Szürkület

Clearly influenced by Bela Tarr and determined to outdo him when it comes to pacing, (funereal at best), and general moroseness Gyorgy Feher's "Twilight" isn't so much like watching paint dry as staring at the grey wall before it's painted. Based on the same Friedrich Durrenmatt novel as "It Happened in Broad Daylight" and "The Pledge" Feher strips it of all suspense yet gives it a sense of dread as it moves with all the slowness of a lackadaisical snail from scene to scene, image to image that is both disquieting and disorientating.

An eight year old girl is found murdered in the woods and the policeman whose last case it is is determined to find the killer even after retiring. We can just about figure this out from the material onscreen but really it helps if you've read the book or seen the other films. This is more like a palimpsest of Durrenmatt's novel, something not quite fully formed, a series of beautifully grim images rather than an actual narrative and not helped any by the monosyllabic performances of its cast.

It is, in other words, the worst kind of art-house movie, one determined to hold onto its 'masterpiece' credentials whatever the cost. Amazingly it's never really boring; you watch it transfixed in the vain hope that something might actually happen and, of course, it never does. As Jean Brodie might say, 'For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like'.

Some years ago I went for a weekend in Budapest and because there had been a delay of the plane, we arrived in the evening. We were on the Buda side up near the woods at a round hotel above the old town. In the morning we thrust back the curtains to look down at the river and the Pest side, but we couldn't see anything. It was just grey all the way round like a fog that only gradually lifted. In the film, Twilight (Szurkulet) it was in black and white and grey. Really slow but lovely as the detective investigates a series of child murders. A child that maybe mad tells us about a picture and a giant or a wizard who gave hedgehogs to the dead child. Although nothing is black and white about it and it seems that it not so friendly to give a child a chocolate hedgehog. There is much of the time in a car but it is still rather dark and grey and then the rain comes and the windscreen wipers struggle to overcome and it just seems as a long grey wall. The soundtrack is a strange but likeable sound although there is no credit given but it seems similar that it was like we heard in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu (1979).

If you like to see what movies are really about (i.e. moving)you should see szurkulet. This highly original and intense film is an exercise in style 'pur sang'. The story is loosely based on 'es geschah am hellichten Tag' by Friedrich Durrenmatt. But how the story is told is the most important part here. In a shadowish black and white twilight we see the story unfold in very (and I mean very) slow moving breathtaking camera movements over different scenes. This means that the whole movie exists out of less then 50 shots, without making unnessecary cuts. Orson Wells eat your heart out. Every scene tells the viewer another part of the puzzle and so the story gets you more and more in its gripping way of telling the story. For movie fans this is a must-see because this movie is the only movie I've seen which has stripped a picture to its bare essentials.

Seeing this film was one of the most memorable cinematic experiences I have ever had. The extremely slow movement of the camera across stunning black and gray scenes was mesmerizing. Over time, it induced a kind of trance-like state that intensified the mysterious and sinister atmosphere of the film. The minimalist script was well served by the reflective and melancholy main character, a detective attempting to solve a tragic crime in a remote and desolate rural area. The overall effect was much like a strange, haunting dream with many emotional layers. I loved the film and hope I can see it again on a big screen one day!

I saw this movie a long time ago, just after it's release. Don't remember much of the story anymore, except that it's about a detective who's looking for a child-kidnapper.

What I do remember is the beautiful camera-work and the very slow shots. Never seen anything like this. The very slow camera-movements and the extreme length of the shots make this film hypnotic. The landscapes are breathtaking.

A remarkable film...

***1/2 out of ****