Forthcoming: The Fifth Seal

[MichaelB]

Zoltán Fábri's 1976 film confirmed as an upcoming Second Run release here.

[What A Disgrace]

It would be a dream if this were part of a 2nd Hungarian Masters collection.

[yoloswegmaster]

Bikey, can you confirm if this is coming out this year?

[swo17]

I watched this as "just another film from 1976" from the third Hungarian Fábri boxset without placing that it was this film Second Run had announced nor realizing it's bona fides (for instance, this list calls it the best Hungarian film of all time(!), and it also has an 8.6 average score on IMDb, which is higher than most films in their top 250). Anyway, now that I've dashed all hope of others going into this with low expectations, I'll simply add that yes, it's quite good. The film's central question is compelling enough (is happiness preferable that comes from obliviousness or knowing suffering?) but then gets flipped around in some intriguing ways when it becomes more than just a philosophical exercise, i.e. how oblivious is anyone really, and how can we keep those insufferable knowing sufferers from being so smug? In a way the film ends up being like Scorsese or Shinoda's Silence, only replacing the test of one's faith in God with having faith in humanity.

Spoiler

Interesting that in the end, the one prisoner willing to make the symbolic gesture against human decency to save his own skin is the only one that was shown earlier to actually be standing up to the Nazi regime in his own life by sheltering Jewish children. The others died as martyrs, being pure in their word you might say, but what purity had there been in their actions? Which of these sacrifices is worth more points in The Good Place?

[ryannichols7]

will be watching this tonight or tomorrow night for the '76 project, with the thread bump I thought it was getting an announce!

worth noting that Park Chan Wook just shouted it out too

It would be a dream if this were part of a 2nd Hungarian Masters collection.

what I'm hoping for, though it seems it'll be a solo release. we are very close to their November announcement, which has been a big box...

[MichaelB]

It's well worth noting that while non-Hungarians rave about Miklós Jancsó and Béla Tarr, Hungarians themselves tend to favour Zoltán Fábri and Zoltán Huszárik, who are still nowhere near as well known outside Hungary as they deserve to be.

[What A Disgrace]

Szindbád and Csontváry would make for an ideal double feature.

[MichaelB]

You could pretty easily squeeze Huszárik's entire output, including the shorts, into a two-disc set, which would instantly become one of the greatest releases in Second Run's entire history.

But I suspect suitable materials aren't available right now, because ideally you'd want everything in HD. I know Szindbád has been restored, as has the 1966 short Elégia (tantalising full HD clip here), but I haven't a clue about the rest.

[Calvin]

You could pretty easily squeeze Huszárik's entire output, including the shorts, into a two-disc set, which would instantly become one of the greatest releases in Second Run's entire history.

But I suspect suitable materials aren't available right now, because ideally you'd want everything in HD. I know Szindbád has been restored, as has the 1966 short Elégia (tantalising full HD clip here), but I haven't a clue about the rest.

As per the NFI's restoration list, Csontváry was given a 2K restoration in 2020 and "Huszárik rövidfilmek" (which Google translate tells me is Huszárik short films) were restored in 4K the previous year. A piacere, Amerigo Tot, Capriccio, Elégia, and Tisztelet az öregasszonyoknak are all listed individually as 4K restorations as well