Schuldig?

After seeing Fábri's excellent "Körhinta" (1956) the other day I felt compelled to review this film which I saw several years ago. I remember it being a spare but effective exploration of class dynamics, framing and lighting illuminating Fábri's subtle political insights. Perhaps a more persuasive argument for neophytes to seek out an old, obscure Hungarian film is to give exposure to the brilliant performance by Törőcsik Mari, as compelling a victim-aggressor as Catherine Deneuve would be some time later in Polański's "Repulsion", if not more so. She has a face and voice born for the pictures - both soft, innocent, a little naïve, but capable of expressing massive shifts in emotion or psychology with slight fluctuations.

Bonuses - Mezei Mária's striking bitchiness as the titular Anna's high-class mistress and a truly inspired nightmare sequence (how did they do that?!).

As they book presents Anna a quiet, somehow mysterious induvidual, Mari Töröcsik gave the best shades of her full personality from strong to a completely lost person between the pillars of dying noble classes. Mistress Vizy lets herself completely destructed by keeping the household, the servant, and her husband in order, as the hungarian noble class seems to falling apart, makes more desperate, than ever - then she found her new toy of torture, Anna. As the story goes on, we can see the results, the hard truth, how people constantly deny of changes of world, even reality.

Zoltan Fabri was the first Hungarian director to achieve international recognition and although this film does not quite reach the heights of his previous 'Merry Go Round' and 'Professor Hannibal', it again shows his ability to draw his audience in and to get the very best from his actors.

It is a pretty faithful adaptation of Dezso Kosztolanyi's novel of 1926. The novel itself has certainly undergone changing fortunes through the years. It was not published between 1945 and 1963 because of references to Communist leader Bela Kun and even when reissued all mention of the controversial Admiral Horthy had to be expunged. It remains however a devastating critique of the treatment of the servant class by the Bourgeoisie epitomised here by Anna the maid and her employer Mrs. Vizy.

Apart from the opening scene which gives us an idea of the political situation of 1919 director Fabri has concentrated on the almost Strinbergian relationships between the protagonists, the unbearable sadness of Anna and the hammer blows of Fate that lead to her final horrific act. The construction of this piece is masterful and the nightmare sequence especially impressive.

Every character is beautifully drawn notably Maria Mezei as Mrs. Vizy who resembles at times the Wicked Witch of the West. One really runs out of superlatives when speaking of Mari Torocsik who plays Anna. This is the second of her four films with this director and when she made the first of her many appearances at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 her singular talent was noted by Cocteau and Truffaut. She recently left us after a long illness and the Mayor of Budapest has written that "although ranking is pointless in the arts, there is no doubt that one of the best has passed away."