59 Father

[MichaelB]

Yes, I think it's the same basic transfer, though Second Run have - as ever - cleaned up the subtitles so they read more idiomatically.

[jbeall]

DVDBeaver raves.

Considering this is the SD format - the image quality is... magnificent.

[Bikey]

Full details of our release are now up at the Second Run DVD website.

[RossyG]

DVDBeaver: "The flat 2.0 channel Hungarian-language audio sometimes appears less in-sync but it is a trivial complaint as you work through the film and it becomes barely noticeable."

Do they mean the DVD is slightly at fault or is the out-of-synch sound a result of looping? :-k

[knives]

The dialogue is mostly voice over so I don't see how he could have even noticed such a thing.

[Bikey]

A great review from Michael Ewins at his splendid E-Film blog

[Bikey]

A new interview with István Szabó at The Arts Desk

[Bikey]

A great 5-star review from Subtitledonline

[Bikey]

A wonderful appreciation by Michael Brooke in the latest Sight & Sound

[MichaelB]

The Digital Fix:

Father arrives onto UK DVD with arguably Second Run’s finest black and white presentation to date. Despite housing only the 85-minute feature itself, a dual-layered disc has been utilised and the transfer is practically flawless.

[Bikey]

A 4-star review in the current Time Out

[jbeall]

Finally watched this earlier today, and I thought it was very impressive. The film screams for psychoanalytic readings from a variety of perspectives, but why go there? I especially like the sinister possibilities of the narrator's idolatry, as depicted in the marchers carrying signs of Stalin (interesting overlap with Makavejev's W.R...) and the alternative possibility suggested by his childhood friend who's a bit more blasé about his noble father's not-so-noble emigration to Germany.

Finally, this film has a couple of obvious moments, but given the subject matter, it's to Szabo's credit that Apa is nowhere near as heavy-handed as it could have been. The move from the individual story to its larger social implications is treated as occurring within the narrator's consciousness, which is at the same time part and parcel of his transition to adulthood, especially as he entertains the prospect of becoming a father himself.