More, but nothing new, about misuse of power

Personal drama from the bleak universe of Miklós Jancsó

two concepts previously met at bergman and antonioni

András Kozák and Zoltán Latinovits in Silence and Cry (1968)

Andrea Drahota, András Kozák, József Madaras, and Mari Töröcsik in Silence and Cry (1968)

Andrea Drahota, József Madaras, and Mari Töröcsik in Silence and Cry (1968)

József Madaras in Silence and Cry (1968)

Andrea Drahota, András Kozák, and Mari Töröcsik in Silence and Cry (1968)

Andrea Drahota and András Kozák in Silence and Cry (1968)

Mari Töröcsik

József Madaras

Zoltán Latinovits

Gyula Hernádi

Miklós Jancsó

Miklós Jancsó&apos;s Silence and Cry is set during a turbulent era of disquiet, fear, persecution and terror, which permeates every corner of post-WWI Hungarian society. In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule the Hungarian ...

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The story takes place just after WW1. A right wing government has taken over after a short lived communist government. A young left wing leader is hiding at a farm where women behave like victims (which they are) but at the same time they are plotting against the arrogant and stupid men in power. Men who are proud of the fact that they would kill their own father if they were ordered to do so. In this right wing culture the capacity to obey is a bigger virtue than the capacity to love.

Miklós Jancsó is dealing with the same themes in this film as in The Red and the White (1967) and The Round-Up (1966). It is shot in the same style and is just as pessimistic. Silence and Cry is however far from as hard hitting as the other two. It is only 73 minutes long but I got restless while watching it. I felt Miklós Jancsó was just repeating himself here with nothing new or clever to say about misuse of power. It is only at the end of the film that something of interest starts to happen.

It is a little strange that this does not work as well as the other ones since this has more of a plot. Maybe the problem is that the plot is revealed too late. For most of the time we don&apos;t know what is happening and we don&apos;t get these wonderful atmosphere scenes as in The Round-Up and The Red and the White. We know there is a story here but we are never really a part of it (or at least I was not).

The story takes place just after WW1. A right wing government has taken over after a short lived communist government. A young left wing leader is hiding at a farm where women behave like victims (which they are) but at the same time they are plotting against the arrogant and stupid men in power. Men who are proud of the fact that they would kill their own father if they were ordered to do so. In this right wing culture the capacity to obey is a bigger virtue than the capacity to love.

Miklós Jancsó is dealing with the same themes in this film as in The Red and the White (1967) and The Round-Up (1966). It is shot in the same style and is just as pessimistic. Silence and Cry is however far from as hard hitting as the other two. It is only 73 minutes long but I got restless while watching it. I felt Miklós Jancsó was just repeating himself here with nothing new or clever to say about misuse of power. It is only at the end of the film that something of interest starts to happen.

It is a little strange that this does not work as well as the other ones since this has more of a plot. Maybe the problem is that the plot is revealed too late. For most of the time we don't know what is happening and we don't get these wonderful atmosphere scenes as in The Round-Up and The Red and the White. We know there is a story here but we are never really a part of it (or at least I was not).

Miklós Jancsó's Silence and Cry is set during a turbulent era of disquiet, fear, persecution and terror, which permeates every corner of post-WWI Hungarian society. In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule the Hungarian Republic of Councils falls victim to a nationalist counter-revolution. Admiral Horthy, leader of the nationalist far right movement, becomes the self-proclaimed regent of Hungary, and assumes power as the legal Head of State. Soldiers of the short-lived Hungarian Red Army are now on the run from relentless secret policemen and patrol units of the nationalist Royal Gendarme. If caught, ex-Red Army soldiers are executed without mercy or proper trial. István Cserzi, a former soldier of the Red Army has fled to the Great Hungarian Plains and has taken refuge on a farm, which is run by two sympathetic women. Due to the generosity of these women and a former childhood pal, who is now a commandant of the local Royal Gendarme outfit, István is safely hidden from the ever-prying eyes of the secret policemen, who relentlessly roam the countryside searching for ex-Red Army men and their sympathisers. However, upon discovering that the women are secretly poisoning the mother-in-law and the husband, the legal owners of the farm, István must make the most difficult decision of his life. As a personal war is waging within his own consciousness over morality and self-preservation, István must decide whether to remain silent about the women's devious secret and preserve his own life, or to report their heinous crime to the Royal Gendarme, which would also mean certain death for him.

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