...and even then the Hukkle keeps its own regular rhythm at the very end.
As a kid, I remember there used to be a visual game in magazines where a photograph zoomed in extremely tight or shot from an odd angle was presented, and you had to guess what the object was. This film features many such shots...and in its speechless stroke of genius, the story itself is presented that way as well.
Let me state that this movie is clearly not for everyone, at first it reminded me of the beloved Ann Arbor Film Festival, which hosts many fine but often fiercely independent short films. But "Hukkle", while succeeding in its artful attack, moves beyond that.
But it does so slowly...
The film moves almost at the pace of the tiny Hungarian village where it was mostly shot. Indeed from the DVD extras, I get the sense that Gyorgy Palfi wanted to have the film linger even longer in spots. The (human) actors are all non-professional; while I believe the pig, cat, snake, mole and frog were all professional. The frog also was apparently delicious, at least according to the famished catfish.
I really want to resist saying more, I'm just trying to figure out a way to direct the people who would enjoy this film toward it. I suspect that if you ever entertained notions of attending film school, you would enjoy this. Rambunctious creativity is on display, as it was in "Daisies" which I recently watched and reviewed. Similarly, just seeing a village might appeal to some folks like myself living in the United *Sprawl* of America.
In that village, we see some folks living with plastic sheets as part of their homes. I don't think this could have been made anywhere ...nor by anyone else. Palfi's approach on screen is gentle but, I don't know, proudly peculiar?? Or maybe peculiarly proud? He likely was a city mouse out in the country, but he was welcomed in to their wine caves, their apiaries and those plastic thatched houses, but more importantly the lives of the sturdier folks occupying them.
With the DVD you get a couple of bonus tracks, the subtitled commentary by Palfi and his cinematographer was very insightful on several levels. It almost seemed at times like the film was not only a riddle from Palfi to us the audience, but a puzzling challenge to Gergely Poharnok and the rest of the crew!
Additionally Palfi's voice, it's genuinely genial tone but never mawkishly so, while I don't speak Hungarian, I was curious to see him interact with the villages...and that is also in the Extras!
I eagerly look forward to more of his work, the Taxidermist is not readily available yet...but hopefully soon. Oh, and here is a plug for having Palfi film an adaptation of "The Thought Gang" - a fine book by Tibor Fischer!
This film has grown from a 6 to a 7.5/10 for me...still rising!!
Thurston Hunger
Two more comments...
1) Would love to track down the music (and field recordings) to this.
2) Funniest scene in the film...the very un-Hollywood police chase!!
