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At times ideas you conceived as a child will remain with you for the rest of your life.
For example, that you're the reincarnation of a famous scientist and thus are destined for
great things. Or that by the time you are 30 you'll be a famous musician with two kids and
a wife and live in a house of your own. Or that you're carrying some grave and incurable
illness that will be the death of you at the age of 70. A tune snuggles into your ear and
you hum it incessantly.
But it could also be that the whole thing is the fault of the day-care teacher Miss Erzsi
by making you write a composition at the age of ten entitled "What will I be in 20
years". You had to come up with something and it stayed.
András Osváth has strange dreams. Black and white sequences of pictures roll before our
eyes in staccato rhythms. Albert Einstein is dying as his soul wanders into a new-born
little mouse. One 20th century Tuesday near the hairdresser at 3 Lenin Square Dr Oltványi
mathematics professor appears reincarnated in a friendly dog and presents us the Master, a
white mouse, the 33rd reincarnation of Einstein. The little animal soon comes to a sorry
end and its soul moves into the little boy who is just being born in the hairdresser's.
Thus the undeserved transmigration of the great scientist's spirit comes to an end. Mr
Gedeon (the idol of the ladies frequenting his hairdressing salon), who has become quite
nervous due to the sudden lack of water and the appearance of Kati Kovács singer, asks
for a song to crown the birth of the healthy child. Kati Kovács is now shown through
colour shots wearing a crimson red evening dress with golden embroidery, standing in front
of a rampant green bush as she sings "Throughout a Summer".
Who knows where the flow of images would have carried us if András' mother hadn't entered
the room to wake up her son with gentle force. In the five minutes of immediate answers we
find out much key information, among which the most important: András is 30 today.
Today everyone and everything reminds him of what he hasn't got and what according to an
uncertain inkling he feels he ought to have. He decides to take action in order to acquire
everything that a "normal person at the age of 30" should possess. Perhaps for
the first time in his life he behaves in a purposeful manner. He makes a plan of action
which includes the experience of making love with two women, a car, a wife/kid and house -
all linked to strict time limits. András ticks off the points concerning the women and
the car in the morning, meets a pregnant woman who'll be his wife for the day, gets the
house before midnight and is thus able to carry out his short-term plans. The question is
whether anything has changed in the meantime.
Happy Birthday!, Csaba Fazekas' first film is an enjoyable piece. His intentions
are clearly to entertain, making us consider among other things the trueness of our
ideals. The film starts off in a powerful whirl, the first sequence of pictures has been
carefully elaborated, and although the influence of Péter Tímár is slightly emphasised
it is nevertheless captivating. The farcical situations make you smile and there is no
shortage of ironic ideas. The impetus and bitter subtle humour of the first part is mainly
attributable to the precise dosage of minor comic situations: the jokes aren't overacted
and the moments of pathos are immediately counterpoised by mocking reaction to
re-establish a balance, indicating the film-makers' quiet-serene, yet sober outlook on
life. The excellently composed musical undertones intensify the atmosphere of the scenes -
be it the humming of Emil RuleZ!, or various pieces of jazz.
The absence of music also reduces the pace in the middle of the film. The scenes lengthen
and the duel-like dialogues of the first part are exchanged for conversations with a
slower flow. The first part contains several well-selected scenes that outline András'
character: a self-contained, 30 year-old music teacher who lives with his single mother in
Újlipótváros in Budapest. However in the part following Gyöngyi's appearance this
accuracy is somewhat lost and the new pieces of information become slightly childish.
Gyöngyi's entering the scene alters the course of things in many ways. For a while we get
the impression that this film is no longer about the birthday boy, although it was András
who chose the girl - more or less intentionally - because he needed a wife and child to
accomplish his plan.
András is unable to decide whether his 30th birthday is really the divider he had
previously imagined it to be. Everything seems to contradict this. The doctor's assistant
enthusiastically asks: "Is it your birthday today?" and then adds: "Please
pee in this then." The once cherished ideals become embodied (doubly in the case of
the whores) in a disillusioning and - let's admit - ridiculous manner. András cannot
determine whether there are uplifting moments and rock bottoms at the same time. Having
checked it out on the Internet, he goes into a long treatise on his supposed illness but
resembles more a nitpicking young adolescent. In the end he stays outside everything as if
having no responsibilities or connection in general to anything. This is not a conscious
withdrawal; it is more that András is still a little boy in the midst of manhood. He has
few conflicts and even then his moral indignation doesn't last long. He is no Superman
hero and what's more provokes dislike when preparing to abandon the entrapped Gyöngyi.
András is characterised by few things that would elicit from an average woman the
caressing look with which Gyöngyi's eyes follow him during the conversation with the
ex-schoolmate.
The schoolmate, Giuseppe, according to our superficial notions is a successful person. He
has a good job, a car and a flat. The image is somewhat spoilt by the fact that he's not
his own boss, he rents his flat, his car is company-owned and he has no partner. But he's
not worried by his future, in fact he's never even thought of worrying about it. András
keeps lamenting the loss of time and carefully works out, for example, when he has to get
married so that his grandchild should have the chance to attend his funeral. He lives in
the grasp of time and this has not much to do with his 30th birthday: he has been feeling
pains of psychosomatic origin in his stomach for nine years now. He feels discontented
without knowing the reason why. At dawn following his birthday his greatest fear comes
true: he's unable to get down the stairs before the light goes out. He finally lets
himself go in this state that verges on death and accepts from Dr Oltványi - who appears
in the story as a kind of resonator - that moments have to be lived to the full with quiet
serenity and no hang-ups. Maybe just like his mother lives them. Or the way Csaba Fazekas
directed this film... Recognition draws an indulgently kind smile on András' face as his
mother - just as at the beginning of the film - , leaning above his head, wishes him a
happy birthday.
The film is pleasantly amusing and has a harmonized atmosphere despite its rhythmic
blunders. Humour is provided by gags and melancholy by the knowledge of the real
circumstances of our heroes. Three different generations are drafted: the situation of the
mother raising her child alone in the seventies is as far from being rosy as the life of Péter
and his wife who were in the right place at the change of regime - just from a different
viewpoint. András is incapable of finding his place in general, his mother will
supposedly continue to live alone at 18 Pannónia Street and due to her age will never
become a high-flier at one of the big multinationals, while Péter and his wife have
missed out on kids during the ten years of accumulating capital. And then there's Gyöngyi
who at the end of the film is forced to give up her dubious enterprise because she's
expecting a child. What will become of her? But this is no longer András' story. It is
not by chance that the announcement comes one minute after midnight. András could help -
hope flashes in Gyöngyi's eyes when, before getting onto the train, he calls out after
her - but the offer never comes.
But anyway what can he offer? To marry her after their one-day acquaintance? What could
lead them out of a dead end? The film has no intention of trying to find solutions for the
situations the heroes are in. It is only András who recognises something by the end of
the day. But after all it is his birthday...
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