SZTRACSATELLA

Kern was not necessarily right because of his talent as an author, director, actor or his unquestionable popularity to think that he could be the focus of a popular and successful movie, but because he is more than merely an actor. He is ¨ The Kern ¨. In the eyes of the public, he is the typical Pestian artist-intellectual, regarding himself with sour irony and living a moderately bohemian life. He builds his film skilfully on this image.

The comparison with Woody Allen seems to be too obvious, yet it might not be useless, because his Hungarian dubbing voice — instinctively or conscientiously — takes over a lot of things form him indeed. Kern deals with himself as well, examines, searches (and loves) himself. He equally opens up himself including all his faults, and for some reason — maybe exactly for the very same reason — he is equally sympathetic. He also is bound to a city, he also has a problematic relationship with women, struggles with neurotic complaints, gets into the hands of a psychiatrist, turns to the audience with a monologue, and can't even miss an allusion to his being a Jew. Maybe the two figures differ at one instance mostly, namely Woody Allen often speaks of philosophical questions which is missing form Sztracsatella, though the question still lingers on in the lightly melancholic atmosphere of the film: What the hell are we living for after all?

Kern plays a conductor in the film, which is not the most fortunate choice on his side, for this is difficult to fit into his image. His movements as a conductor are not credible, therefore the feeling remains with us that this hero doesn't really adore classical music. Approaching from the side of the line of the story there are not too many other choices, however, since the main character is an artist, whose nervous breakdown and love affair is put into a framework by the artistic process. Fine arts or literature would create a closed world, theatre, film would be too direct allusions, so music is left.

Thus the film goes about a conductor, who gets hospitalised during the rehearsals for the reason of some kind of a nervous breakdown, and falls in love with his medical attendant. Though the woman psychiatrist even looses her job in consequence of this relationship, yet the hero doesn't choose her, but he rather returns to his wife, and pretends not to comprehend what his lover accepted for him.

Who is this conductor, this "The Kern", that is mostly András Kern ? He is a distinguished representative of the Great Generation, having been slapped lightly by the wind of ageing. He realises, that he was late from the redemption of the world and he casts an account of his life so far.

The account leads the hero into the hospital, because he can make no head or tail of what is not right with him, and therefore unconsciously he withdraws himself from the circulation. He recalls his past and keeps on putting the question: "where did we do wrong?" - he doesn't get any further, what is more, his healing, his getting back to his old environment and familiar circumstances mean, that he will do the same thing as he did countless times before: he doesn't dare to act, and he tries to belittle what happened. The film calls at all of us at this point: aren't we just like this? We pretend as if we did something, yet we live a fake life, and when finally something could happen to us, we sneak away cowardly, not daring to take the new and we even hurt the one who brought salvation for us. Who of us has not done such things without much self reproach? - suggests the closing monologue of the hero.

One of the pleasant surprises of the film is the professional, thought-over, though not too original direction of Kern. It is well known, that originally he wanted to be a film director, yet it is unexpected, that in his first feature film he is able to show such a level of professional expertise.

The story starts a little clumsily, but then it has a good rhythm all the time and all the scenes are properly placed. Even those scenes, which seemed to be weak in the trailers, deprived of their original context are all right now. The short "time journeys", that is the recalls of the hero of his former self fit well in the plot, and are solved by Kern in an innovative way, cutting his old film appearances in. The clip-like sequences of indisposition, hospitalisation are very effective, and the use of sound effects is splendid. You can see, that Kern paid attention to the development of the film and he applies the latest technics skilfully. There is only one thing, which he didn't manage to do. Budapest did not become as much part of the film as does New York by Woody Allen. Probably because it is only the night scenes which take place in the city. This is not enough like that, regardless of the players mentioning Pestian street names ever so often.

The visual world of the film is by the way like a Postabank-commercial (to say something of the main sponsor). The colours are a bit coarser than the real life, but the general impression is very pleasant, and it meets all visual requirements of a popular movie of today.

Beside Woody Allen Kern could take advantage something else in his producing this film: the traditions of the pre-war Hungarian film comedy making. He develops the film song into an important structural element (and a hit, by the way), while the three main roles are doubtlessly written for the actors in question. Enikő Eszenyi and Dorottya Udvaros bring the same figures which we accustomed to from their parts in the last few years, the former plays a somewhat wild, but naive girl, the latter a more cunning, cooler, mature woman.

Kern plays himself. So much so, that sometimes it seems he simply walks over from the director's seat or form beside the camera into the scene. Yet you cannot tell that their play would be bored, on the contrary. Many friends and acquaintances of Kern appear as side-characters, and all of them are able to create credible characters in their short scenes.

So the debut of András Kern as a director is a nice surprise. It is better and sadder than expected (there are remarkably few points which would evoke uproarious laughter). I is the kind of a little "nice" film.