Rosszemberek
Hungary,
1979, 93 min
Shown in 1989
CREDITS
- dir
-
György Szomjas
- scr
-
György Szomjas, Péter Dobai
- cam
-
Mihály Halász
- cast
-
Djoko Rosic, János Derzsi, György Dörner, Mari Kiss, Miklós Benedek
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Part of a six-film in-person tribute in 1989. György Szomjas in person.
OTHER
Roistering action rendered all the more tumultuous through the frequent use of a handheld, verité-style camera, György Szomjas’s second exploration of Hungary’s mid-19th-century betyárvilág (outlaw-world) is even more mannerist than The Wind Is Whistling Under Their Feet. This follow-up feature is set a quarter-century later, in the aftermath of the failed anti-Austrian revolt, when the woods and marshes of western Hungary provided sanctuary for marauding bands of outlaw veterans (As in Szomjas’s first goulash western, craggy Djoko Rosic makes a splendidly foreboding bandit king). Again drawing on popular ballads and folklore, Szomjas spins a bloody yarn of revenge and betrayal, while developing his distinctively anarchic style—the film is a doubly anti-authoritarian riot of wide-angle closeups, distracting sunbursts and abrupt swish-pans.
—J. Hoberman
FACTOID #25
The San Francisco International showed Lina Wertm’ller’s first film, The Lizards, in 1963. A favorite of Bay Area audiences, her features All Screwed Up and The Seduction of Mimi had their U.S. premieres at the SFIFF in 1972 and 1974.
