Cinema
American Torso
Amerikai anzix
Gábor Bódy · 1975
Synopsis
North Carolina, 1865: the Civil War is drawing to a close. In the Union army serve Hungarian officers exiled after 1849: the engineer Fiala János, rational, who maps enemy positions with a theodolite; his assistant Boldogh, who still dreams of a European war that would free Hungary; and Vereczky Ádám, a cavalry officer who exposes himself to fire with fatalistic indifference. Each must choose between staying in America and returning home.
Context
It was Bódy's diploma film, produced by the young filmmakers' studio, written from the diaries of Hungarian emigrants, including that of János Fiala; his teachers at first refused to accept it. The following year, it won the first-film grand prize at Mannheim, and the Hungarian critics' prize for a first film. Bódy shot it twice: once in the field, and once at the editing table, where what he called cutting by light damages and fades the image until it looks like an old document.
Who it is for
A black-and-white film with no continuous narrative, in which the aged image and the theodolite serve as the gaze; no French release has been located.
Prizes and reception
Awarded in 1976 at Mannheim as best first film, it is regarded as a landmark of Hungarian experimental cinema.