For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Movies featuring beaches or waterfront scenes. – here’s a review of Current (Sodrásban) (1963) by David of BluePrint: Review.
Thanks again to Darren of Movie Reviews 101 for choosing this month’s genre.
Next month’s genre has been chosen by Paul of the People’s Movies and we will be reviewing our favorite Films About Food.
Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Apr by sending them to food@movierob.net
Try to think out of the box!
Let’s see what David thought of this movie:
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Current (Sodrásban)
Director: István Gaál
Screenplay: István Gaál
Starring: Andrea Drahota, Marianna Moór, Istvánné Zsipi, Sándor Csikós, János Harkányi, András Kozák
Running Time: 86 min
Year: 1963
BBFC Certificate: PG
Current (Sodrásban) is considered one of the first significant films of the Hungarian New Wave. Its director, István Gaál, was well regarded among critics in the 70s, partly due to the strength of this film, but he quickly vanished from their collective memories. He’s now little known away from dedicated followers of Hungarian cinema. Hopefully, this release by Second Run helps reignite interest in the filmmaker as Current (Sodrásban) is truly something special.
The film is set during a hot summer in a small town in Hungary. A group of friends, all on the cusp of adulthood, meet during the holidays before they go their separate ways to work or study. They convene at the beach of their local river and goof around, the boys/men challenging each other to swim to the bottom of the river’s deepest point and come back up with sand from the bed. Much fun is had, until one of the girls in the group notices their friend Gabi (János Harkányi) is missing.
The jovial tone changes as they realise he likely drowned in the river. Over the next few days, the friends try to come to terms with what happened, whilst contemplating their own lives and relationships.
On top of acting as a coming-of-age story, as the synopsis alludes, Current examines time, with the river providing a metaphor for this, and takes an existential look at how we relate to each other and the place in which we live. We see how a range of people from different classes and backgrounds deal with a tragic event. As such, it becomes more than just a simple coming of age tale.
I can often be put off by such philosophical films, but this doesn’t have the plodding pace or literal on-screen discussion of such themes that don’t fit with my preference for more subtle or visual exploration. Using the metaphor of the river, it has a rich, compelling, flowing nature and, as such, feels more like visual poetry than philosophical discourse. Plus, the themes explored are universal and characters varied, preventing you from getting lost or bored in the existential debate.
The visual style is another reason the film won me over. Classics of Hungarian cinema are often known for their choreographed movement and this is beautifully demonstrated here, particularly in the camera movements, though the staging of the performers doesn’t feel forced. The drifting perspective reflects the flow of the river that takes away one of the party, as well as the way in which the characters drift apart from each other over the course of the summer.
The performances are possibly a little too understated, at least after the more raucous first act, but their low key nature fits with the quiet, ponderous nature of the film.
I’m partial to a good coming-of-age film, so this was an easy sell to me, but I think it could be one of the best. Poetic without feeling pretentious, natural but elegant, it’s a remarkably well-directed film and one that deserves to be better known.
MovieRob 