Endre Hules' The Maiden Danced To Death (2011) is truly one of the VERY BEST films that I've ever viewed. It's in my top three.
The storyline is very unique because it is about a Hungarian folk dance company in Budapest preparing for a world tour, and the evolving interaction of the family members involved in the operation of the production. The interaction between the extensive dance scenes and the dramatic scenes is very well done. This is a film in the Meta-Cinema genre because it is a film about another type of performance art, not acting but Hungarian folk dancing. Like a true meta-film, the lines between where the dancing ends, and the dramatic storyline continues is very "blurred", but deliberately so as to use the literal dancing in the film as a metaphor for "the dance of life", the navigational strategies that we all use in traversing the our life path between Self and Other. The editing is very effective in interweaving dance imagery and dramatic imagery to transfer the qualities of dance to drama, and of drama to dance.
The story told in this film is very unique and engaging as well, that of an exiled Hungarian dancer who left his homeland twenty years ago, now to return as a successful, renowned impresario who presents elaborate stage productions worldwide. For reasons that become clear as the story unfolds, this impresario returns home to help his brother promote the local family run folk dance company onto the world stage. The stunning coup de theatre is when the impresario dramatically reveals documents to his brother in front of the whole dance company that prove that the it was the brother himself who secretly informed on him years ago, and was effectively the cause for his expulsion from his homeland.
The cinematography and editing is just stunning, but not because it involves the use of radical, or even risky methods. Indeed, the cinematographic and editing techniques used in this film are relatively mundane. But the application of these well worn cinematic techniques is done with such a delicate understanding of how best to put them to effective use in a film of this sort.
Endre Hules, the writer, director, and lead actor in this film is truly a genius, and I hope to view more of this auteur's work in the near future.
20 Stars !!!
The storyline is very unique because it is about a Hungarian folk dance company in Budapest preparing for a world tour, and the evolving interaction of the family members involved in the operation of the production. The interaction between the extensive dance scenes and the dramatic scenes is very well done. This is a film in the Meta-Cinema genre because it is a film about another type of performance art, not acting but Hungarian folk dancing. Like a true meta-film, the lines between where the dancing ends, and the dramatic storyline continues is very "blurred", but deliberately so as to use the literal dancing in the film as a metaphor for "the dance of life", the navigational strategies that we all use in traversing the our life path between Self and Other. The editing is very effective in interweaving dance imagery and dramatic imagery to transfer the qualities of dance to drama, and of drama to dance.
The story told in this film is very unique and engaging as well, that of an exiled Hungarian dancer who left his homeland twenty years ago, now to return as a successful, renowned impresario who presents elaborate stage productions worldwide. For reasons that become clear as the story unfolds, this impresario returns home to help his brother promote the local family run folk dance company onto the world stage. The stunning coup de theatre is when the impresario dramatically reveals documents to his brother in front of the whole dance company that prove that the it was the brother himself who secretly informed on him years ago, and was effectively the cause for his expulsion from his homeland.
The cinematography and editing is just stunning, but not because it involves the use of radical, or even risky methods. Indeed, the cinematographic and editing techniques used in this film are relatively mundane. But the application of these well worn cinematic techniques is done with such a delicate understanding of how best to put them to effective use in a film of this sort.
Endre Hules, the writer, director, and lead actor in this film is truly a genius, and I hope to view more of this auteur's work in the near future.
20 Stars !!!