MovieChat Forums > Kárhozat (1988) Discussion > iron curtain cinema

iron curtain cinema

posted 13 years ago by kerchable
6 replies | jump to latest

Anyone watching much Soviet-era cinema will see common motifs; a type of short,singular lamp,opaque windows,dreary cityscapes,rainy ruralscapes,delapidated walls,well-worn cotton coats, and decaying infrastructure. A hopeless kind of gaze and listless, rote people, resigned to the enslavement their "liberators" imposed. It seems some countries film were more censored than others, for example, Jakubiskos near LSD inspired frentics compared to Polish Party line heroics. Call it diversity? Probably, nevertheless certain themes are inescapable; long queues, labor deification, and curiously, close families. Maybe socialism demanded socialbility while unchecked freedom fosters alienation. Regardless, Cold War cinema behind the Iron Curtain is how those citizens escaped, brown drear, weathered shoes, sweaty partizans, and hopeful children. Did they find what they were looking for, or was it all an attempt to reflect a reality that economic theory just can't comprehend?

[–] PsychoDingo 11 years ago

I just spent a week in Budapest, and Tarr's Hungary was nowhere to be found. It was like spending a week in San Francisco. Naturally, the situation may be completely different in other cities and rural areas.

They'll hang you as sure as 10 dimes will buy a dollar

[–] kerchable 11 years ago

Wow, that's really interesting. Did you get off the beaten track or remain in Budapest area? Also, where exactly in Hungary was Damnation filmed? looks like a more rural locale, maybe where they were scraping coal off a hillside and dumping it in the tramline carts. Sounds like a great trip, I hope you enjoyed it.

what ails most madmen is realitys grasp or escape, a paralysis of analysis

[–] PsychoDingo 11 years ago

I'm not sure where Damnation was filmed, but I'd love to find the place and watch the ore carts for hours, like the opening shot x 100

while in Hungary, I stayed in Budapest the whole time. I also went to Prague, however, and I left the city for a couple of days to go to a film noir festival in a tiny village to the north

good times!

They'll hang you as sure as 10 dimes will buy a dollar

[–] Floepsel 9 years ago

Budapest isn't the place to see Tarr's Hongary haha. You should go to places most tourists don't go, far far away from big cities. The Hongary as portrayed in Tarr's films really exists and you don't even have to look for it that hard. When you drive through Hongary from top to bottom you'll definitely find those places.

Favorite movies/year plus little review: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070235838/

[–] ImGergely 7 years ago

I've read at port.hu, it was filmed in Oroszlány [partly].

http://www.filmtekercs.hu/filmszakadas/tarr-bela

A helyszínek valóságosak, de a filmet nem egy, hanem nagyon sok helyszínen forgattuk. Volt, ahol csak egy utcarészletet vettünk föl, volt, ahol csak egy házfalat, és van olyan ház is a filmben, amelynek külsője Budapesten van, belsője meg Ajkán, a házhoz közel eső bolt pedig Pécsett.

The locations are real, but the film is shot in not one but many locations. There were times where we took up only one section of a street, somewhere a house wall, and there is also a house in the film, whose exterior is in Budapest, interiors in Ajka, the shop near the house is in Pécs.

It was a long time ago. You wouldn't find the same looking buildings and certainly not working carts.

[–] [deleted] 6 months ago

Wait you mean Hungary isn't filled with roaming animals and only visible in black and white?