His Master's Voice

I am a big fan of the work of Stanislaw Lem. His style is not for everyone, but his creativity is unparalleled: he was at the top of his craft, a master of his language, who constantly surprised the reader with amazing and thought provoking ideas. So I was eager to see Gyorgy Palfi's version of the novel - but boy, was I disappointed!

First of all: the story of the movie has *nothing* to do with the original material, except for a few, very vague references. It's just a big, chaotic mess, where unnecessary scenes follow each other seemingly randomly. It's not artistic just because if makes no sense, okay?

"Disappointed" is not the best word, by the way: I felt *angry* after suffering through this joke of a movie. I felt like the director just defecated on a masterpiece. How come he was even allowed to use the same title as the novel?

I want to build a time machine now, just to go back in time when we decided to push "play", so that I can stop ourselves. Watching a switched-off TV for two hours is a *much* better way of spending your time then seeing this tragic nonsense.

Avoid at all cost!

I like it. Someone in review wrote who sees it, he/she will be out of this kind of fiction. Well, I am a longer time in it, because by vocation I am researcher's physicist(by university) and also mathematician(by gymnasium). If I am not, never would study those subjects. Péter is the person who wants to know about his roots, and also understand him from that side, cause I am doing the same(about my Hungarian descents, 1/4). In his finally finding father we see one scientist, who next to loving the science loves music, founds meaning of evolution of a human being in a binary numeral system by knitting blankets. This movie is very clear and filled with energy, being fiction or not.

I saw this movie a few days ago at an advance screening.

What you immediately notice is the unique visual and musical style. The crew have used 11 cameras overall: there are news reportings, YouTube videos, archive footage, etc. on top of the traditional "actor" scenes. Yet, all these are interwoven with beautiful and visually intriguing transitions. This visual ingenuity extends all the way to the credits, making it one of the few films where the audience attentively sat through the credits. The music is also not your usual Hans Zimmer score. Rather, they opted for an electric, industrial, out-of-this-world soundscape that suits the film perfectly.

Then there's the plot which, for the most part is a dramatized layer on top of the original message of Lem's novel. The protagonist's (Csaba Polgar) search for his father is enjoyable and kept me interested throughout the almost 2 hr runtime. I was also busy trying to understand the symbols, which this film is as rich in as you'd expect. More surprising is the presence of some well-placed humour, delivered primarily by the protagonist's wheelchaired brother (portrayed by Adam Fekete).

My major grudge against the movie are the space scenes. First of all, the visual tricks are not up to 2018 standards, and I'm not comparing to the $100m bluckbusters here. With a budget of almost $4m, I expected more. The low quality of the space suits and the lack of artistic touch strengthens the B-movie feeling of these scenes. Luckily, there are not many of them.

Also, I felt that the plot was too simple. This may have been intentional, i.e. to keep the focus on Lem's deeper meaning and the many symbols. Still, I felt that some more twists could have added to the excitement without sacrificing the philosophical side.

Overall, His Master's Voice is well worth a watch if you like throught-provoking pieces with unique artistic solutions. After the screening, the director said he was only afraid whether the movie could convince the audience to search for and keep thinking about deeper meaning. I, for one, can say with certainty: Yes!

I'm sorry to go see it. The Hungarian National Film Fund could have spent more than 600 million on another film, and there would have been a couple of domestic works that would have deserved more support. I hope that anyone who tastes Hungarian fiction now does not start with this, because he will forever go out of it.

u.i .: We were four in the cinema on the 20th, in the movie "His Master's Voice"