A Tanú - The Witness / Region 2 - Hungarian Film

'T'is folly to be wise.Blissful ignorance was certainly an advantage in post-World War II Hungary during the regime of Matyas Rakosi. Rakosi, in his dual capacity as General Secretary of the Communist Party and Prime Minister of Hungary, did not take kindly to dissent or independent thought. Rakosi often described himself as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple". Like Stalin, Rakosi liked to utilize "salami tactics", the elimination of opponents or perceived opponents slice by slice. It is not surprising that Rakosi was deposed and fled Hungary shortly after Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the USSR's 20th-party Congress in 1956."The Witness", Hungarian director Peter Bacso's wickedly funny farce, is set in Rakosi's Hungary. Filmed in 1969 "The Witness" was not shown in Hungary until after its version of the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989.Pelikan, the hero of "The Witness" certainly seems full of bliss and devoid of folly. He is a village dam-keeper. His job is to watch the waters of the local river and open the gates whenever the situation warrants. Played brilliantly by Ferenc Kallai, Pelikan's life is focused on his simple job and keeping his family fed. Unfortunately, one way to keep his family fed in a time of food shortages and strict rationing is to grow a pig and then slaughter it in secret. The consequences of this illegal act form the plot for the movie.No sooner has the film started than Pelikan gets caught with a basement full of pork products. Pelikan is carted off to prison. But, rather than imprisonment or execution Pelikan is wined and dined by high level party functionaries, released from prison and given a new and better job. Pelikan is spectacularly unsuited for the new job and disaster strikes. Again, he is carted off to jail and then wined, dined, and given another new job. All Pelikan wants to do is get back to his dam. But the party has another job in store for him. He is expected to testify as a witness at the trial of another high level functionary being purged via a show trial. The trial and its aftermath provide the conclusion to the movie. As in most well-made `farces' the conclusion is not just funny but also thought provoking.It is hard to describe how funny this film is. Kallai's acting brings Pelikan to life. His acting is very visual and that more than makes up for the fact the dialogue is in subtitles. Pelikan's visual reactions to the events around him translate remarkably well into any language. Bacso's black and white cinematography and direction are also excellent.It certainly helps to have some background information about post World War II Hungary but even without that information "The Witness" can be seen and enjoyed. The themes of venality and bureaucratic ineptitude and hypocrisy cross all national and political boundaries.I enjoyed The Witness immensely and can recommend it without hesitation.

Péter Bacsó's brilliant film "A Tanu" (The Witness) is a classic of political satire and highly recommended for any film collection specializing in politics or humor. Shot in 1969 but set in the dark Stalinist period of twenty years earlier, the film approaches the gruesome subject of the Stalinist purges through typical Eastern European dark humor, focusing on the fictional life of a simple earthen dam tender, József Pelikán, who gets inadvertantly caught up in larger political storms far beyond his small world in rural Hungary. Though clearly white-washed and "kid-gloved" in many respects - for instance, the prison scenes portrayed seem quite civil and belie the widespread use of torture by the communists in this era - the film still confronts many aspects of this historical period that can still, in this simplified form, shock us today. Indeed, the film itself was banned by the communist Hungarian government in 1969 until 1981 (for showings outside Hungary) and finally in 1989 when the communist regime imploded. Bacsó includes scenes that show aspects of life at that time which Western observers might overlook, such as the near-famine conditions due to food production and distribution networks being severely undermined by Stalinist policies, or the irony of a loyal but naive communist like the protagonist, József Pelikán, ending up in the same prison cell as the former fascist collaborator who tortured Pelikán during World War II. This, again, is how Eastern Europeans use humor to describe or approach bitter historical subjects. The extreme ideological focus of those years that produced so much lunacy and incompetence will be hillariously apparent to all watchers, however, and this film is guaranteed to make you laugh. An inside joke in Hungary today that originated from this film, by the way, is the Hungarian orange - the subject of some hysterically funny scenes in the film - which a post-1989 political party, FIDESZ, adopted as its symbol. This film fits majestically into a larger category of communist-era satire films such as those by the Czech director Jiri Menzel, and is highly recommended.

I started out not really responding to this satire on Hungary's postrevolution socialist absurdities. Maybe I had heard too much hype.It occupies the same sort of tone as 'Dr. Strangelove', but to me thejokes were less funny and more obvious, as well as more repetitive.But as it went along, and the insanity got deeper, it began to grow onme.And while it didn't leave me feeling it was the masterpiece many see itas, it does have it's share of funny, dark and disturbing moments, andI would gladly revisit it someday. Sometimes the best films (with theoddest tones) need a second viewing.NB: the transfer on this DVD version leaves a lot to be desired. Watchable,but little if any restoration seems to have been done, and it looks like itwas made from an old print. More like the level of a good VHS tape.

Yes, this film is a classic, and I love it. But don't use this version to introduce your English-speaking kids to their Hungarian heritage. Whoever did the subtitles wasn't a good enough translator to convey any subtlety at all, and instead just relied on the f-bomb anytime emphasis seemed indicated. Of course Hungarian is hard to translate, and there's no real way to indicate the levels of formality the characters use in speaking to each other, etc. But most reasonably literate bilingual types could have done a better job. Watching it with my husband, I was translating and commenting for him the whole time. Also, at several places the subtitles froze and left big chunks of a scene untranslated. Oh yes, and the translations of captions flashed by so fast it was almost impossible to get them.