Movie review: Kontroll (Revizoři - recenze)
- Vložil Trupík 5/24/2006 10:55:55 AM
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- title: Kontroll (2003)
- origin: Hungary
- length: 110 minutes
- directed by: Nimród Antal
- starring: Sándor Csányi , Zoltán Mucsi , Csaba Pindroch , Bence
Mátyási
First thing you see is a sort of disclaimer announcing that you should not
judge the quality of Budapest’s public transport on the basis of what you are
going to see in the film. And I didn’t get it. The movie is much more
sur- than reality and I can hardly imagine anybody taking it as an insight
to the current situation in Budapest’s metro.
Title “Kontroll” stands for ticket control in the metro. The main
characters are ticket inspectors (and the movie itself is sometimes translated
as Ticket inspectors by its distributors). Kontroll is that kind of a movie you
watch after you heard about it (at least I don’t know any die-hard fans
of Hungarian cinematography), so, as you have heard or read, most of the movie
takes place in the Budapest’s underground. But after a while you realize that
probably the film isn’t going to leave the underground at all. And one
particular key scene convinces you about it definitively.
In front of you there are one hundred and ten minutes of grayness, dusty
tiles, blinking fluorescent lamps, incomprehensible traffic announcements,
veteran train units and black-caped killers. Don’t expect any funny stowaway
pursuits. The daily routine of a ticket inspector covers only a small part of
the movie. If you don’t count life-and-death runs in the trackage before the
deadly wheels of the last train.
You first encounter the main character sleeping at the deserted metro
station. When the first morning train arrives, one of the passengers comes
closer to Bulcsu and tells him he is bleeding from his nose. Bulcsu stands up,
puts on his arm strip (mark of the Budapest’s ticket inspector) and asks the
man for his ticket. Bulcsu is at about thirty years old, leader of one of the
ticket inspectors group and natural authority for all his colleagues who admire
him. And he is trapped. It is one of the first mysteries of the movie – we
don’t know why, but he is unable or not willing to leave the area of the
metro. And so don’t expect a single beam of sunlight in the movie. Bulcsu
lives his life under the ground, sleeps in abandoned stations and eats and
drinks stuff vending machines give away. He is acquainted with the underground
more than anybody.
The main plot follows Bulcsu’s steps but there are a lot more interesting
characters – there is an old train driver Bela (who was degradead from the
above-ground trains) and his pretty daughter Szofi (wearing a bear costume and
righting the small everyday wrongs happening on the train), the incurable
stowaway (for whom the pursuits with inspectors are like an adrenalin sport)
and… … a mysterious black-caped killer. He never speaks, emerges from
nowhere, is smart enough to avoid the sight of security cameras. He attacks
without warning and several victims have already ended up under the wheels of
the incoming train. No one ever sees anything and the killings are treated as
accidents and suicides…
After some time, Bulcsu and the killer meet close up. So close that Bulcsu is
accused of the last murder. There is no evidence but because he is not trusted
(even some of his colleagues suspect him – after all, he wouldn’t be the
first inspector gone crazy, only a few days ago, one of the inspector just slit
stowaways throat), Bulcsu leaves the company angrily – knowing that he is the
only one capable of catching the killer – because the killer seems to know
the underground almost as perfectly as Bulcsu does.
Mysterious is the attribute characterizing the movie the best. Mystery built
upon the everyday mediocrity. What can be less mysterious, than a public
transport? Ohh, you would be surprised! The plain, functional and
claustrophobic interiors of the stations are populated by strange and weird
people. Some snow-white good, others pure evil. And some maybe both? It is hard
to resist the feeling that Bulcsu and the killer are somehow connected… The
movie is a lot about visual impressions. Brilliant editing and camera-work
allow you to penetrate into the atmosphere. The dialogues are short and many
things remain unsaid – this is what you notice very soon. Hollywood movies
are often full of blather, in “Kontroll”, only what is necessary is told
out loud. If I should compare this style to something I have seen
before, it resembles David Lynch’s works in some ways.
When you are actually watching Kontroll, you may experience some periods of
slight boredom, but after the final credits roll away, you will recommend it to
all of your friends – and, probably, you will use words “must see”.
Because this movie is really different from anything you have seen so far and
those one hundred minutes are totally worth it.
Jak se vám líbili Revizoři