Roncsfilm

I'm sure there are messages a plenty in this film but I had a hard time finding them amidst all of the sex and comic violence. I saw the film as a bunch of little vignettes designed to appeal to the common person. Which in this case is chaos and sex. After each brawl, the characters take time out for either flatulence or...sex. Did I mention that this movie has a lot of sex in it?

I can see that it is not easy to fully understand this movie for someone not living in Hungary, or at least Central Eastern Europe. This excellent movie is a satirical depiction of the reality of a certain district of Budapest. More like a social trip than comedy. This movie is so much more than sex, I don't even remember too much sex in it. This is about the life of 'simple' people, their conflicts. The director's speciality is to make the movie look like a documentary, interviewing people. The funny part is that a number of the 'actors' interviewed in his films are not real actors and they just act like they would act in a real situation. So is this movie, perhaps the most famous among the works of Somjas.

I really don't know if this movie is approachable if you haven't lived in Hungary at the beginning of the 90s. For outsiders, it is probably yet another "funny" movie from Eastern Europe. Also the puns and the expressions used in Hungarian can't be rendered fully into English (or any other language). Even in Hungary it was criticized for making fun of socialism, that was anything but.

Still I loved this movie. After seeing it the first time in my high school years, I barely reached the bathroom, I literally almost pissed myself of laughing. I'd probably wouldn't have the same experience by revisiting it, still this movie is part of our culture. Many movies after tried to copy it and failed. For me it is a 9 and if you think I'm biased and nostalgic, you're absolutely right.

I don't wanna rain on anybody's parade, but this was a very bad movie, and I am appalled that so many highly regarded actors and actresses actually signed up for it. I lived in Budapest in the late 80's and early 90's - not exactly on the featured "Harpoon Street," but I still doubt that the film had any roots in reality. The vignettes (or whatever we wanna call them) were bizarre and nonsensical, making the movie (almost) exactly what the title is: a train wreck. As for the puns and references, I'm assuming that "Sernevál" was supposed to be the swine-equivalent of Barnevál, but as such, it completely lacks the witty pun in the original name.

For a GOOD depiction of the life in post-Eastern-Bloc Hungary, I'd rather recommend "Édes Emma, drága Böbe," which is indeed excellent movie (ironically with a notable overlap in the cast). Arguably, it is a completely different genre, so the comparison is not 100% fair, but the point remains: Roncsfilm is a stinker, even as a comedy.