{"id":9498,"date":"2010-07-03T18:19:53","date_gmt":"2010-07-04T02:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9498"},"modified":"2010-07-03T18:20:51","modified_gmt":"2010-07-04T02:20:51","slug":"bibliotheque-pascal-szabolcs-hajdu-2010-germany-hungary-uk-romania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9498","title":{"rendered":"Biblioth\u00e9que Pascal (Szabolcs Hajdu, 2010): Germany, Hungary, UK, Romania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at Regal Cinemas, Los Angeles Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fantasy and surrealism can be used in many ways in film.\u00a0 Sometimes the audience is free to simply grab a hold of the crazy train and enjoy the madness, as is the case in Bu\u00f1uel and Dali\u2019s Un Chien Andalou, a film which actively resists closer examination.\u00a0 Alternatively, the strange can be a metaphor for tragedy, as in Pan\u2019s Labyrinth, and is ripe for analysis.\u00a0 It can even be a mask for the terrible things that transpire in reality, as occurs in David Lynch\u2019s Mulholland Drive. Firmly embracing the Lynchian mode, Biblioth\u00e9que Pascal<\/a>, directed by Szabolcs Hajdu sweeps you away with images both joyous and perverse, but something in the depths is always there to bring the horror crashing back down.<\/p>\n

The film is bookended by an interview with child services.\u00a0 Mona (Orsolya T\u00f6r\u00f6k-Illy\u00e9s) is trying to regain custody of her daughter, whom she left with an aunt with rather unorthodox ideas about raising a youngster.\u00a0 She begins to recount a tale of gypsies, outlaws, kidnapping, dreams that leak into reality, white slavery, role-play prostitution and ghostly marching bands.\u00a0 If the story is true, then the world of fantasy is perhaps more terrible, if less tedious, than reality, and thus no escape.\u00a0 If a fabrication, then what horror can she be concealing?<\/p>\n

Biblioth\u00e9que Pascal is concerned with human weakness.\u00a0 In a Q&A with the director, comments were made regarding the film\u2019s rather grim view of men who range from despicable fathers, through homophobic thugs to brutal pimps and johns.\u00a0 While entirely fair, the women in the film fare little better in reality.\u00a0 Mothers who leave behind their children, and aunts who ply them with alcohol and put them to work on the stage, are only a little better, though desperation my drive them.\u00a0 Mona is certainly a tragic figure, but complex enough to be interesting. \u00a0You’ll sympathize with her by the end of the film, but you’ll still question her actions. \u00a0In a make-believe world, Hajdu has made sure that she is real.<\/p>\n

Unlike Lynch, Hajdu does not wrap his film in layers of obfuscation and confusion.\u00a0 This clarity, while perhaps detracting a little from the film\u2019s appeal to those who take pleasure from entwining themselves in the master\u2019s analytic tangles, brings the characters to the forefront. \u00a0If it is less intellectual than Lynch\u2019s work, it has a greater ability to connect on an emotional level.\u00a0 He clarifies the \u2018what happened\u2019, leaving the audience to focus on the effects upon the characters.\u00a0 Thus the film gains accessibility, while sacrificing a little complexity.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fair trade off.<\/p>\n

The visuals in this film are the cherry on the cake.\u00a0 Once we enter the fantasy world of Mona\u2019s imagination, the film immediately becomes more vibrant, if unpleasant, as though Am\u00e9lie had stumbled into Gotham City. \u00a0\u00a0From train stations and beach huts to fairgrounds and brothels, everything that Mona encounters glows with the intensity of the hyper-real, merging real-world poverty and dark fantasy to astounding effect.\u00a0 Set design, particularly in a literary themed brothel, is spot on, with initially complex staging giving way to sparser sets as Mona\u2019s numerous concerns are narrowed down to a primal desire for escape.\u00a0 The film slips effortlessly through a spectrum ranging from the slightly twisted to the truly absurd, culminating in the films bitter-sweet final scene.\u00a0 In this regard it holds its own with the best.<\/p>\n

Biblioth\u00e9que Pascal comes highly recommended.\u00a0 Hajdu has woven a dark tale that challenges us in our understanding of its characters and world, woven into exquisite imagery.\u00a0 In another year it might easily have walked away with my \u2018best of the festival\u2019 award.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wild ride with a hard landing, but one that I\u2019m eager to take again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden. \u00a0Viewed at Regal Cinemas, Los Angeles Film Festival. Fantasy and surrealism can be used in many ways in film.\u00a0 Sometimes the audience is free to simply grab a hold of the crazy train and enjoy the madness, as is the case in Bu\u00f1uel and Dali\u2019s Un Chien Andalou, a film which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-los-angeles-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}