these characters to care about them and feel their pain as they try to save Laszlo from "going up the chimney," as Herr Wieck so delicately puts it.  And beyond that, I would only recommend that you see the movie.