Cinema
Merry-Go-Round
Körhinta
Zoltán Fábri · 1956
Synopsis
In a Hungarian village of the fifties, István Pataki wants to leave the agricultural cooperative, which nevertheless guarantees him a living, and give his daughter Mari to the wealthy farmer Sándor Farkas in order to join their lands. But Mari loves Máté Bíró, whom she met at the cooperative, and stands up to her father. At a wedding, she dances with Máté without restraint, and Farkas, who cannot contain his anger, openly confronts his rival.
Context
The film is based on a story by Imre Sarkadi, which Fábri and László Nádasy adapted; it was shot in 1955 and released in Budapest on 2 February 1956. Fábri himself designed the sets. For the scene that gives the film its title, the cinematographer Barnabás Hegyi climbed onto the carousel with the actors, and the camera turns with them. Mari Törőcsik, then a drama student, was revealed by this role. At Cannes, the same year, it went home without a prize, but François Truffaut defended it.
Who it is for
Ninety minutes in black and white, set against the collectivisation of land, restored in 2017 and released in France on DVD by Potemkine.
Prizes and reception
In competition at Cannes in 1956, shown again at Cannes Classics in 2017, and included among the twelve best Hungarian films in 1968 as in 2000.
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