Vakvagany

In Budapest, Hungary, a man with a moving truck helps two middle aged siblings relocate and steals a box of home movies from their belongings. The film reels are then sold to a visiting independent filmmaker from the United States who returns home and views them only to find them too good to be amateur. Much of the family footage contains short narratives impersonating cinema as well as several images that would ordinarily be considered inappropriate for filming. There are also several reels of the father at work in what is apparently a government position documenting the inventory of jewelry and other personal property following WW II.

The filmmaker puts together a production crew and returns to Hungary to track down the two siblings in an attempt to answer questions about the film content. Both the son and daughter are found living chaotic and separate lives of drunkenness and mental illness.

With new film material in hand, the filmmaker returns to the United States and invites three professionals (James Ellroy, Stan Brakhage, and Dr. Roy Menninger) to experience the old and the new material and offer their own interpretations.

The subject is a Hungarian family at first only known by a set of "found" home movies. The filmmaker (who apparently has commented here about his own movie) goes off on a search to find the subjects of the home movies. He does and films the wretched lives of the children, now grown and in their middle ages. Apparently not enough comes of this so the film maker enlists an unusual trio of commentators to view and react to the footage; a novelist, a psychiatrist and an avant-garde film maker. The result?

A very disturbing glimpse into a ruined family. The commentators' opinions come at the same time as your own as they react to footage at the same time you see it. Some times they are insightful, other times just confused. Interestingly, the avant-garde film maker's comments are frequently the most insightful. Many things are not explained as a standard documentary would try to do. Perhaps the film makers were at a loss at what they had filmed when it was finished but that's not a drawback. You have to involve yourself with the mystery to really watch this film.

A word on the "disturbing" end, namely the son's visit to his sister and the drinking binge right before it. It's clear that the film maker didn't know that the son would consume two full bottles of wine (gifts from the film maker) before the trip to his sister. Filming it was part of the story. The break-in happens after the son (who is mentally retarded) starts to worry about his sister who lived with him all his life, but hasn't spoken to him for a while now that they live apart. The actual entry into the house is done by a neighbor of the sister and the first view of her filthy kitchen made me think that she had been deceased for a long time. The sister is first seen sleeping, oblivious to the noise in her house, as if dead. She is extremely paranoid and quite crazy. she refuses to talk about her father except for a last comment that says tons about the man.

A great film about the results of parents who smother the emotional growth of their children. The method of delivery, however, will not please many people.

The dark heart of Benjamin Meade's "Vakvagany" consists of creepy home movies, filmed sometime between 1948 and 1964, purportedly stolen from a filthy house in Hungary that was said to be crawling with cats.

"Vakvagany" zig-zags through time, sampling the stolen family films, juxtaposing them with newly-filmed footage of the old movies' still-living participants, and interviews with three spirit guides who offer their take on lurid life with the family depicted in the old and new footage: crime novelist James Ellroy (of "L.A. Confidential" fame) , psychiatrist Dr. Roy Menninger and filmmaker Stan Brakhage.

The vintage films focus on life with the Locsei family, a Hungarian couple fond of filming one another and their eventual, ill-fated offspring.

The setting for the `found' film is demolished, post-World War II Europe (much of the footage depicts damage done to cities during the war).

The usual family moments are captured in the old family films, such as giving the new baby in the house a bath.

But the camera lingers lasciviously long on naked son Erno, a cause for concern for `expert witness,' Dr. Roy Menninger, who seems increasingly to be wincing as the film (and the old family footage) unfolds. There are moments in Vakvagany - old and new - that are apt to make virtually any viewer, even the most jaded, wince, as well.

Benjamin Meade's "Vakvagany" (or, variously, "Dead End") is eighty-plus minutes of very strange cinema. Love it or hate it, it is something new, and it feels dangerous and important.

Meade has said he became enthralled with the vintage home movies and their potentially sinister subject matter: in particular, father Locsei's never clearly defined role in allegedly `helping' the European Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. The form this `help' takes is sufficiently vague to leave room for some very dark deductions regarding what exactly Papa Locsei does for a living that could be construed as `help' for potential Nazi victims.

Director Benjamin Meade lets the viewer, and his three `experts,' attempt to decide (You know you're along for a strange, strange ride when noir novelist James Ellroy, notorious for his wild stage presence and book readings, tends toward the most mundane explanations for some very, very strange behavior.)

The Alloy Orchestra, famed for its wonderful scores for vintage silent films, provides a haunting, beautiful soundtrack for "Vakvagany."

While a sometimes disturbing view, Meade's film is a rewarding ride that can't be forgotten.

I first came across a reference to this film last year on James Ellroy's website. It sounded intriguing, and I awaited it's release with great anticipation. I was, however, quite disappointed. What we have here is some grainy home movie footage intercut with some specious analysis by Ellroy, the late Dr. Roy Menninger, and the late Stan Brakhage, commenting upon some questionable goings-on among members of the Locsei family in Hungary after WWII. Filmmaker Meade tracks down the siblings in the film (Erno and Etruska) for their comments. This is where 'dreadful' begins: Erno is a mentally disabled, unwashed alcoholic; we are treated to several scenes of him drinking wine the filmmakers have provided to secure his cooperation, long stretches of untranslated Hungarian, and a charming scene of urination in a field. Sister Etruska has her home broken into by the filmakers. We watch her shielding her face from the camera while she repeatedly demands they not invade her privacy. I cannot imagine the cruelty, or at least indifference, that would motivate anyone to pursue this material, much less offer it up for public consumption.

I have viewed other user comments to this film, and appear to be in the minority. But if you like films about disturbed individuals, I suggest Errol Morris' MR DEATH instead.

In this admittedly controversial but thought provoking film, Benjamin Meade follows a trail to unlock the mystery posed by old `home movie' footage that he purchased in Hungary. There is something unsettling about these home movies, one scene depicting what appears to be piles and piles of tagged pieces of jewelry. This immediately makes one wonder how a person would come to possess this type of thing right after WWII? Is there a connection to the death camps? Meade taps film expert Stan Brakhage, psychiatrist Dr. Roy Menninger and mystery writer James Ellroy for their interpretations of this odd family footage, but it is the tracking and finding of the (now grown) children who appeared in the original home movies themselves that truly takes this film into bizarro land. The audience members' reactions to this brother and sister are the meat 'n potatoes of this film. Do the sins of the father visit the houses of the children? Well........... do they? Georgia Mueller