Gloomy Sunday “Gloomy Sunday” is a famous song, most widely known for Billie Holiday's 1941 version. The song was written by Hungarian Rezso Seress in 1933. If you have not heard it, the song is available on “Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Billie Holiday” for a very reasonable price. This particular budget priced CD is not a bad choice for the Billie Holiday novice and includes one my favorite songs by her, “You've Changed”. The song, “Gloomy Sunday”, is the subject of a popular myth that it is has been connected to a large number of suicides. I have never read anything that would make you think this was true. Rezso Seress did commit suicide in 1968, quite a while after writing this song. Maybe the song works on you very slowly. The myth was much more likely created as a marketing ploy used to generate interest in the song. If this is true, that is was one promoter that should have gotten a pay raise. The song has different sets of lyrics and has been covered many times over the years by a wide range of artists.
The film, Gloomy Sunday (the German Title is Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod ), has been released in a no frills wide-screen edition DVD with English subtitles. The movie was made in 1999 and won many awards (no Oscars though). The transfer is well done. The film is based on a novel by Nick Barkow, and the novel does not seem to be available in an English version. The film has to do with a love triangle between a waitress and two men, one of whom wrote “Gloomy Sunday”. The film is presented as a flashback and set in Budapest . It not only deals with the writing of “Gloomy Sunday” but also with World War II and how the German occupation affected this woman and her two lovers. I am not going to delve deeply into the plot specifics. I would rather you find them out for yourself while viewing the film. The film incorporates fact along with fiction, but it should not be taken as the true story of the song “Gloomy Sunday”. The basic plot is entirely fiction. This point is not stated in a negative sense. The film is very well done, and you could easily be led into thinking the film/novel was based on a true story.
The film is wonderfully acted by the entire cast. The direction is very confident, and was done by Rolf Schubel. Rolf Schubel wrote the screenplay along with Ruth Toma. There is not a false step in the entire film. I have never understood why some people are so afraid of reading subtitles in films. I am so used to reading subtitles that I totally forget that is what I am doing. I would swear they were speaking English after I finished watching a subtitled movie. If you have never taken the leap into foreign films this would be an excellent start. The screenplay is very well written and never less than clever. Within the movie there is a point where the two men agree to share the waitress between them instead of clashing over her, and this point did not feel honest to me (I am still waiting for two women to agree to share me but of course if I was as good looking a man as Erika Marozsán, who plays the waitress, is a good looking woman, then maybe, just maybe, my dream would come true ), but if you duck your head and keep going, you will not be sorry. The settings and décor of the movie were tastefully done and believable. The plot may be a little melodramatic and manipulative for some tastes, but the acting and direction pulls you in and doesn't let up till the very end of the movie. Even though death is a large part of the movie, the movie is not just especially gloomy in tone. It is more complicated than that. The film plays very smoothly (and you may be able to second guess the ending halfway into the movie though I did not until about ten minutes before the end), does have a little sex and nudity, but the sex plays well within the plot and does not seem out of place. The only small point with the DVD I noticed is that they do not include subtitles when the song which is sung about halfway into the movie. I think the movie would have played a little better if they had included the lyrics at this point. I wanted to know what they were. By far the weakest point of many American movies is a weak screenplay; either by having a plot that you gives you a headache with holes so big you could drive a Hummer though them, or by having really uninteresting and boring dialogue. I strongly expect that this is mainly the result of making a movie by committee. Gloomy Sunday is a good example of what can be done when a little care and thought is applied. If you are seeking a movie that is a little out of the mainstream but worth the time, please look no further. Give subtitles a chance.
You can write James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com |
