Kopaszkutya
Hungary,
1981, 99 min
Shown in 1989
CREDITS
- dir
-
György Szomjas
- scr
-
György Szomjas, István Kardo
- cam
-
Mihály Halász
- cast
-
Deák, Földes, Pálmai, Póka
- source
-
Hungarofilm
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Part of a six-film in-person tribute in 1989. György Szomjas in person.
OTHER
Not just a Magyar version of This Is Spinal Tap but a powerful expression of working-class frustration, this raunchy (pseudo) rockumentary unfolds against a bleak, beer-sodden world of geeky villages and dreary suburbs. Colorado, a shaggy bunch of decrepit hippies who have been playing together for a decade and never managed even a single radio gig, make a last bid for the big time. Recruiting a one-legged Gypsy bluesman and renaming themselves Bald-Dog, they switch from pseudo American pop to a more authentically Hungarian “prole-rock.” In addition to featuring credible music—performed by the Hobo Blues Band, Hungary’s onetime answer to the Rolling Stones and the irrepressible Gyula “Bill” Deák—Bald-Dog Rock shows scenes ranging from a rural hop at which teenagers twist to a toneless polka ensemble, to a pretentious official band performing amid a cloud of dry-ice vapors, to the rowdy, nihilistic crowds which Bald-Dog attracts until, with loutish integrity, the band self-destructs. Bald-Dog Rock appeared the same year as Hungary’s first filmed rock concert, around the time a native punk movement burst upon the scene. The film is interspersed with quotes from Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and the Beatles—helpfully rendered in English, Russian and Hungarian.
– J. Hoberman
FACTOID #180
According to the Chronicle’s Herb Caen, producer David O. Selznick’s ’last letter and last phone call were to [SFIFF administrator] Shirley Temple Black to whom he said, ’I can’t wait to see you at the Festival.’’ Selznick was the namesake for a series of awards at the San Francisco International.
