Today I was reading an article about Benedek Fliegauf's short Hypnos, where the young director mentioned among his motivations the best Hungarian film ever made (the opinion is mine, but maybe Fliegauf would agree with me as well). He was talking about the too early died György Fehér's masterpiece, Szürkület (Twilight) from 1990 (another cinematic adaptation of Dürrenmatt's Das Versprechen (next to Sean Penn's The Pledge and basically Joon-ho Bong's perfect Salinui chueok (Memories of Murder))).
If you know / like Hungary's most important contemporary cinematic ambassador's, Béla Tarr's oeuvre, then you should definitely know György Fehér too. If you amazed Tarr's black and blacker images, Jancsó-like (and Antonioni-like) camera-movements, unbelievable suggestive way of story(?)telling, then you will ask the legitimate question: 'How is it possible that such a cinematic genius is hidden in the contemporary film market?" The expression 'market' is a deliberate choice from me: it refers on the reason of this blog entry. It is one thing that nobody knows Fehér's films, the problem is that the Hungarian distributors maintain this situation.
Actually what should we expect from those distributors who until now couldn't publish one of the most important films ever made in Hungary, Tarr's more than seven hours long, cosmic, worldwide known and celebrated (it was Susan Sontag's favourite film) Sátántangó (Satan's Tango) (1994 - four years later than Fehér's film...)? There are some visible efforts on the horizont (some of Tarr's films came out lately), but somehow the most valuable ones are still missing (if you don't want to wait for the impotent distributors, order the 3dvd set Satan's Tango from the UK (only €12,49!!!) here).
Fehér's film actually doesn't exist: you are not able to buy it in any major stores. I had a bad VHS copy what I gave to my film professor as a present. I thought I will buy it sooner or later. That moment was 3 years ago... and now I still can't copy here even the film's poster.
This entry is a small contribution to express my disappointment. I exactly know the small amount of my blog's visitors, that's why in the next days and weeks I'm trying to open discussions about this shameful fact in several filmblogs and -sites. Just for my conscience's-, and your eyes' sake.
10/10
UPDATE:
In the meanwhile I formulated a petition. If you would like to have a chance to see this real masterpiece on DVD, then don't care with the Hungarian sentences but make a signature for the petition! Thanks!
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