Dealer

You might like Fliegauf's "Dealer" maybe if you haven't seen his earlier films. They are all clones, of which "Dealer" is at least the 4th of a kind, the others being "Is there life before death?", "Talking Heads" and "Rengeteg". His films use the same schema: extremely long close-ups of monologues. You can call this a "personal style", but it is also a trade-off for creativity and experimenting.

The reason why "Dealer" has been so successful in Hungary and elsewhere is probably because the issue of drugs is overpoliticised and it has been de facto taboo. In the last decade or so there have been very few Hungarian films on this topic, all of them were depicting drugs (undifferentiatedly) as the ultimate evil. "Dealer" certainly has a different approach, because it makes you mostly laugh at, and/or - to a lesser extent - feel sorry for drug users, whereas the other movies were intended mostly to make you hate drugs (and/or - to a lesser extent - also feel sorry for drug users). So this movie suits for both pro-drug and anti-drug people, because of not making any clear statements about the issue. It is yet to be seen whether Fliegauf or any other Hungarian director could make an intelligent and socially significant impact on the issue of drugs in Hungary.

"The Dealer" is a revolutionary movie which i had the luck to watch in a theater, and not in a DVD (i think it's going to be released on April of 2006). I believe that's why i manage to recognize it's unique atmosphere and photograph. From the beginning till the end, "Dealer" and ourselves become one, even if we do not identify on everything. His actions, his thoughts are not represented in the film but inside the viewers. I believe it's one of the few times someone skipped the dialogs and preferred thinking. What starts as small self-discovering for the "Dealer" soon transforms and becomes as a personal renaissance. Love and vanity, apathy and affection, this endless battle between them, is the main core of this movie A brilliant presentation, a modern philosophical play...

Apart from directing and the photograph, "The Dealer" presented an extraordinary montage and a unique soundtrack. Modern electro-noise sounds did not just accompany the scenes. Are combined with them!

You have to see it to believe it.

This film really is pretty slow, but the atmosphere is so strong and depressive, that it simply can't be boring. I enjoyed every second of the movie and I really love the slow camera movement and the concrete, although not naturalistic dialogues. In this things nothing is showed as we can see it in the real life, but at the same time, everything in this film is completely true. The things work, and they are seen from a completely different point of view as in other drug-films. This film really shows a prototype of a new dealer. We can't talk about characters, they are prototypes, but they are made perfectly. The mood of the film is fascinating, meditating and exciting. Those bizarre sounds... I mean, in this film, everything is in it's right place, I've never seen another so clear and original film, with a complex view of a problem. This is why I love this movie.

Gradually, I've come to appreciate slowness in cinema. I'm getting sort of fed up with action-packedness, video clip-like editing and the fact that if for ten seconds no one speaks on the screen the audience starts chatting, because obviously, there is nothing important going on.

However, I do not think much of this film of Fliegauf Benedek. I appreciated hist last piece (Rengeteg), I liked it's sketch-based structure, the amateur freshness of acting and especially the language, which is farther to the artistic, created language of the Hungarian cinema in the last couple of decades than anything I've seen for a long time. Now, in Dealer all this are present, but they rather work against the movie. The actors are terribly, incredibly bad (consider Barbara or the mathematician girl). If this is conscious than it is simply BAD. The language is terribly artificial - and there is no meaning for this at all. They usually quote that Dealer is slow and beautiful. I think, you have to be a very good director to be able to direct a slow film that works. For me this wasn't slow, but boring. I reckon, I understand why he wanted to make it so slow, but then there has to be something else to keep the movie alive - most favorably actors. Who act. All in all, I think this film is repulsively artificial, pretentious and pretty much forced.

This has to be one of the finest films I have ever seen. Not the Hollywood propaganda regurgitated kosher crap, but a dark expose of a subject long overdue for some sunlight. But be warned though, this film doesn't put bangles and lipstick on a monkey and call her Sally; its an artists and philosophers film about a tragic aspect of modern society our psychopathic leaders profit from while playing dumb. It is definitely not for the shallow thinkers, or someone seeking light entertainment. To anyone who has walked in the shoes this film portrays, either via a family member or personally, the genius of this film will be readily apparent and chill you to the bone. The actors, mainly 1st timers were all superb. Shot in Buda and Pest, Hungary should be proud of this one. It is a very sadly magnificent film.