Film Review--Love Film (1970)

There are a few truly great movies in the world that even big time film fanatics have rarely seen. István Szabó's Love Film is one of these. I was first exposed to Love Film about 3 years by chance--somehow my brother had found a copy. Ever since then I have been a prophet of this movie.

The story is fairly simple: Jansci and Kata are very close friends during World War II Budapest. Over time, perhaps because post-war Stalinist Hungary attacks them for putting themselves over the collective, they separate. They start seeing each other again in 1956, but the Soviets invade and Kata flees to France while Jansci stays in Hungary. They keep in touch over the years and around ten years later, Jansci comes to France at Kata's request. They instantly fall in love again but they can't stay together. Jansci's life is in Hungary, Kata's in France.

But like so many of the best love stories, the straightforward plot allows for intense emotions, great beauty, and an overwhelming experience of getting to know these people and feel what they are feeling. It is a slowpaced film, but that slow pacing allows for greater understanding of what makes up their love and their ultimately failed relationship.

Hungarian history plays a huge role in this film. It is WWII that brings them together in the same house. Stalinism plays a role in separating them. 1956 breaks them apart for good. Szabó does more than just bluntly throw the politics into his film. Rather, he uses Jansci's intense nostalgia for his childhood with Kata as a way to show how politics and history can ruin our lives. The scene in France where Jansci and Kata are having dinner with Hungarian expats includes one of the most intense scenes I've ever seen on film. The camera moves in for a closeup of a woman standing between Jansci and Kata as she tells of how she survived the Nazis. She was standing in front of a firing squad on the banks of the Danube. They start firing and as an instinct she falls into the water a split second before the bullets would have mowed her down. The day was foggy and she managed to swim to the center of the river without being seen. She survives this and walks to Yugoslavia, eventually making it to France. Her telling of this harrowing tale may only take 2-3 minutes but it seemed like 7 or 8. What is really great about this is the patient way Szabó uses his camera. In a modern American film, this scene probably would have used a voiceover and the action would have been filmed. But the power of watching this woman's face as she tells the story provides a much greater punch than actually watching the woman escape.

But ultimately, the movie is much more about love than politics, even if the two are inseparable. As Kata and Jansci are fretting over their lack of future, Kata says (and I wish I could find a quote on this) that love is only half of it--you have to have the same goals as well. True words there. Despite the politics and the history and the hell of war that get in Kata and Jansci's way, this statement rings true for pretty much all of us.

My love of this film is by no way lessened by Judit Halász, who plays Kata. I find Halász stunningly beautiful in this film with shockingly striking eyes. Both Halász and András Bálint, who played Jansci, are excellent in the film. But I could see why Jansci would travel halfway across Europe to meet Kata after actually seeing her. Plus this film is supposed to take place in 1966, which was a really strong time for women's fashion. That period just before the hippie thing took over is just perfect. The hair, the clothes, the increasingly open expression of sexuality through fashion just before going off the deep end--it's just perfect. And Kata represents that in all its glory.

Love Film is not particularly easy to find. It's distributed by Kino and is on Netflix but good luck in finding it at your local video store, even if it's a good one. If you can see it though, I would recommend few movies more highly.