Search - A Long Weekend in Pest and Buda on DVD

Lovely Hungarian Film... Ugly DVD transfer from Facets/Bunyi

dooby | 09/23/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a lovely film, the final work of Hungarian film-maker Karoly Makk. It tells of an aging man's return to Hungary after some 40 years in exile following his involvement in the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Now happily retired and living in Switzerland with his wife, he suddenly receives a call telling him that the love of his younger days is dying. He hurries home, visits her in hospital and learns of her life; of the secrets she kept from him and of the daughter he never realised he had. It's a very quiet, subdued, nostalgic film; sad but with a glimmer of hope at the end.

The DVD from Facets/Bunyik is an utter disgrace. The producers should be charged with false adverstising. The DVD cover blatantly states that the film is in 16:9 Anamorphic. But it is nothing of the sort. It is in the original 1.85:1 widescreen but letterboxed into a standard 4:3 frame (Non-anamorphic). The lack of anamorphic enhancement is not the worst of it. The picture looks truly execrable. The print is extremely dark. Faces are almost perpetually in shadow. Even scenes in broad daylight look murky. In darker scenes, you can forget about seeing what is happening onscreen. The image is extremely soft, approaching blurriness. Colours occasionally smear. There is a dirty yellowish-brownish tint on the print that makes the film look like something from the 1960s. You'd never believe this film came from 2003. The DVD player defaults to "Bob" mode during deinterlacing, usually indicating a video source as opposed to an original film source (It looks like this was taken off a video-master instead of the original film and judging by the poor quality I'm sure that's the case). Optional English subtitles are included. The only Extra is a 12-minute interview with Karoly Makk which looks beautiful in contrast to the horrid main feature. Utterly disgraceful and totally unrecommendable. Rent it if you must, but don't reward Facets/Bunyik by buying this."