Monday, May 4, 2015

532. Red Psalm

Red Psalm
1972
Directed by Miklos Jancso












Well, it's been rough.  I have been trying to find this film everywhere.  I had a friend download it for me.  After taking approximately a thousand years to download (at one point the estimated download time just had the infinity symbol), I was told I had the wrong codec.  I finally found it online, but only with Spanish subtitles.  I ended up watching it with Google translate open on the right.  I would pause periodically to type in and translate the subtitles then continue.  Is there even a way you can enjoy a film if you watch it in such a ridiculous way?  However, I am assured by my sister that I would hate it no matter what.

This movie is a musical of sorts I suppose.  Peasants in Hungary rebel, although they seem much more interesting in cramming in as many folk songs as possible.  And then all the women get naked.  Perhaps this was lost in translation, but I really wasn't clear on the reasoning behind this.  It felt pretty cheap to me; like a last ditch effort to make the movie somewhat interesting.  Of course, the filmmakers would claim it is art.

Such a drag.  It has been a real struggle get through some of these seventies movies and oh my god, we are only on '72.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Made up of only 27 takes.


3 comments:

  1. Agreeing with people is usualy nice.. but it makes for boring replies.
    Lets see.. what can I make an interesing comment about.. It's a musical.. can I get upset about that? Well no,, it's not in sickening candyfloss tecnicolor with well dodgy sexual stereotypes. Has it a tacky boy-gets-girl ending? Don't kno. I may have, but i rather lost interest and certainly don't remember.
    Amanda, I must apologise for this comment.. As I started to read your post, I was seriously struggling to remember which one it was..but then .. ... Ah, the one where "all the women get naked".. and .. errr.. I'm afraid that tripped the memory switch. So your comment as to why that happened may be valid.

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  2. Haha no need to apologize; I love being right!

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  3. If a movie is very hard to find, there is usually a good reason.
    In this case you really did not need subtitles, unless you are looking for a laugh. The "dialogue" is so disconnected from the pictures that I got concerned there had been a mix up.

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