Károly Makk

Haz a Szikiak Alatt (The House Under the Rocks) is considered by many to be Hungarian director Karoly Makk’s masterpiece. Janos Gorbe plays a soldier, sick of heart and mind, who returns to his home after a long and debilitating war. He finds that his wife is dead, and his son is now under the care of his sister-in-law, played by Irene Psota. An embittered hunchback, Psota tends to Gorbe’s wounds and keeps him isolated from the rest of the village, hoping in this way that he will eventually fall in love with her. He doesn’t, and tragedy is the result. One of the hits of the 1958 Venice Film Festival, Haz a Skikiak Alatt was equally well received at the San Francisco Film Festival (between its European and American showings, the film’s running time had been judiciously trimmed by several minutes).Read More »

The wife of a political prisoner tends to her mother-in-law and keeps from the old woman the truth about her son, whom she believes is in New York making a film.Read More »

The story of two elderly sisters who exchange letters, and through brief flashbacks we see glimpses of their younger years.Read More »

Political and sexual repression in Hungary, just after the revolution of 1956. In 1958, the body of Eva Szalanczky, a political journalist, is discovered near the border. Her friend Livia is in hospital with a broken neck; Livia’s husband, Donci, is under arrest. In a flashback to the year before, we see what leads up to the tragedy. Eva gets a job as a writer. She meets Livia and is attracted to her. Livia feels much the same, but as a married woman, has doubts and hesitations. In their work, they (and Eva in particular) bang up against the limits of telling political truths; in private, they confront the limits of living out sexual and emotional truth.Read More »

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A hunting party arrives at a lodge in the Tatra mountains in Slovakia, where one woman in the party had “accidentally” shot and killed her first husband some time ago.Read More »

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In 1956, there was an uprising of Hungarians against their Russian overlords, which the Russians briefly allowed to flower and then ruthlessly suppressed. One suspects that the country’s rulers knew about the uprising in advance and permitted it to continue so as to be able to identify who was most actively involved. In this film, it is 1958, and five very different men are waiting in their prison cells to be taken out and executed. Their dreams, fantasies and recollection relieve what might otherwise seem to be an unnecessarily repetitive situation. The internationally known French star Matthieu Carrière plays one of the condemned men. ~ Clarke Fountain, RoviRead More »

Synopsis
Broadway star Fitzroy Wynn is thrilled when his wife Lily writes a new script with a brilliant lead role. While ego-centric Fitz thinks himself perfect for the role, Lily dashes his hopes when she admits she wants to find someone different for the part. Fitz refuses to give up his pursuit. Enlisting the reluctant help of his agent, Fitz poses as Roberto Terranova- a young Italian actor and the exact model of what Lily wants for the role. But trouble arises when Lily appears to be falling for the charming Italian and Fitz is left to wonder just how serious she was about finding someone different.Read More »

Hungarian filmmaker Károly Makk was an important figure in the development of Hungarian cinema after WWII. He made his directorial debut in 1954. Prior to that, he attended the Budapest Academy of Film Art and then was an assistant director on Geza von Radvanyi’s Somewhere in Europe. While his films of the ‘60s were well respected in Hungary, Makk’s work did not receive international recognition until 1971, when his Love won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Since then, he has gained an international reputation. His 1982 film Another Way was the first Eastern European film to deal directly with gay and lesbian concerns. (Mubi)Read More »

Makk’s haunting, atmospheric and beautifully performed film, brilliantly shot by Janos Toth, captures exactly the fear and uncertainty of the time. It is, above all, a treatise on how such times affect fidelity, faith, illusion, love. It deals specifically with Hungary but has an absolutely universal appeal… completely unsentimental, but catches precisely what its characters face and how they feel…an outstanding film.Read More »